In ‘The Fantasticks,’ boy meets boy, at last

It took us 66 years to get here.

There have been a staggering 21,552 Off-Broadway performances of “The Fantasticks,” the deceptively simple story of Matt and Luisa falling in love, becoming disillusioned and finding their way back to each other. And 21,552 hardly measures its historic reach. Even conservative estimates put worldwide performances at more than 100,000.

Now a revolutionary version is about to open on Broadway. Matt and Luisa have become Matt and Lewis. This is not quite “The Fantasticks” we “try to remember.”

The musical’s original librettist and lyricist, Tom Jones, returned to his text to substantially rewrite it through a gay lens, with the lead characters Matt and Lewis.

This wasn’t simply a matter of changing pronouns or treating the lovers’ sexuality as incidental casting. Jones reconsidered what his story might mean with two young men at its center.

“I knew that to be done properly it would require a lot of rewriting, especially of lyrics,” Jones explained.

We can thank Michael Lluberes, Flint Repertory Theatre’s producing artistic director for approaching the nonagenarian with the idea. Jones loved it and wanted to do the rewrite himself.

“I knew that, to be done properly, it would require a lot of rewriting, especially of lyrics. The more I thought about it, the more interesting it seemed. And when I actually began working on it, I became more and more enthusiastic,” Jones said. “I had great fun doing it. I hope you have great fun viewing it.”

And so, more than 60 years after writing the original as a young man, Jones personally reworked his most famous musical around the love of Matt and Lewis.

The two continued collaborating on details until just weeks before the Flint opening, although they worked remotely.

“It’s been all long-distance work, but it’s been a give-and-take creative experience,” Jones said. “The most fun is anticipating and not having a clue how it’s going to go over.”

Luisa didn’t simply become Lewis. Jones reshaped the character as a young gay man experiencing the exhilaration, fantasy and inevitable complications of first love.

An intriguing change is a wonderfully matter-of-fact exchange with El Gallo, the show’s narrator. When he discovers what the mothers are plotting, he asks: “Two boys? And you’re not worried?”

“They love each other. Why should we be worried?” one of the mothers responds.

“Good point,” El Gallo concedes. “Very good point.”

Jones died the following year at 95. Although he wasn’t able to attend the Flint opening, he learned that his remarkable late-in-life rewrite reached the stage — and just how enthusiastically audiences embraced it.

The score he created with Harvey Schmidt is sublime.

To jog your memory of the musical, the score includes “Try to Remember,” a song that escaped the musical and became a standard, recorded by an extraordinary range of performers. But there is also the yearning “Much More,” the tender “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and the exquisite “They Were You.” And the show’s defining lyric: “Without a hurt, the heart is hollow.”

Is there anything quite like this in musical-theater history?: The original author returns after more than six decades to substantially rewrite his musical.

“The Fantasticks” remains a funny and beautiful allegory about falling in love and growing up. Now queer audiences can envsion our own innocence lost, the importance of experience and the strange way love survives disappointment.

During its limited run, if reality doesn’t interfere, I’ll be there.

Watch for my GoFundMe.

With Second Stage Theater as lead producer, “The Fantasticks” begins previews Oct. 22, 2026 and is scheduled through Feb. 7, 2027, at Broadway’s Hayes Theater.

►Tickets: 2st.com