Tom Jones, creator of the longest-running musical ‘The Fantasticks,’ dies at 95
By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Jones, the lyricist, director and writer of “The Fantasticks,” the longest-running musical in history, has died. He was 95. Jones, who teamed up with composer Harvey Schmidt on “The Fantasticks” and Broadway shows “110 in the Shade” and “I Do! I Do!,” was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2013, “The Fantasticks,” which debuted in 1960, celebrated reaching 20,000 performances. It closed in 2017, ending as the longest-running production of any kind in the history of American theater with a total of an astonishing 21,552 performances.
