The Fantasticks (2*)

 

Neither "Try to Remember," the achingly classic song, beautifully sung by Zane Phillips (Fire Island, but blink and you'll miss him at the end of the trailer), whose hunkiness exceeds his vocal talent, or a diverse and charming cast can revive this moldy chestnut.  The Fantasticks, which first premiered Off Broadway in 1960, ran for 42 years giving me more than enough time to see it in the first flush of youth when I might have been more forgiving of twee treacle.  Now re-jiggered to become a gay love story without the redeeming panache of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, the very meta acknowledgment of the show's more modest origins is the most interesting thing about the production.