The Fantasticks: Two Classic Plays

In 1894, Edmond Rostand wrote the charming, cynical, funny love story about star-crossed lovers and their scheming fathers, Les Romanesques. This volume contains two English translations of this play, one of which became the world-famous 1960 musical The Fantasticks.The 1900 play The Fantasticks was based on Rostand’s play, translated into English verse by Julia Constance Fletcher, writing under the pseudonym George Fleming. This is the version that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt adapted into the musical.The 1915 play The Romancers was also based on Rostand’s play, this version translated into English prose by Barrett H. Clark, commissioned by Samuel French as part of a series, The World's Best Plays.Both plays have been out of print for decades, and now they’re back – both translations in one volume, along with an afterword by musical theatre scholar Scott Miller. Read more