Twenty years ago tomorrow, the legendary off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks closed after a record-setting run of 17,162 performances, starting on May 3, 1960 at New York City's Sullivan Street Playhouse. The original cast featured a young performer named Jerry Orbach, known to recent audiences as Lt. Lennie Briscoe in the original Law & Order TV series. After The Fantasticks he went on to star in the original musicals Chicago, and Promises, Promises, winning a Tony for the latter. He passed away in December, 2004.
Orbach played the narrator El Gallo in The Fantasticks, where he introduced the musical's best known, poignantly enduring song "Try To Remember."
