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The Music Man, by Meredith Wilson
Saw The Music Man today at the Berkeley Playhouse. Though I think I generally prefer the more modern musicals that we see, it's nice to see these classics as well — and this was a big one, the winner of several Tonys when it debuted in 1957, including Best Musical, where it won out over West Side Story. (I suspect history disagrees with that one.)
I actually thought that the first Act of the play was just OK. A lot of the music was hard to understand because it was sung by too many people or because it was sung by the leading man (Harold Hill) at way too fast of a speed. The play is also unfortunately dated, and most of that shows up early on. There's one song called "Pickalittle (Talk-a-little)" which is about how women will gossip unintelligibly — and it's sort of offensive. We also had Harold very aggressively pursuing the female lead (Marian Paroo) even though she explicitly and clearly expresses disinterest — which we'd call sexual harassment in the modern day. Fortunately the storyline picked up in the second half and the music got clearer and I liked it all more.
There were overall several nice numbers. I liked the very upbeat "76 Trombones", which was Harold's theme. The female lead was the star of the show and Marian had a nice theme of her own, "Goodnight, My Someone". I was amused to learn the two themes had the same music at different speeds. There's also a barber's quartet that is fun throughout, especially when they conduct a counterpoint "duet" with Marian: "Lida Rose" / "Will I Ever Tell You". I was also surprised to discover that the upbeat 11 o'clock number, "Till There Was You" was regularly played by the Beatles in their early years, and ended up on some of their albums. (They didn't know it was from a musical, but were instead covering another British cover.)
The play theoretically has a nice storyline: music transforms a somewhat gray community, in spite of the con man whose brought it there. However, I felt like it didn't entirely come out through the book. I never got an impression of drabness in the community before the Music Man came, and so when Marian talks about the transformation later, I didn't see it. Fortunately, the costumers picked up some of the slack here. The beautiful neutral-colored costumes of the early play were replaced or pulled back to reveal brighter colors for the last scene. Similarly I didn't see the Music Man's change of heart — what caused him to come to love Marian and her town.
I was surprised to see some of the major plot points subtly advanced through performance — and I don't mean through the musical words, but instead through how the songs were performed. The original use of the awful gossip song was about Marian being excluded from the community, but then she takes part in the song the second time through, and it clearly marks a change. Similarly, at the end of the play, Marian and Harold each sing a bit from the other's theme, and it's a clear sign of their coming together.
Overall, a fun show, and also interesting to see how it shaped its story differently from other musicals.
I actually thought that the first Act of the play was just OK. A lot of the music was hard to understand because it was sung by too many people or because it was sung by the leading man (Harold Hill) at way too fast of a speed. The play is also unfortunately dated, and most of that shows up early on. There's one song called "Pickalittle (Talk-a-little)" which is about how women will gossip unintelligibly — and it's sort of offensive. We also had Harold very aggressively pursuing the female lead (Marian Paroo) even though she explicitly and clearly expresses disinterest — which we'd call sexual harassment in the modern day. Fortunately the storyline picked up in the second half and the music got clearer and I liked it all more.
There were overall several nice numbers. I liked the very upbeat "76 Trombones", which was Harold's theme. The female lead was the star of the show and Marian had a nice theme of her own, "Goodnight, My Someone". I was amused to learn the two themes had the same music at different speeds. There's also a barber's quartet that is fun throughout, especially when they conduct a counterpoint "duet" with Marian: "Lida Rose" / "Will I Ever Tell You". I was also surprised to discover that the upbeat 11 o'clock number, "Till There Was You" was regularly played by the Beatles in their early years, and ended up on some of their albums. (They didn't know it was from a musical, but were instead covering another British cover.)
The play theoretically has a nice storyline: music transforms a somewhat gray community, in spite of the con man whose brought it there. However, I felt like it didn't entirely come out through the book. I never got an impression of drabness in the community before the Music Man came, and so when Marian talks about the transformation later, I didn't see it. Fortunately, the costumers picked up some of the slack here. The beautiful neutral-colored costumes of the early play were replaced or pulled back to reveal brighter colors for the last scene. Similarly I didn't see the Music Man's change of heart — what caused him to come to love Marian and her town.
I was surprised to see some of the major plot points subtly advanced through performance — and I don't mean through the musical words, but instead through how the songs were performed. The original use of the awful gossip song was about Marian being excluded from the community, but then she takes part in the song the second time through, and it clearly marks a change. Similarly, at the end of the play, Marian and Harold each sing a bit from the other's theme, and it's a clear sign of their coming together.
Overall, a fun show, and also interesting to see how it shaped its story differently from other musicals.