Maxim Chlumecky and Nathan Levy's characters are the focal point of The Fantasticks's new reimagining. But even as it becomes a gay romance, and Luisa becomes Lewis, the show's core remains unchanged. At the end of the day, Chlumecky said, "it's still a love story."

On their characters

Nathan Levy: This role of Luisa used to be, for 60some years, the classic soprano female. Today, to approach it new and fresh, is really challenging but also very satisfying because it's not like I have any expectation to look back on what's been done before me and try and replicate that. What does that look like when you have this young boy now who has that same fire and urge to get out of where he is and wants to have these beautiful experiences [with] a boy that he just happens to love?

Maxim Chlumecky: [Matt is] such a dreamer, and he's a bit of a nerd, and that's a little bit in me as well. I love how he can't help but explode with his feelings. He is a firework in terms of saying how he feels. But throughout the show, you get to see him grow up from a fairytale, childlike figure into a man.

First Fantasticks experiences

Levy: My junior year of high school, they did the Fantasticks, and my best friend to this day played Luisa.

Chlumecky: My voice teacher assigned me a song — I can't remember if it was "Try to Remember" or "Soon It's Gonna Rain."

That's when I heard the songs for the first time, such beautiful, simple melodies. I also saw a friend do it in high school and remember thinking it was such a charming, lovely show.

Show that deserves a record-breaking run

Levy: Parade

Chlumecky: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Miscast dream roles

Levy: Shrek from Shrek

Chlumecky: Clara from The Light in the Piazza, as a boy

Why just be BFFs when you can be family? That's the mindset of The Fantasticks' two moms, played by Broadway favorites Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Ruthie Ann Miles, who scheme to set their sons up. Both strong-willed women and avid gardeners, they soon learn every rose has its thorn.

On their characters

Kritzer: Mildred is a horticulturist who used to be in the Navy, and she's very serious about it. She's very set in her ways and has this beautiful young gay son.

I feel very connected to Mildred. She's brassy, a little dry, but has a heart of gold and is a real softy, loves her neighbor and best friend, Bessie Mae. The difference, having two moms versus two dads [...] there's such a beautiful maternal energy, a female energy. In the original, I think Hucklebee has a piece of straw hanging out, [was] a little rough. You'd expect that guy to be in the Navy. This is a new kind of woman who still can be a mom.

Miles: Bessie May is very practical. She has this beautiful garden she loves and cares about. But also [...] everything is going to give yield because that's the purpose of this garden. She also loves her son and expects him to also be practical and give yield. But instead he's a dreamer. He thinks he's blood royal. He looks in the mirror all day and dreams of this imaginary future [...] so she's confused: "I have raised you to be this way, and instead you are this way."

These two mothers are best friends. They rely on each other's friendship. We are each other's village, and we have these two sons who are about the same age [...] so we concoct this plan for everybody to be one big happy family. What we learn by the end of the play is that in order to grow, you have to give. There's heartbreak involved.

First Fantasticks experiences

Kritzer: I stumbled across a Fantasticks vocal selection book in my childhood piano bench that came with the house. [...] As I learned how to play piano and sing, I started playing songs from it much more. Moving here in the '90s, it was still playing, and it was always a show you'd get around to seeing that I never got around to seeing.

Miles: In musical theatre history, there's the influential shows you have to know. We were told this is one of the shows that will heavily be on your exam. It's also one of the essays I wrote, [an] analysis of these characters. I was so curious to know why they did the things they did.

All I had were black-and-white photos in this textbook, but I hadn't seen the show [...] so our real introduction was a reintroduction, when we entered the room and Chris is telling us about his idea for what this play is going to be. It was like meeting an old friend.

Show that deserves a record-breaking run

Kritzer: I did a show called The Robber Bridegroom off Broadway. That was so fun. I loved it. It really deserved a longer life.

Miles: The Fantasticks off Broadway ran 22,000 performances, and I want this new Fantasticks story to run 22,000 performances. It's so beautiful. It's so emotional. It's universal. The entire world is going to come and say, "That was performed for me."

