The Music Man


The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader. He sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Harold is no musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love with him. He risks being caught to win her heart.
In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances. The cast album won the first Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and spent 245 weeks on the Billboard charts. The show's success led to Broadway and West End revivals, a popular 1962 film adaptation and a 2003 television adaptation. The Music Man is frequently produced by both professional and amateur theater companies and is a popular choice for high school and college productions.

Background

was inspired by his boyhood in Mason City, Iowa, to write and compose his first musical, The Music Man. Willson began developing this theme in his 1948 memoir, And There I Stood With My Piccolo. He first approached producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin for a television special, and then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer Jesse L. Lasky. After these and other unsuccessful attempts, Willson invited Franklin Lacey to help him edit and simplify the libretto. At this time, Willson considered eliminating a long piece of dialogue about the serious trouble facing River City parents, but
realizing that it sounded like a lyric. He transformed it into the patter song "Ya Got Trouble". Willson wrote about his trials and tribulations in getting the show to Broadway in his book But He Doesn't Know the Territory.
The character Marian Paroo was inspired by Marian Seeley of Provo, Utah, who met Willson during World War II, when Seeley was a medical records librarian. In the original production, the School Board was played by the 1950 International Quartet Champions of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, the Buffalo Bills. Robert Preston claimed that he got the role of Harold Hill despite his limited singing range because, when he went to audition, they were having the men sing "Trouble". The producers felt it would be the most difficult song to sing, but with his acting background, it was the easiest for Preston.
Originally titled The Silver Triangle, early versions of the story focused on a partially paralyzed boy, Jim Paroo, whom the townspeople wanted to consign to an institution for children with disabilities. The plot revolved around Harold Hill finding a musical instrument that the boy could play: a triangle. In some drafts, Jim was also nonverbal. Willson had an epiphany while reflecting on the "Wells Fargo Wagon" song, in which a lisping youngster sang one of the verses. "Here's this kid who isn't even identified," recalled Willson in his 1957 memoir. "Just a lisping kid but you get hit with some magic anyhow. Imagine if the lisping kid were somebody we know – some character in the story." Willson suddenly realized that this youngster could be the child with the disability. In the finished book, Winthrop Paroo is almost silent and hesitates to speak because of a lisp, but unexpectedly bursts into song when the Wells Fargo wagon arrives with his new cornet.

Productions

Original Broadway production

After years of development, a change of producers, almost forty songs, and more than forty drafts, the original Broadway production was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Morton DaCosta and choreographed by Onna White. The Music Man opened on December 19, 1957, at the Majestic Theatre. It played at the Majestic for nearly three years before transferring to The Broadway Theatre and completing its 1,375 performance run there on April 15, 1961. The original cast included Robert Preston as Harold Hill, Barbara Cook as Marian, Eddie Hodges as Winthrop, Pert Kelton as Mrs. Paroo, Iggie Wolfington as Marcellus Washburn and David Burns as Mayor Shinn.
In January 1959, Preston left the show and was replaced by Eddie Albert for 18 months. Preston returned for two weeks In June 1960, until his successor, Bert Parks, could replace him. Parks finished the Broadway run while Preston was busy filming the screen version. Paul Ford was a replacement for David Burns as Mayor Shinn, later reprising the role in the film version.
Howard Bay designed the sets. Don Walker orchestrated the score. The musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, winning in the same year that West Side Story was nominated for the award. Preston, Cook and Burns also won. Liza Redfield became the first woman to be the full-time conductor of a Broadway pit orchestra when she assumed the role of music director for the original production's final year of performances beginning in May 1960. The long-running American tour began in 1958, starring Forrest Tucker as Hill and Joan Weldon as Marian.

First Australian and UK productions

The first Australian production ran from March 5, 1960, to July 30, 1960, at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, and at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney from December 13, 1960, to February 4, 1961. The first UK production opened at Bristol Hippodrome, transferring to London's West End at the Adelphi Theatre on March 16, 1961, starring Van Johnson, Patricia Lambert, C. Denier Warren, Ruth Kettlewell and Dennis Waterman. It ran for 395 performances at the Adelphi.

