Way back when at Southern Lehigh High School, Center Valley, I would stay after school.

It wasn’t because I had misbehaved. My friends Steve, Dave, Wolfgang, John and I had organized “Social Studies Discussion Forum.” We wanted to stay after school.

Each week, I would slide the name of a new topic on a piece of paper into the slot of the forum poster I made that hung in the school hallway.

My friends and I thought we were doing something bold. Solving the world’s problems. Righting the wrongs. Speaking to the tenor of the times. This was the mid- to late-1960s.

Club advisor social studies teacher Mr. Michael Gnida knew otherwise. He later explained his philosophy to me, “I would take you out so far and then bring you back in.”

The musical, “The Fantasticks,” through Oct. 19, DeSales University Act 1, is for me not unlike Mr. Gnida’s reasoning. “The Fantasticks” takes you out there and brings you back in. The age at which you see the musical may well determine your response to it.

I have seen “The Fantasticks” several times over the years, including a 25th anniversary production at Sullivan Street Playhouse, Greenwich Village, New York City, where it ran from 1960 until 2002, for 17,162 performances. At 42 years, it was the longest-running musical in the world and the longest-running uninterrupted play in the United States.

The musical was revived at Theater Center, New York City, in 2006 and ran through 2017 for an additional 4,390 performances and 11 years.

Noted actors, including Jerry Orbach, Liza Minnelli, Elliott Gould, F. Murray Abraham, Glenn Close and Kristin Chenoweth, appeared in “The Fantasticks.”

There’s a nostalgic ring to seeing “The Fantasticks” for theater-goers such as myself who are now senior citizens. The show’s vitality, freshness and innovativeness still rings true for the Act 1 student performers and the production itself.

The three-quarter round Schubert Theatre in the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales is the perfect stage for “The Fantasticks.” With a patchwork curtain as backdrop and minimal set and props, much is left to the imagination, including the “wall,” represented by actors and a moving ladder, placed by the fathers, Hucklebee (Andrew McGill) and Bellomy (Jamir Fisher) to separate their children, a young couple, Luisa (Maya Jean Marino Cappello) and Matt (Tyler Borneo), in love.

The Act 1 production is directed, as is the scenic design, by Jason King Jones, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director, who keeps the musical’s tone gentle, cozy and reassuring.

Lighting Designer Katherine Moretz bathes the stage in the glow of memory.

Music director and conductor Vincent Trovato, who is on stage at the piano, as is Andrea Wittchen on harp, gives a chamber music sensibility to the lovely songs with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, who also wrote the show’s book. Several of the show’s songs entered the lexicon of the Great American Songbook and cabaret.

Sound designer is Jonathan Cannon.

The ballet-like choreography by Devon Sinclair lifts the show to dreamlike allegory. Maya Jean Marino Cappello (Luisa) soars and realizes Sinclair’s artistic vision.

Costume Designer Sara Edris outfits the cast in glad rags and attire appropriate to the characters’ ages.

Marino Cappello has a wonderful stage presence as Luisa, bursting with hope, and with a pristine voice that will melt your heart, especially on “Much More” and in duet with Tyler Borneo, in excellent voice as Matt, on the wistful “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and the triumphant “They Were You.”

The fathers, played by Andrew McGill as Hucklebee, Matt’s father, and Jamir Fisher as Bellomy, Luisa’s father, are terrific, providing comic relief in dialogue and song (“Never Say No,” “It Depends on What You Pay,” “Plant a Radish”).

Not to be outdone, Owen M.T. LaRue as Henry and Mariana Marcel as his sidekick Mortimer send in the clowns (the characters they play) with great physicality in acting and song (“An Episode”).

The showstopper, “Try to Remember,” which begins the show and ends it, belongs to Grace Curry (El Gallo) in a commanding performance to be cherished and remembered.

The cast is rounded out by NeLa-Sharrelle Latimore and Deanna Hoch in the roles of the stage scenery and stage-scenery moving Mutes.

“The Fantasticks” is about the loss of innocence and the gaining of wisdom. Your perspective may be determined by where you are on the road of life. You may be out there and not quite ready to return. However, you can always return to “The Fantasticks.”

“The Fantasticks,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9, 10, 15, 16, 17; 2 p.m. Oct. 11, 12, 19; 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18, DeSales University Act 1, Schubert Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-3192; https://www.desales.edu/news-events-arts/act-1-productions

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOFrom left, foreground: Tyler Borneo (Matt), Maya Jean Marino Cappello (Luisa), “The Fantasticks,” DeSales University Act 1.