“Attempt to Keep in mind,” essentially the most well-known Music to have come out of the stage musical “The Fantasticks,” was famous for its autumnal really feel, sung by somebody reflecting again on youthful days. The joyful irony is that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote that music previous to the present’s authentic 1960 staging once they have been each nonetheless comparatively younger males of about 30, fellows who nonetheless had about two-thirds of their lives forward of them. Schmidt, who wrote the music, died in 2018 at age 88, and Jones, who penned the present’s lyrics and e book, died Friday at 95.  

Right here’s to it having been a heck of a good distance from September to December.

When the film model of the present got here out within the fall of 2000, I wrote about it for Leisure Weekly and stated that “for my cash, ‘The Fantasticks’ is one of the best pure stay–motion film musical since ‘The Rocky Horror Image Present.’” Now, in the event you’re aware of the stage present however didn’t even know there was a movie adaptation, you aren’t alone in that. It was launched right into a handful of theaters nearly as a intently held secret, 5 years after it was filmed by director Michael Ritchie. At a time when movie musicals have been at a historic low ebb, previous to “Chicago,” et al., It was taken off the shelf by United Artists solely after Ritchie’s good friend Francis Ford Coppola satisfied the studio that he might do a re-edit that might make it extra sensible and fewer stagey to younger film audiences. In the long run, that was to little avail, commercially, however no less than it did put a cap on a four-decade journey from stage to display screen.

I frolicked speaking with each Jones and Schmidt in regards to the historical past of the present on the set of the movie in 1995, reporting for the Los Angeles Occasions on the time. I discovered each writers to be as pretty as their basic rating, and I used to be by no means extra rapt than when it got here to their recounting of earlier makes an attempt to make a movie of “The Fantasticks.” Within the class of filmic “what-ifs,” it’s onerous to beat a film “Fantasticks” that may may need had Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould because the younger romantic leads.

As a set-up for the story of the foiled romance between “The Fantasticks” and Hollywood, it’s vital to notice that the stage model was lengthy thought of essentially the most profitable off-Broadway present of all time. And if “off-Broadway smash” appears like an oxymoron, contemplate that it ran in the identical Greenwich Village theater for 42 years and was changed into a prime-time TV particular a number of years into its run, in addition to having its signature songs coated by artists from Streisand, Tony Bennett and Duke Ellington to Gladys Knight and ultimately Josh Groban.

As Joel Gray stated, “I feel there was a five-year interval [in the 1960s] the place that forged album was performed on a regular basis” in houses throughout America.

As of 1995, after I first spoke with Jones, he stated, “There have been over 20,000 productions. There are over 100,000 individuals who’ve been in it, so there is some type of title recognition. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless not what you’d name the most popular property on the earth.”

When it got here to a movie adaptation, Jones informed me, “There have been a number of makes an attempt within the ‘60s, and truly ‘70s, as nicely. It’s not that we have been closed to the concept. The second factor Liza Minnelli ever did was when she and Elliott Gould did a tour of ‘The Fantasticks’ (in 1964). And he had a imaginative and prescient and wished desperately to do a movie, when he was married to Barbra. At the moment, they have been with Ray Stark, due to the ‘Humorous Lady’ film. That they had the cash and the whole lot. However we couldn’t provide you with a imaginative and prescient we might all agree on. Elliott is a pleasant man…

“Then we experimented with Gower Champion,” Jones continued. “And Charles Bluhdorn at Paramount, Gulf+Western, someway obtained . He stated to his minions at Paramount, ‘We wish to make a film of “The Fantasticks”’ — and we went to Sicily. He had this concept we have been going to do it in Sicily, (though) it ought to be American individuals as a substitute of Mediterranean.” (Would possibly that model of “The Fantasticks” have been the proto-“Mamma Mia”?) “We simply did fantastic energy lunches, and they might ship us to Sicily with automobiles and drivers…

“Then they started to get uncertain about Gower, who hadn’t actually performed many movies,” Jones continued. “Then they took it to Franco Zeffirelli, and so they stated, ‘Zeffirelli, will you make a movie?’ And he stated, ‘I don’t perceive this. What is that this all about? That is too American. I can’t perceive a phrase of this.’ Frank Yablans (the top of Paramount) stated that Zeffirelli obtained down on his knees and stated, ‘Please, please don’t make me do that!’”

Then, in line with Jones, Paramount’s standing curiosity in “The Fantasticks” was reduce quick by “the younger man who grew to become head of Selection, Peter Bart [Paramount’s VP of production in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, long before he became Variety’s editor-in-chief from 1989-2009]. We didn’t understand it on the time, however we have been going by our ritual of being excommunicated. We have been being killed off within the scene and didn’t understand it.

“Frank Yablans informed us, ‘I wish to thanks for permitting us to do that stunning, stunning piece.’ And we by no means have been in a position to get him on the telephone once more.”

