A Musical Passion

One show that I truly love is Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. It was originally on Broadway in 1957. It was a major success with a total of 1,375 performances. It won a total of five Tony Awards including the award for best musical. The show has been made into revivals in 1980 and 2000. There was also a film made from it in 1963 because of its success. Then in 2003 there was a television remake of the show. The show is frequently reproduced my many different professional and amateur companies as well. It is a very popular show. There was even a song from this musical used in an episode of the popular show “Family Guy”. Peter griffin and the New England Patriots break out into the song and dance number "Shipoopi" during a touchdown celebration.
Robert Preston was the original Professor Harold Hill, the leading male role of the show. He is a con man who travels from small town to town selling uniforms and instruments for boys’ bands that he organizes and instructs. His scheme didn’t sit well with any of the other traveling sales men. They all wanted to do something about him. Everything was working out for him taking all the peoples money in each small town his visits until he reaches River City, Iowa. It is there he meets a girl named Marian Paroo. She is the librarian of the town. Problem is Marian believes she knows Professor Hill’s type, a fast talker who only want one thing, and she wants nothing to do with him. This puts a hindering on Harold Hill’s plan cause he can’t stop thinking about Marian. Marian has a little brother that Harold puts his the fake band and helps him out by talking to him and her littler brother gains some confidence from that. This makes Marian fall in love with Harold, and now he has a new problem. A who missed his train and is stuck in town tells the whole town that there so call band instructor, Professor Hill, is nothing more than a fraud. After hearing that the whole town is out to find him. Once he is caught the town doesn’t know what to do with him. They aren’t sure who to believe anymore after hearing what he has to say. The town decides they want to here a performance of the band, but the band has never actually practiced. So now the whole town is in the high school gym with the town mayor leading the charge. Then out come all the kids with there uniforms on and instruments to put on a performance. They all play and man does it sound awful, but the parents of the children are so moved by what they here and seeing there children perform that Professor Harold Hill get away with everything. He gets the girl and settles down in a little town called River City.
The reason I picked this show is because it my all time favorite for many reasons. One reason is because I love all the up beat songs in the production they are so catchy. The main reason however that I picked this show is because it was my first true experience with a theater production. Yeah before this show I had seen other performances. This however was the first show I was apart of. In ninth grade my high school chose this to be the yearly musical production. I though the musical would be something fun to do from what I heard about it. So before I tried out I rented the DVD of the show and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I remember rehearsing my tryout sound over and over, I didn’t end up with a major role in the production or anything I was just mostly part of the ensemble with a few lines here or there, but this is the show that opened my eyes to theater. I got to see what all went in to making a show. And after taking this class I can say I missed a lot of stuff. I was just focused on learning my part and being able to fit in with the flow of the show. I made so many new friends and memorizes during this show it is unbelievable. Looking back on it deciding to join this musical was one of the best decisions I made during my high school career.
So for the fact that the show is just a delight to watch and of course my personal connection with this show its really easy to see why I feel so strongly about this production. There is no other show in my mind that even compare to it, but that’s just my opinion of it, I’m sure you have owe.