Tom jones fantasticks biography of williams

Tom Jones, who wrote the book and lyrics for The Fantasticks, the longest-running musical in theater history, has died.

He was 95.

Jones died Friday at his home in Sharon, Conn., following a battle with cancer, his son Michael told The New York Times.

Born Feb. 17, 1928, in Littlefield, Tex., Jones studied drama at the University of Texas.

There he met his longtime collaborator, Harvey Schmidt, with whom he would write all his major musicals. Their work included 110 in the Shade, I Do! I Do!, Philemon, and Celebration — but their first greatest success was The Fantasticks.

Tom jones fantasticks biography of williams brothers

Originally titled Joy Comes to Dead Horse, Jones conceived the twist on Romeo and Juliet with composer John Donald Robb. It was an adaptation of Edmond Rostand's The Romancers, about a caucasian boy in love with a Latin girl named Maria.

A college production of it was staged, but around the same