The long-running US national tour opened in 1958, starring Forrest Tucker as Hill and Joan Weldon as Marian. Liza Redfield became the first woman to be the full-time conductor of a Broadway pit orchestra when she assumed the role of music director for the original production's final year of performances beginning in May 1960. The musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, winning in the same year that West Side Story was nominated for the award. Paroo, Iggie Wolfington as Marcellus Washburn and David Burns as Mayor Shinn.Įddie Albert and Bert Parks each replaced Preston as Hill later in the run, and Paul Ford was a replacement for Mayor Shinn, later reprising the role in the film version. The original cast included Robert Preston (who reprised his role in the 1962 screen adaptation) as Harold Hill, Barbara Cook as Marian, Eddie Hodges as Winthrop, Pert Kelton as Mrs. It played at the Majestic for nearly three years before transferring to The Broadway Theatre and completing its 1,375 performance run there on April 15, 1961. The Music Man opened on December 19, 1957, at the Majestic Theatre. Weldon and Tucker in the National Tour, 1960 Original Broadway production Īfter years of development, a change of producers, almost forty songs (twenty-two were cut), and more than forty drafts, the original Broadway production was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Morton DaCosta and choreographed by Onna White. The plot revolved around Harold Hill finding a musical instrument that the boy could play: a triangle. Originally titled The Silver Triangle, early versions of the story focused on a partially paralyzed boy, Jim Paroo, whom the townspeople wanted to consign to an institution for children with disabilities. The producers felt it would be the most difficult song to sing, but with his acting background, it was the easiest for Preston. Robert Preston claimed that he got the role of Harold Hill despite his limited singing range because, when he went to audition, they were having the men sing "Trouble". In the original production (and the film), the School Board was played by the 1950 International Quartet Champions of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), the Buffalo Bills. The character Marian Paroo was inspired by Marian Seeley of Provo, Utah, who met Willson during World War II, when Seeley was a medical records librarian. Willson wrote about his trials and tribulations in getting the show to Broadway in his book But He Doesn't Know the Territory. Willson realized it sounded like a lyric, and he transformed it into the patter song " Ya Got Trouble". At this time, Willson considered eliminating a long piece of dialogue about the serious trouble facing River City parents. After these and other unsuccessful attempts, Willson invited Franklin Lacey to help him edit and simplify the libretto. He first approached producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin for a television special, and then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer Jesse L. Willson began developing this theme in his 1948 memoir, And There I Stood With My Piccolo. Meredith Willson was inspired by his boyhood in Mason City, Iowa, to write and compose his first musical, The Music Man. 6 Setting and popular culture references.The Music Man is frequently produced by both professional and amateur theater companies and is a popular choice for high school and college productions. The show's success led to Broadway and West End revivals, a popular 1962 film adaptation and a 2003 television adaptation. The cast album won the first Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and spent 245 weeks on the Billboard charts. In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love with him. Harold is no musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey.
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