Forty years ago, actress Rita Gardner created the role of "The Girl" in the Off-Broadway production of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks. Now she is returning to the long-time home of that still-running musical, the Sullivan Street Playhouse -- but in a different capacity. Gardner will begin performances of her new cabaret show, Try to Remember -- A Look at Off-Broadway, at the playhouse on Feb. 19, for a Feb. 26 opening. The show will play Saturdays at 10 PM, after The Fantasticks has packed up its trunk for the night. A special preview matinee will be held Feb. 23.

Try to Remember will examine various Off-Broadway productions which have opened in the years since Jones and Schmidt's landmark tuner debuted.

Gardner's many credits include On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Pal Joey, The Snowball, Steel Magnolias and Ben Franklin in Paris opposite Robert Preston. On television, she has appeared on "Law & Order," opposite her old Fantasticks colleague, Jerry Orbach.

Tickets for Try to Remember are $30. The Sullivan Street Playhouse is located in Manhattan at 181 Sullivan Street. For more information, call (212) 674-3838.

--By Robert Simonson