Quintessential musical theater reigns in the small towns of Somerset County!
The Music Man
By Meredith Willson
Performed by Windwood Theatricals
WHEN: Sunday, January 23, at 2 PM
WHERE: The Theatre at Raritan Valley Community College
118 Lamington Road, Branchburg
TICKETS: $40 & $45
Box Office: M-F, 11-4, 908.725.3420
An affectionate paean to Smalltown, U.S.A. of a bygone era, Meredith Willson’s The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band he vows to organize—this, despite the fact he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain’s fall. Aside from a fast-paced, chock-full- of-laughs script, The Music Man features memorable tunes like Rock Island; Trouble; Goodnight, My Someone; Seventy-six Trombones; Pick a Little, Talk a Little; Goodnight Ladies; Marian The Librarian; The Wells Fargo Wagon; and ‘Til There Was You.
The original production ran for 1,375 perfor-mances on Broadway. It was such a sensation that even Jack Lemmon's character attended it (or tried to, anyway) in 1960s Best Picture, The Apartment. Before achieving success as a Broad-way writer, Meredith Willson was a popular radio personality and bandleader who occasionally worked with Frank Loesser, who wrote Guys and Dolls. Loesser so believed in this show that he backed it for years of development and produced the original production. It made a star of Robert Preston, and Marian was played by Barbara Cook, who went on to be one of the most celebrated Broadway singers in history.
The Music Man is unquestionably one of the most beloved shows of all time.
