Tony Award nominated lyricist Tom Jones died August 11, 2023 at the age of 95 in his Sharon, Connecticut as a result of cancer.
Along with his Drama Desk Award for “The Fantasticks”, Jones is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
He was born Thomas Collins Jones in Littlefield, Texas on February 17, 1928 but was raised in Coleman, Texas. It was while at the University of Texas at Austin where Jones met Harvey Schmidt.
While at UT, Jones discovered the play “Les Romanesques” by Edmund Rostand – a “Romeo and Juliet” parody – that Jones turned into the musical “Joy Comes to Dead Horse”. With the help of Schmidt, the production became “The Fantasticks” – the longest running musical in history.
The show closed at the Greenwich Village Sullivan Street Theatre after over 17,000 performances, due in part to the post 9/11 and terrorist threatened world. Over the years numerous actors performed in the show including Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner, Ricardo Montalban, Kristen Chenoweth, and Santino Fontana.
After a four year hiatus, the show returned to Off Broadway where it presented a few thousand more shows over a seven year period to finally close after over 21,000 performances.
Jones and Schmidt also created “110 in the Shade”, “I Do! I Do!”, “The Bone Room”, “Street Corner Symphony”, “Celebration”, “Philemon”, “Mirette”, “The Show Goes On”, and “Roadside”.
Predeceased by his second wife Janet, Jones is survived by his sons Michael and Sam. Feature photo credit: [[File:Fantasticks (16017750236).jpg|Fantasticks_(16017750236)]]