The Fantasticks is rich in musical theatre lore and nebulous factoids for the nerdily-minded. The world’s longest running musical ever (opened May 1960, closed January 2002 – 17,162 performances), its original production starred Jerry Orbach as the narrator and the likes of Liza Minelli, F Murray Abraham, Elliott Gould, Glenn Close and Kristen Chenoweth have popped up at different times to grace subsequent cast lists. An off-Broadway revival in 2006 is still running. Its lyricist, Tom Jones, appeared as the old actor on opening night in both versions. But is it any good? Well, yes and no.

Back in 1960, a musical that offered nods to Brecht, Noh and commedia dell’arte, plus a healthy dollop of Thornton Wilder, must have seemed rather trendy. Not exactly new (Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Allegro and Bernstein’s Candide all played with the traditional form well before The Fantasticks came along). But the sweetness of Harvey Schmidt’s score and Tom Jones’ goofy book, itself based on a neo-Romantic play by the French dramatist Edmond Rostand, caught imaginations sufficiently to keep the low-budget show running off-Broadway until the momentum of “the world’s longest running musical” took over.