Record-breaking 'The Fantasticks' to close.

Byline: MARK KENNEDY

NEW YORK -- The off-Broadway phenomenon ''The Fantasticks'' will pack away its confetti and cardboard moon this summer, ending a record-breaking, fantastic run that started when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

Producers of the stalwart, low-tech show said Wednesday that the musical will close on May 3, the 55th anniversary of the show's opening in 1960. It will have run 20,672 performances in two city venues, with a gap of four years when it went silent.

The tale, a mock version of ''Romeo and Juliet,'' concerns a young girl and boy, secretly brought together by their fathers and an assortment of odd characters, including a rakish narrator, an old actor, an Indian named Mortimer and a mute. It's as much about a love affair as...