The Fantasticks tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play The Romancers (Les Romanesques) by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love, because they know children always do what their parents forbid.

After the children do fall in love, they discover their fathers' plot and each go off and experience the world. Finally they return to each other and the love they had, having learned from the world to recognise their true feelings. Elements of the musical are drawn from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, its story winding its way through Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and Rostand's play.

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's classic score features titles including Much More, I Can See It and the instantly familiar Try To Remember.