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The Music Man

July 6 - 16

Music, Lyrics, & Book by Meredith Willson
Based on a story by Franklin Lacey and Meredith Willson

Musical theater lovers will be happy to see favorite The Music Man return to the round stage of the Wagon Wheel Theatre from July 7 to 17, 2010. Who doesn’t like to see a con man in action especially when the deception is happening to someone else? The con man is “Professor” Harold Hill, who attempts to sell musical instruments and uniforms to small town parents where no band exists. Professor Hill says he will teach boys to play music, but plans to leave town with parents’ money before the goods arrive. His scheme is threatened by the beautiful, respectable, and musical Marian, the spinster librarian, who is suspicious of Hill as she fights her attraction to him.
Meredith Willson grew up in Iowa and learned to play the flute, aspiring to become an orchestra conductor. He became a bandleader in California in the 1940s, and worked in radio. When he created a show of his own, he set the story in 1912 in fictional River City, Iowa. The show opens with salesmen on a train discussing sales opportunities, and Harold Hill learns that River City may be a good place to visit. With the arrival of a pool table in town, he sees an opening for his scam in “Ya Got Trouble”. At the 4th of July celebration, he fires up townspeople for the creation of a brass marching band with a fine production number “Seventy-six Trombones.”
A special treat is the appearance of the school board members who amazingly break into 4-part “barbershop” harmony throughout the show, with “Goodnight Ladies” and “Lida Rose”. Willson’s use of counterpoint compositions -- separate lyrics and separate melodies that harmonize are demonstrated in  “Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You”. His “Seventy-six Trombones” melody is the march-tempo version of “Goodnight, My Someone” sang as a waltz.
The Music Man appeared on the Broadway stage in 1957, running for 1,375 performances, featuring Barbara Cook as Marian and Robert Preston as Harold Hill. It won five Tony Awards in 1958, beating out West Side Story for the Best Musical. Cook won a Tony for Best Featured Actress and Preston for Best Actor in a Musical. The cast album was also successful winning the first Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album. Robert Preston repeated his excellent stage role in the Hollywood version of the show in 1962, with Shirley Jones as Marian. Talented director Ron Howard made an early acting appearance in this film as Marian’s young brother Winthrop.

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