In order to really understand anything at all, one must look
at “the back story”. There is always a back story, and Meredith Willson’s tale of
“The Music Man” is no different. According to his 1948 autobiography “And There
I Stood with my Piccolo”, he spent his youth performing in school and Salvation
Army bands, which led to radio work and later orchestral excellence as a flute
and piccolo player. His brushes with showbiz royalty in the decades prior to
him starting his decade long writing journey include such legends as Charlie
Chaplin, George & Gracie Burns and Jack Benny. There was no way Meredith
Willson wasn’t going to get a good dose of “vaudeville” along the way. Add some
of the hype, hope and hilarity that was the immediate post WW2 zeitgeist in 1948
USA and you have what Bugs Bunny (deferring to Bogey of course) at the time would
have called “the beginning of a beeyewdaful friendship”.
Marie Clark Musical Theatre’s 2024 Production of “The Music
Man” captures this wonderful backstory and puts it up on stage as a part of
their own back story in their 50th year of producing fine musical
theatre.
The show starts with the gentlemen delivering a unique
mnemonic dive into the innocence of early 20th century Iowa, powerfully
delivering what was essentially a 1912 style musical theatre “rap” that
predates Lin-Manuel Miranda by around 70 years. The show is opened strongly by
a moustachioed Tom Moore looking eerily like the monopoly man! We certainly did
get “fries with that” when the rest of the male ensemble joined in. It received
a well deserved round of hoots and rapturous applause; this audience reception
was to continue all night.
Then, in almost surreal “Looney Toons” style, the main
character emerges in David MacGillivray playing the Mathew Broderick version of
Professor Harold Hill, the archetypical super-salesman attempting to sell expensive
band instruments to the unsuspecting townsfolk ripe for the duping. One almost
expected Daffy Duck to appear and start selling vacuum cleaners from “Walla-Walla-Washington”.
Indeed, we did end up getting a Daffy Duck of sorts through the lisp-fuelled dialogue
of young Winthrop Paroo, played by a talented Henry Grieg. Making fun of an
unfortunate speech-impediment is supposed to be “politically incorrect”, yet the
audience didn’t care and laughed anyway; probably because it was funny.
Together with Amaryllis, played by Evie Drew, we have a farcical “love interest”
of sorts involving two fine young actors who are sure to make their mark in
future productions.
Musical theatre veteran Wendy Rayner was hilarious in her
portrayal of the long suffering wife of the typically caricatured “stuffy Mayor”
played by a suitably pompous Rodney Hrvratin. It takes real talent to pull off faux
“awful”, and Wendy nailed it. Director Adam Goodburn, possibly as a parallel to
Meredith Willson’s own multi-tasking as author, composer and lyricist, led from
the front as both an extra ensemble member and leader of the very amusing
Barber-Shop Quartet, where he was ably accompanied by Jacob Caudle, Matt
Redmond and Peter Ward. Counter-weight to the Quartet were the whining,
gossiping “Pick-A-Little Ladies”, milking yet another allegedly un-PC stereotype
of the town’s gossiping women. Once again, also very funny and pulled off with excellent
comedic timing by Lucy Trewin, Sash Elliot, Susie O’Connell and Tarsha Cameron.
Add the utterly predictable rebellious teenage pairing of
the mayor’s daughter and the town juvenile delinquent, ably played by Teresa
Van De Hoek and Felix Setchell, together with Linda Williams’ clever
choreography and you have all the ingredients of an excellent supporting cast creating
a cartoon-like setting of a “Merry Melodies” flavour of which even Chuck Jones and
Mel Blanc would be proud.
The absolute standout however was Emily Fitzpatrick who gave
us a sublime performance as Marion Paroo, love interest to our slick salesman.
Emily’s vocals were pitch perfect, powerful and pretty. It’s worth buying a
ticket just to experience her performance. Add Jay Mancuso playing Professor
Hill’s mate Marcellus Washburn, Anne Doherty as the stable, assured mother
figure Mrs Paroo and a supporting cast of talented adults and children and the
result is an amusing frolic of family styled entertainment. Indeed, it was
absolutely wonderful to see so many family groups made up of mums, dads,
children, partners, brothers, sisters and friends on stage performing together.
The camaraderie oozing into the orchestra pit from the actors onstage was
obvious, and made the audience simply love everyone up there. This is exactly how
community theatre should be.
Congratulations MCMT on staging an utterly delightful
rendition of Meridith Willson’s timeless classic “The Music Man”. Bravo!
