The Fantasticks (film)

The Fantasticks is a 1995 musical film directed by Michael Ritchie. The screenplay by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt is based on their record-breaking off-Broadway production of the same name, which ran for 17,162 performances (and was subsequently revived off-Broadway).

Though it was made in 1995, the film did not see a proper, though very limited, release until 2000 in an abridged form.

Plot

Amos Babcock Bellamy (Joel Grey) and Ben Hucklebee (Brad Sullivan) scheme to get their respective children, Luisa (Jean Louisa Kelly) and Matt (Joey McIntyre), to fall in love. Knowing they will resist their fathers' interference, the two men use reverse psychology and fabricate a feud, building a wall between their houses and forbidding their children to speak to each other. When their plan works, they enlist the aid of El Gallo (Jonathon Morris), the proprietor of a traveling carnival, to put an end to their supposed disagreement in a manner which will not reveal their deception.