Jones was recalling this unconsummated Hollywood courtship with a smile, not a grimace. “I’ve actually no regrets,” he informed me. “We had an exquisite time in Hollywood. We have been invited to Adolph Zucker’s 100^th party at Paramount on the time. Jesus, what extra might you ask, actually? Who must make the film in the event you can go to Adolph Zucker’s 100^th party and meet Mae West, which we did?

“It was optioned as soon as by an terrible, terrible man… only a horrible individual,” Jones added, with out naming names. “He really paid $100,000 for the choice. We had all these approvals, none of which meant dick. We have been presupposed to do the script, A 12 months later, by chance, we got here throughout the script (written by another person with out their information). The opening shot was on eighth Ave. in New York at 5 within the morning, as they’re closing some bars, and there’s a drunken individual staggering down and he seems up and there’s an indication that claims ‘Resort September,’ and the music begins for ‘Attempt to Keep in mind.’” Ah, the New Hollywood.

Michael Ritchie, who ended up directing the movie within the mid-‘90s, informed me that he had been within the ‘70s, when he was cresting with movies like “The Candidate,” “The Dangerous Information Bears” and “Smile,” and had been proven a script in 1979. “I had a gathering with a composer who shall stay anonymous,” the filmmaker recalled. “The composer sat down on the piano and stated, ‘If we’re gonna do that film, we’ve gotta junk the rating, and we’ve gotta get it up to date for immediately’s audiences…’”

One other level of trivia: In line with Schmidt, “At one level Billy Friedkin was very fascinated with doing it” — simply in case you want a reminder we’re on the finish of an period.

There was good purpose to assume {that a} movie model may very well be viable, no less than earlier than the underside fell out for film musicals across the finish of the Sixties. And that purpose was the NBC TV particular that was product of the stage present in 1964, with a forged made up of Ricardo Montalban as El Gallo, Bert Lahr and Stanley Holloway because the fathers, and John Davidson and Susan Watson as the children, with future filmmaker Herbert Ross dealing with the choreography.

Schmidt claimed the stage model “didn’t actually catch on until the third 12 months, when ‘Hallmark Corridor of Fame’ did it on TV. Lots of people who had seen the present didn’t prefer it that a lot. It offered out for like the subsequent eight years after that!… If you recognize the present, you don’t like (the ‘Hallmark Corridor of Fame’ particular) very a lot. We weren’t loopy about it… However for individuals who didn’t know the present and had by no means heard the rating, it was nice… We began getting loads of recordings then, too.”

These included Streisand having the ballad “Quickly It’s Gonna Rain” as an early signature music. Reportedly, she had tried out to be within the authentic manufacturing at New York’s Sullivan Road Playhouse (which ran for 42 years and 17,162 performances). It appeared on her debut LP, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” in 1963. (A stay model recorded on the time can be on her just lately launched archival mission “Reside on the Bon Soir.”)

“The stage supervisor turned Barbra Streisand down on the time we have been casting the unique,” Schmidt recalled. “She had submitted pictures, however he felt she didn’t appear like the younger lady. It’s actually ironic she was the primary to do songs, as a result of her profession was simply beginning. She did 4 songs from the present for years, so I’m grateful she forgave us for not casting her.”

However conventional film musicals, through which the characters break into music off-stage and never simply in efficiency scenes, grew to become anathema after footage like “Star!” flopped within the late ‘60s. When Joel Gray spoke with me on the set of “The Fantasticks” in ’95, he stated, “Having a part of possibly the final profitable one, it by no means occurred to me that there wouldn’t be one other. However then, hope springs.”

Gray was referring to 1972’s “Cabaret” when he referred to “possibly the final profitable one,” and he was shut, though that’s forgetting 1978’s “Grease.” There have been just a few different aberrations and outliers with various ranges of success within the three a long time between that and 2002’s “Chicago,” together with “Little Store of Horrors,” “Newsies” and “Evita,” however little to go on that might have satisfied very many manufacturing executives a movie model of “The Fantasticks” would have been a bankable thought within the ‘80s or ‘90s.

Within the ‘70s and ‘80s, stated Schmidt, “There have been no musical stars being developed anymore, so they’d all the time suggest the most popular rock performer of the second. The rating isn’t written for rock performers. I hate to say them, as a result of it appears like I’m denigrating them, which I’m not… Or, Brooke Shields had simply made ‘Limitless Love’… ‘Get Brooke Shields.’ It didn’t matter whether or not she might sing or not. It was that type of pondering that ran rampant on the time.”

It was Ritchie’s final ardour mission, making “The Fantasticks” in 1995 on a reasonably modest $10 million finances. It was shot largely outside on location within the American West, with a small complement of actors singing largely stay on digicam, together with New Children on the Block’s Joey McIntyre and Jean Louisa Kelly as the children, Gray and Brad Sullivan because the dads, Jonathon Morris as El Gallo, and Barnard Hughes and Teller (of Penn & Teller) as circus performers.