Miscast dream roles

Kritzer: George in Sunday in the Park with George

Miles: Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd

The Fantasticks's record-setting run has made the musical synonymous with theatre itself. It fits, then, that the characters played by Zane Phillips and Ahmad Simmons are there to remind you that you're watching a performance.

On their characters

Zane Phillips: We get to represent theatricality itself. There's a really interesting meta narrative about us as the actors. Ahmad plays the Mute, and he is the first person you see on stage. He lifts the veil and enters us into the world. Then I come on and I'm, for most of the piece, the narrator. And I come in as El Gallo, who is specifically a sort of magician/con man.

My interpretation is that [the characters] are all going back and remembering this time of your life when [...] you were so innocent, and every emotion feels pure and real and heightened. To have hope in your own life despite the pain, despite the hurt, that is what my character represents: this constantly going back and facing the the loss of innocence and being able to move on from it.

Ahmad Simmons: I'm a silent orchestrator of that illusion you're talking about, the theatricality, in a beautiful way. I get to be seasons' turn. I get to be the physical embodiment of that a lot and set the scene for the love to spark and grow, but not force any decisions on them. That's why I love this character. It's decidedly silent. You set the tone, you set the environment, but the choice is theirs.

First Fantasticks experiences

Simmons: My first time was hearing all the [musical theatre] baritones sing "Try to Remember." It was in a song anthology book, probably. Everybody sang that song in college, and then "Soon It's Gonna Rain." But I didn't know the show, really, until now.

Phillips: I have done this show once before — exactly 10 years ago, actually, 2016. It was my first job out of college. It got me my Equity card. It's so interesting to come back to it 10 years later and suddenly be playing a different character, because I played Matt back then.

Show that deserves a record-breaking run

Simmons: Dancin' and Sweet Charity, so I could have seen the original cast on Broadway. And Pippin because I'm a Ben Vereen fanatic.

Phillips: Let's just keep Into the Woods running. If The Lion King can go for for 20something years, Into the Woods could do it.

Miscast dream roles

Simmons: Lorrell in Dreamgirls

Phillips: Amalia in She Loves Me

David Patrick Kelly described his and Kevin Del Aguila's characters, both performers, as sort of "medieval buskers." "We travel around and make our living when we can, where we can, and keep going," he said.

On their characters

David Patrick Kelly: I play the Old Actor, Henry Albertson, who's a Shakespearean expert. He's played many roles, and he's traveled across the country reciting Shakespeare.

The teacher [the writers] had at the University of Texas influenced them. I found out that's who they based this character, the old actor on [...] and the different theatre techniques they were inspired by, which I have also been inspired by: Shakespeare and Chinese theatre and commedia dell'arte.

Kevin Del Aguila: I play Mortimer, the Man Who Dies. So I die eight times a week on Broadway, on purpose.

First Fantasticks experiences

Kelly: I've never seen the show. I used to live by the Sullivan Street Theater, but I was curious about it because of all the famous people: Jerry Orbach and Liza Minnelli and various folks who played in it over the years. I was on my way to the rock clubs of Bleecker Street. It was great to wait till now to experience the whole thing [after] hearing the songs on television, the different cover versions of the great songs. "Soon It's Gonna Rain" was my favorite.

Del Aguila: I saw a community theatre production, and I saw a regional production shortly after that, but that was a long time ago. I have very hazy memories, so it's exciting to be part of this new version of the show and explore it as though it's never been done before.

Show that deserves a record-breaking run

Kelly: I always loved [singer] Jacques Brel. I grew up in Detroit, so the big city for us was Chicago, not New York. Going to Chicago and seeing [the revue] Jacques Brel [is Alive and Well and Living in Paris] when I was in high school, that was a thrill.

Del Aguila: I love Jacques Brel! I would listen to Jacques Brel constantly when I was in college, and all I wanted to do was be in a production of Jacques Brel. I got to be the standby for both men in the revival in 2006 here at the Zipper Theater. That should be running forever. All the songs are about death and love and war, and it's beautiful.

Miscast dream roles

Del Aguila: Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd

Kelly: I've played the strangest characters: heroic, evil. So at this point in time, I can't think of something like that. But I guess that's a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Get The Fantasticks tickets now.

Interview excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.