American musical theatre producer and writer Harvey Schmidt, Died at 88

Harvey Lester Schmidt was born on September 12, 1929, and died on February 28, 2018.

He was an American composer for musical theatre and illustrator.

Harvey was most remembered composing the music for the longest-running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which ran off-Broadway for 42 years from 1960 – 2002.

Most of his hit musicals were written with lyricist Tom Jones.

Together they are known for the musical The Fantasticks which ran off-Broadway from 1960 – 2002 for a total of 17,162 performances.

Schmidt also worked on the 1995 feature film adaptation. In 1992 he received the Tony Award, Tony Honor for “The Fantasticks,” then in its 33rd year.

After which they produce the Broadway musical 110 in the Shade in 1963, which ran for 330 performances on Broadway and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Composer and Lyricist for Schmidt and Jones. I Do! I Do! followed in 1966, which brought Mary Martin and Robert Preston to the Broadway stage in a 2-person musical and ran for 560 performances.

The pair were nominated for the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist and Best Musical.

Together they appeared in a revue of their songs, The Show Goes On, at the York Theatre Company in 1997. The run was extended several times and the show was recorded on the DRG label.

Harvey Schmidt was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Schmidt’s recording, was released in 2005.

The musical of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town was written by Schmidt and Jones and it took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled by Wilder’s nephew.

The two was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in July 2012.

Harvey died at 88 years old.