The exceptional preparations for the movie, performed with a full orchestra as a substitute of native productions’ conventional two-player accompiment, have been by the good Jonathan Tunick. It wasn’t the primary time the music of “ The Fantasticks” had been opened up.

“Individuals have come to think about it as a tiny musical,” stated Schmidt. “It’s written as large music with large endings. Once I wrote it, I all the time heard the outdated MGM orchestra in my head. The piano and harp have been supposed to sound like we had 10 trumpets! It isn’t simple for everyone to play.

“We did a twenty fifth anniversary tour with Robert Goulet” within the ‘80s, Schmidt famous. “Jack Elliott did the orchestrations for that tour. It wasn’t that large — 18 items. We figured after 25 years no one might criticize if we no less than tried. It was an attention-grabbing problem, as a result of we didn’t wish to violate how individuals considered the present.”

Sadly, as nice because the music rating for the movie model of “The Fantasticks” turned out, no soundtrack album has ever materialized.

The movie languished on UA’s shelf for 5 years earlier than Coppola got here in to save lots of the day by doing a re-edit he and Ritchie satisfied the studio to launch in just a few theaters and ultimately on dwelling video. Apparently one downside take a look at audiences had with the unique reduce was beginning it off with El Gallo singing “Attempt to Keep in mind” proper into the digicam, as he rides into city on a wagon main the circus trains. Arduous as it’s to imagine now after the final couple of a long time of pretty profitable film musicals — or as it will have been on the time after MTV had been flourishing for some time — individuals in take a look at audiences thought it was both complicated or corny to start out a movie with a music, direct-to-camera. So “Attempt to Keep in mind” was reduce by Coppola from the start of the movie and saved for the tip, and it started as a substitute with some dialogue earlier than the heroine Luisa jumps into her “I want” music. (If you wish to examine the Ritchie and Coppola cuts, there’s a Twilight Time Blu-Ray that features each, though the unique model is non-HD. Warning: I participated in a commentary observe on the disc.)

For Jones, the movie was satisfying it doesn’t matter what outcome it met with. He was particularly thrilled with Kelly’s accomplishment as a lead, very close to the start of her profession, earlier than she went on to star in TV’s “Sure, Pricey.” “Jeannie offers a efficiency of Luisa that’s pretty much as good as if not one of the best I’ve seen. It’s proper up there. It’s touching and humorous. She’s heartbreaking, and likewise you assume, ‘My God, how silly younger persons are!’”

Nearly a quarter-century after the movie “Fantasticks” got here out to little or no discover, I stand by my take on the time that it was a daring hyperlink between movie-musical eras, when the style was languishing within the desert. However most of all, I have fun its enduring, 63-year-old rating, nonetheless underrated itself, even after the tens of hundreds of native productions. With Schmidt’s wealthy melodic items and Jones’ fierce wit and uncanny mixture of cynicism and sentiment, it can proceed to interrupt hearts in excessive colleges and group theaters whether or not or not the movie ever will get its due.

Simply how darkish Jones’ lyrics and the themes in his libretto get is one thing that’s underexplored when you will have teenaged leads and a signature music like “Attempt to Keep in mind” tugging on the heartstrings of the elders. However the candy stuff of “The Fantasticks” wouldn’t have the influence that it does if audiences weren’t no less than subconsciously taking within the fixed, almost subliminal undertones about simply how tough life can and can get for the initially harmless protagonists. Jones snuck a scary quantity of life classes into these two unassuming hours.

I’ll let a “Fantasticks” super-fan, the late Michael Ritchie, have the final phrase about what Jones and Schmidt pulled off:

“It’s not we’ve got a narrative with songs, which might typically occur together with your outdated Esther Williams films,” the director stated. “The true musicals are ones the place the music is totally important to allow you to into the internal world of the characters. In any case, Henry Higgins would by no means say what he actually felt to Colonel Pickering or anyone else. He might solely say it in a type of soliloquy. So ‘The Fantasticks’ has 4 or 5 of these crucial, revealing moments, crucial being the reconciliation of the boy and the lady once they sing what for my cash is without doubt one of the most stunning songs in American musical theater: ‘They Had been You.’

“All the eye within the present goes to ‘Attempt to Keep in mind,’ as a result of it was the massive hit that was coated by lots of of main artists worldwide — clearly it will probably exist very simply exterior the context of the present — and secondary consideration often goes to ‘Quickly It’s Gonna Rain,’ as a result of Streisand made it a giant hit, or way more, which was her signature music earlier than ‘Individuals.’ However the music that touches individuals essentially the most once they see the present is ‘They Had been You.’ It has not change into as widespread as a result of it actually needs to be felt within the context of the present, as a result of you recognize the characters and is such a significant plot decision that it’s overwhelming. I don’t cry in films or theater. I cry when the children sing ‘They Had been You.’”

Tears, now, for Tom Jones, 1928-2023.