The Fantasticks didn't just enjoy an off-Broadway run of over four decades because of its modest production costs; it also has some outstanding songs.
- The opening number, "Try to Remember", sets the nostalgic yet self-aware tone. We know we're entering a world of fantasy, but through it, we may learn something about ourselves, and should reflect on our own lives and loves as we watch the events on stage. For added awesome, listen to a rendition by the original El Gallo,
Jerry Orbach. - The young lovers, Luisa and Matt, each enter with a song that establishes their characters immediately. Luisa's "Much More" is an "I Want" Song that portrays her as a girl with big dreams who has read a few too many romance novels, while Matt's "Metaphor", less an "I Am" Song than a "You Are" Song, is full of hilarious Purple Prose as he goes over the top in finding the right way to tell a swooning Luisa how loving her makes him feel.
- "It Depends on What You Pay" may have problems with increasing Values Dissonance over its casual use of the word "rape" as a (largely archaic) synonym for "abduction", leading various productions to edit the lyrics accordingly, but it's still a showstopper par excellence.
- "Soon It's Gonna Rain" is a charming love duet/dance sequence for Matt and Luisa, and a nice island of calm between El Gallo and his past-their-prime actors, Henry and Mortimer, making their plans for Luisa's fake abduction and then carrying them out.
- After Matt and Luisa fall out at the beginning of Act II, each gets a spectacular duet with El Gallo.
- Matt's is "I Can See It", in which his idealistic view of a world of adventure and excitement contrasts with El Gallo's more cynical view of a world of schemers and misery; it receives a Dark Reprise when he returns from his adventures a sadder and wiser man and tries to stop El Gallo from breaking Luisa's heart.
- Luisa's is "Round and Round", in which El Gallo takes her on a fantasy journey, the music gradually building in intensity (with a series of upward key changes) as they "tour" Venice, Greece, and India, in each place seeing Henry and Mortimer beating the stuffing out of a hapless Matt (not that El Gallo lets Luisa process these scenes).
