Tony Award nominated actor Ben Davis will star as El Gallo in The Link Theatre's inaugural production of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks. The first professional theatre company in Northeast Arkansas, The Link is a new non-profit theater company located in Jonesboro, AR. Broadway veteran Matt Cavenaugh will direct the musical, which will play for three nights only starting Friday, March 6, 2020 at The Glass Factory (313 W Huntington Avenue, Jonesboro, AR).
Ben Davis' Broadway credits include Dear Evan Hansen, Violet, A Little Night Music, Les Miserables, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and La Boheme. He has appeared around the country in the national touring productions of The Sound of Music, Spamalot, and Les Miserables. He has performed with prestigious symphonies around the world, including The Boston Pops, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and London's
Royal Albert Hall. Television audiences may know him from his appearances on "Blue Bloods," "Law & Order SVU," "30 Rock," and "Numbers."
Davis will be joined in The Fantasticks by Anna-
Marie Wright as Luisa, Josh Pryor as Matt,
Damon Wright as Hucklebee, John Mixon as Bellomy, Matt Carey as Henry, Carson Horton as Mortimer, and Tee Murphy as The Mute.
Jason Eschhofen will serve as musical director and Claire Abernathy will design the sets and costumes.
The Fantasticks, written by
Tom Jones and
Harvey Schmidt, is the world's longest running musical. The original off-Broadway production ran a total of 42 years from 1960 - 2002 before being revived in 2005 for an additional 11 years. It's a funny and romantic musical about a boy, a girl, and their two fathers who try to keep them apart. The narrator, El Gallo, asks the audience to use their imagination and follow him into a world of moonlight and magic. The boy and the girl fall in love, grow apart and finally find their way back to each other after realizing the truth in El Gallo's words that, "without a hurt, the heart is hollow." The famous score, which includes the classics Try to Remember, They Were You, and Soon It's Gonna Rain, is as timeless as the story itself.
Tickets for The Fantasticks start at $35 and are now available online at
thelinktheatre.org.
