‘The Fantasticks,’ at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, promises to be an oh-so mellow classic

It was an unassuming little show, deceptively simple and almost custom-made for community theaters, high schools and colleges.

But “The Fantasticks” became a show business phenomenon beyond compare.

The allegorical musical by composer Harvey Schmidt and lyricist Tom Jones, a couple of young guys who met at the University of Texas, opened in 1960 at the little Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York’s Greenwich Village. It found a permanent place in the history books by running 42 years, making it the longest-running musical in New York theater history.

Its opening tune, “Try to Remember,” produced hit recordings by Ed Ames, the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four and other artists.

Even now the show reportedly receives an average of 250 productions a year around the world.

And now “The Fantasticks” has returned to the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. What was then called Missouri Rep staged a production in the 1990s, but director Jerry Genochio hopes to bring a fresh take to the show with a multiethnic cast that places two of the city’s most respected actresses in traditionally male roles.

The playing area, designed by Martin Andrew (“An Iliad”), will extend into the seating, and Genochio and Martin have placed 80 seats upstage, creating an intimate environment that approaches theater-in-the-round.

Genochio, the Rep’s producing director, said in a recent interview that he discovered the show in high school when he saw it at a state thespian conference.

“That was my first introduction to it,” he said. “I bought a cassette and played it until it broke. … It’s a show that’s been kicking around in my head for some time.”

The musical is based on a play by Edmond Rostand and tells a delicate fable about a boy named Matt and a girl, Luisa, whose neighbor fathers pretend to feud and forbid them to speak to each other, hoping that the kids will naturally rebel and fall in love in defiance of their parents.

The fathers, Hucklebee and Bellomy, hire a mysterious traveling performer, El Gallo (also the show’s narrator), who enlists a couple of veteran troupers, Henry and Mortimer, to stage a mock abduction of Luisa so that Matt will run to her rescue.

Genochio’s cast includes Larry Marshall (last seen in the Rep’s production of “Hair: Retrospective”) and Rep veteran Gary Neal Johnson as the fathers. Andrew Varela, who came through town in 2012 as Javert in a tour of “Les Miserables,” will play El Gallo.

The boy and girl will be played by Zane Phillips and Emily Shackelford (Shackelford also was in “Hair: Retrospective”).

And in a novel choice, Genochio has cast Peggy Friesen and Merle Moores in the roles of Henry and Mortimer. Chip Miller, the Rep’s assistant artistic director, will play the Mute.

Genochio’s thinking behind his casting decisions could be boiled down to: Why not? Why couldn’t Hucklebee be white and Bellomy be African-American?

“We should live in a world where races can live next door to each other,” he said. “Why shouldn’t they?”

And casting Friesen as Henry and Moores as Mortimer?

“It’s the idea of self-identification,” Genochio said. “ ‘I get to decide who I am. And I am female and I want you to address me that way.’ Why couldn’t Henry and Mortimer be women without ever commenting on it? They are two of the best actors in Kansas City and also two of the funniest. It’s not even going to be a comment. It’s just that we’re going to do it that way.”

Genochio is acutely aware that “The Fantasticks” is widely viewed as a staple of community theaters and high schools. He sees his job as doing the best show possible, punctuated with surprises, to compel viewers to see it in a fresh light.

“That is the risk,” he said. “There are a lot of classic shows that have that stigma. But this is one of the few shows that has a 60-year-history of always being done. It’s a deceptively difficult and challenging play. I would say listen to that first song. It’s a very good musical with one of the most famous songs in American musical theater.”

Even jaded critics concede that “The Fantasticks” is a valid work of art. It captures the mystery, the heartache and joy of simply being alive. And it tells us that wisdom is gained only through trials and difficult journeys. Act 1 is whimsical and lighthearted. But it leads the way to a second act that is quite different.

“That’s what people don’t remember — that Act 2 is a dark, twisted, very strange, sometimes vicious act that shows the harsh reality when you’re out in the world on your own,” Genochio said. “Only that journey is the way we get to (wisdom).”

Genochio said he relies on his designers to capture the feeling of the timelessness he thinks is the heart of the show. Melissa Torchia’s costumes, he said, reflect clothes that could have come off the rack today or could have been worn in the 1850s.

Anthony T. Edwards is the musical director, who will lead a quartet of players.

“Some scenes are written very sweet and very delicate, and the music is playing against that or just the opposite,” he said. “We looked at that and tried to decide how we want to present that today. What people will hear is very similar to that 1960 recording. The tempos are basically all out of the score as written.”

Genochio, whose daughter just turned 1, said fatherhood attracted him to the piece.

“That got me thinking about the show,” he said. “I think the play is still very relevant just from traveling through life. You eventually come back to a good place, but you never could do that without that journey.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 8:00 AM with the headline "‘The Fantasticks,’ at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, promises to be an oh-so mellow classic."