By Joanne Engelhardt
If you’re at least 50, it’s likely you’ve seen The Music Man several times over the years. Meredith Willson both wrote and produced it the 1957 Broadway hit, a portrait of the fictional town of River City, Iowa. It won five Tony Awards that year.
Five years later, it was made into a wildly popular film adaptation starring Robert Preston, Buddy Hackett, Ron Howard, and Shirley Jones. Of course, it’s been a mainstay of community theatre companies everywhere since then. Many theater fans consider The Music Man the greatest piece of Americana ever written.
“… sure to resonate with audiences of all ages …”
Because of its wholesomeness and down-home characters, the musical still draws in adults who remember the movie, as well as young people seeing it for the very first time.
Palo Alto Players’ current rendition of the predictably sweet story doesn’t disappoint. That said, on opening night, this reviewer believed that “Professor” Harold Hill (a charming Alex Perez) spoke and sang perhaps a tad softly (maybe because he has a lot of songs to sing and words to speak).
The Music Man’s first scene is a classic – and PAP’s version is a winner. Aboard a train heading to River City, a number of traveling salesmen are debating whether they are becoming a dying breed thanks to modern technology. One has to posit that it’s a difficult scene to do well, because all the men on the train have to sway and bounce in precise harmony! (They performed flawlessly on opening night.)
The last man to get off the train in River City turns out to be Hill himself, who’s decided it’s the perfect town for him to do his special kind of “sales” (Spoiler Alert: he’s a con man.) And so he promises to form a children’s marching band and gets parents to pony up for musical instruments as well as band uniforms. Then, after collecting the money, Hill plans to skip town and head to another to sell his spiel. Of course, he always likes to woo a lady or two wherever he goes, but things in River City don’t exactly turn out the way the professor expects.
There are several excellent performances in PAP’s production, not least of which is Gabrielle McColgan as Mrs. Paroo, whose daughter Marian (Alicia Teeter), is the town’s librarian and the object of Harold Hill’s affection. Both McColgan and Teeter have two of the loveliest voices in this show.
Other standouts include Sheridan Stewart, who plays the town mayor’s oldest daughter, Zaneeta, with Andrew Mo as bad boy Tommy Djilas, and Russell Nakagawa playing Winthrop Paroo. (Nakagawa shares his role with Henry Champlin.) On opening night Nakagawa was wildly applauded as he proudly sang his second-act song, “Gary, Indiana.”
One of the “inside jokes” in The Music Man is that the four men who serve on the school board can’t stand each other. Yet they suddenly turn into a barbershop quartet thanks to Prof. Hill recognizing that their voices blend perfectly as parts of the quartet. Together with Hill they sing “Ice Cream” and “Sincere.” Later they again join up with Hill (and Marian) to sing “Lida Rose” and “Will I Ever Tell You,” in beautiful harmony.
Director Lee Ann Payne has her hands full trying to corral this large cast of more than 30. She also choreographed the large dance numbers, among the best parts of Music Man.
The show has at least seven full-cast dance numbers for which costume designer Katie Strawn dressed the young girls in an adorable rainbow of pastel dresses. Strawn had much-needed assistance by a crew of seamstresses for all the outfits needed for the production’s big cast. Live music emanated from the pit in front of the stage, thanks to a skilled group of musicians led by music director/conductor Tony Gaitan.
No review of The Music Man is complete without mention of the “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little” ladies lead by the rubber-faced Linda Piccone as the mayor’s wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn. It’s fun to watch as she herds her ladies into Grecian urn poses in their oversized black-and-white bathing suits.
This reviewer wondered why Drew Benjamin Jones (as anvil salesman Charlie Cowell) rushes his lines, and constantly wears a mean, vindictive scowl? As Harold Hill’s old sidekick, Marcellus, Dane Lentz at first seems ill at ease, although he does a credible job when he joins Perez singing and dancing “The Sadder by Wiser Girl.”
PAP’s artistic director Patrick Klein (and scenic designer for the show) created several set pieces that have the original look-and-feel of a little midwestern town. Angela Young is spot-on as sound designer; Chris Beer’s lighting works well.
Overall, PAP’s The Music Man is sure to resonate with audiences of all ages.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: [email protected]
| Production | The Music Man |
|---|---|
| Written by | Meredith Willson |
| Directed by | Lee Ann Payne |
| Producing Company | Palo Alto Players |
| Production Dates | Thru May 12th |
| Production Address | 1305 Middlefield Road Palo Alto, CA 94301 |
| Website | www.paplayers.org |
| Telephone | (650) 329-0891 |
| Tickets | $35-$60 |
| Reviewer Score | Max in each category is 5/5 |
| Overall | 4.25/5 |
| Performance | 4.25/5 |
| Script | 4.50/5 |
| Stagecraft | 4.25/5 |
| Aisle Seat Review PICK! | YES! |