Subsequent productions

A two-week revival at New York City Center ran in June 1965, directed by Gus Schirmer Jr. and starring Bert Parks as Harold. Doro Merande and Sandy Duncan played, respectively, Eulalie and Zaneeta Shinn. In 1987, a Chinese translation of the musical was staged at Beijing's Central Opera Theater.
A US tour, directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd, ended at City Center, where it played for 8 previews and 21 regular performances from May to June 1980. The cast included Dick Van Dyke as Hill, Meg Bussert as Marian, Christian Slater as Winthrop, Carol Arthur as Mrs. Paroo, and Iggie Wolfington as Mayor Shinn.
New York City Opera staged a revival from February to April 1988, directed by Arthur Masella and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, starring Bob Gunton as Hill, with Muriel Costa-Greenspon as Eulalie and James Billings as Marcellus.
A Broadway revival, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, opened on April 27, 2000, at the Neil Simon Theatre, where it ran for 699 performances and 22 previews. The cast included Craig Bierko as Hill and Rebecca Luker as Marian. Robert Sean Leonard and Eric McCormack portrayed Hill later in the run. The production was nominated for eight Tony Awards but did not win any. In 2008, there was a revival at the Chichester Festival Theatre, England, starring Brian Conley as Hill and Scarlett Strallen as Marian.
In 2019, a semi-staged concert production at the Kennedy Center starred Norm Lewis as Harold, Jessie Mueller as Marian, Rosie O'Donnell as Mrs. Paroo, John Cariani as Marcellus, Veanne Cox as Eulalie, Mark Linn-Baker as Mayor Shinn, and David Pittu as Charlie.

2022 Broadway revival

A Broadway revival began previews on December 20, 2021, and opened on February 10, 2022, at the Winter Garden Theatre. The production starred Hugh Jackman as Harold and Sutton Foster as Marian with Jefferson Mays as the Mayor, Jayne Houdyshell as Mrs. Shinn, Shuler Hensley as Marcellus, Marie Mullen as Mrs. Paroo, Benjamin Pajak as Winthrop, Remy Auberjonois as Charlie Cowell, Phillip Boykin as Olin Britt and Eddie Korbich as Jacey Squires. It was produced by Kate Horton, Barry Diller, Evan McGill, and David Geffen and directed by Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Warren Carlyle. It features sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, and sound by Scott Lehrer. The production was set to open in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It suspended performances from December 28, 2021, through January 5, 2022, after Jackman tested positive for COVID-19. The production closed on January 15, 2023.
The production was a success at the box office, taking in $3.5 million in ticket sales during the week of March 22, 2022, more than any show since the pandemic began. Critical reaction was mixed: on the negative side, Jesse Green, in The New York Times, declared the revival, "flat" and "old-fashioned". He criticized Jackman's "smart but strangely inward performance" and felt that Foster's witty and front-facing performance was compromised by her vocal miscasting. Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post described the production as a "let-down", writing, "Sometimes the show is dark and moody, determined not to have too much fun with a story about a con artist who wins in the end despite his misdeeds. At others, it's... painfully corny". Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter gave the production a lukewarm review, calling Jackman "neither a great singer nor a particularly accomplished dancer" and commenting that Foster's "voice doesn’t have the crystalline beauty of such predecessors as Barbara Cook and Shirley Jones, and many of the songs aren’t really suited for her". He concluded, however, that "the show ironically feels urgently timely." On the positive side, in Variety, Marilyn Stasio gave the production a rave review, praising all the performances, direction and designs, and calling it "vintage Broadway, but gussied up in grand, glorious style". It was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, but it did not win any. A special Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Ensemble" was presented to the 21 cast members making their Broadway debuts in the revival.
An official cast recording was released on September 23, 2022. In the fall 2022 fundraising for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Music Man broke the Red Bucket fundraising record by raising $2,002,612 toward the charity.