Music Man - Information/Synopsis
Mitchell Theatre, November - 2002
Book, Lyrics & Music
by
MEREDITH WILLSON
Staged by
MORTON DA COSTA
Choreographed by
OONA WHITE
Based on a story by
MEREDITH WILLSON and
FRANKLIN LACY
First produced at the Majestic Theatre on December 19, 1957, with
Robert Preston as "Harold Hill" and Barbara Cook as
"Marian".
The play is set mainly
in the little town of River City, Iowa, in 1912, but the opening scene is on a
moving train in which the dialogue of travelling salesmen and the musical
background beautifully simulate the bouncy rhythm of the jogging train. Aboard
this train the salesmen are discussing the selling powers of one Harold Hill,
without realizing that he is also one of the passengers. Harold Hill gets off at
River City and comes to the centre of the town. There an old crony, Marcellus
Washburn, tells him he will never be able to work his racket in this town:
Harold Hill's racket is to go from town to town and influence its citizens to
start a boys' band; then to abscond with the money the townspeople give him for
the purchase of instruments and uniforms. Marcellus further informs Harold that
the main obstacle in River City is the town librarian/music teacher, Marian
Paroo, a "stuck up" sort of girl, who can be counted upon to see right through
Harold's chicanery. Undaunted, Harold Hill proceeds to arouse the town's
enthusiasm for starting a boys' band by pointing out the corrupt influence on
their children of the local pool parlour ("Trouble"). When Marion Paroo appears,
Harold tries to win her over with his charm, but she brushes him off rudely. But
Marian is a soft and sentimental girl, as she reveals by speaking to the stars
("Goodnight, My Someone").
Inside the gymnasium of Madison High School a patriotic
tableau is being given; Mayor Shinn follows with an address. Harold Hill demands
the attention of the audience and starts once again to expound his ideas about a
boys' band until the kids become infected with his enthusiasm ("Seventy-Six
Trombones"). Later the same evening, Harold Hill goes to the library to win
Marian over to his cause. He tries to impress her by telling her he is a
"professor" of music, a graduate of the Gary, Indiana University, in the gold
medal class of 1905. But Marian tells him in no uncertain terms that he cannot
mesmerize or hoodwink her the way he had done the rest of the townspeople. Thus
brushed off unceremoniously, Harold consoles himself with the idea that, after
all, he has no possible interest in a girl as prim and conventional as Marian.
("The Sadder but Wiser Girl"). Nevertheless, he makes another effort to win over
Marian, by sneaking up to her desk at the library and trying to convince her
that he is infatuated with her ("Marian the Librarian").
But all the while, Harold keeps alive the enthusiasm for
his band project, and goes about town signing applicants. Cuttingly, Marian asks
him why he does not use his gift to greater advantage at a carnival. She knows
he is a fraud, and thus will have no traffic with him, even though she is not
the kind of girl who waits for a knight in shining armor ("My White Knight").
The reason Marian knows he is a fraud is because she has consulted the
Indiana State Educational Journal and has discovered that Gary, Indiana
University, had not even been founded in 1905. She is about to bring this
information to the leading citizens of the town when Wells Fargo arrives with
the musical instruments and uniforms, creating so much enthusiasm and excitement
among her neighbors that she simply does not have the heart to disillusion them
about Harold Hill. Indeed, now that Harold has, indeed, delivered the
instruments and the uniforms without absconding with the money she is much more
sympathetic to him; and there is no question in her mind that he is a man of
considerable charm. Her resistance to him is finally broken: She comes to tell
Harold she is in love with him ("Till There Was You"). Now Harold Hill gives
himself up completely to making a success of the boys' band. In a stirring
finale the boys appear in full regalia and sound their first raucous notes as
members of the town band.