By James V. Ruocco
"Seventy-Six Trombones."
No amount of good cheer, virtuosic wit and timeless musicality has been left unturned in Seven Angels Theatre's thrilling, affectionate and effervescent revival of Meredith Willson's 1957 Tony Award-winning Broadway classic "The Music Man." It is yet another one of those big, glorious, old-fashioned musical productions of yesteryear that has gone full tilt - left, right, front, center and upside down - with an ambitious blueprint of characters, songs, dances, one liners and storytelling strategies that are drenched in soft, rainbow colors that explode, sparkle and dazzle like a vintage firework display on the Fourth of July during the summer of 1912 in River City, Iowa.
Colorful.
Intimate.
Rousing.
Magical.
Twinkly.
Period Appropriate.
It's everything you want in a Broadway musical and so much more.
It has the fizz and taste of homemade lemonade on a hot summer afternoon.
It has the snap and giddyap of a pop-up, vintage musical scrapbook that is magically brought to life.
It is welcoming and delightful with an impressive, laid-back style and range.
It dances to its own decided heartbeat.
It charms and cajoles.
It is refreshingly capped and delivered.
It also has the good sense to remain faithful to its original source material, its ice cream parlor values and traditions, its past remembered innocence, its hospitality and kinship, its strong sense of family and its Iowa stubborn mentality and release.
The story itself, is a humdinger in itself, glazed and baked with enchantment, top-hatted kitsch, narrative thrill and spill and merrily interspersed amusement.
With music, lyrics and book by Meredith Willson, "The Music Man" time travels back to River City, Iowa to retell the oft-told story of Harold Hill, a fast-talking traveling salesman, womanizer and con artist who sells band instruments and uniforms to young boys and teenagers with the promise of big band glory days and pageantry.
One small problem: He has no credentials. He has no educational roots. He can't read a note of music, much less conduct a full band concert before a very excited, live audience.
And once the money is collected, he quickly hops the next train out of town faster than you can say John Philip Sousa or the Gary, Indiana Conservatory of Music (class of 1905) and never once looks back.
A strong point of any classic Broadway musical - "My Fair Lady," "Kiss Me, Kate," "Oklahoma!" "West Side Story," "Carousel," to name a few - is its score.
True to form, "The Music Man," never once fails to deliver.
Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Musical, "The Music Man" comes gift wrapped with 28 tuneful, invigorating musical numbers, all of which heighten Willson's spirited story and its engaging evolvement toward a very happy, classic, meaningful and well-intentioned conclusion.
The songs, in order of performance, are: "Rock Island," "Iowa Stubborn," "Ya Got Trouble," "Piano Lesson & If You Don't Mind My Saying So," "Goodnight, My Someone," "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean," "Ya Got Trouble (Reprise)," "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Sincere," "The Sadder But Wiser Girl," "Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little & Goodnight Ladies," "Marian the Librarian," "My White Knight," "The Wells Fargo Wagon," "It's You," "Shipoopi," "Pick-a-Little, Talk a-Little (reprise)," "Lida Rose & Will I Ever Tell You?" "Gary, Indiana," "Lida Rose (reprise)," "Till There Was You," "Goodnight, My Someone & Seventy-Six Trombones (reprise)," "Till There Was You (reprise)" and "Finale."
As devised by Willson (music and lyrics), the score itself is rich, ripe, round and booming. It unfolds with the breezy, broad, anticipated and playful tap and lyricism that befits the story, its glide and spin, its conceived placement, its romanticism, its mood swings and the characters chosen to sing each and every one of the score's iconic show tunes.
More importantly, its uniquely in its own element and just as magical, moving and powerful as it was when it was first performed and heard on Broadway 65 years ago.
Serving as musical director for "The Music Man" at Seven Angels Theatre, Richard Carsey ("La Cage aux Folles," "The Phanton of the Opera," "Little House on the Prairie: The Musical") takes hold of the Willson score, digs deep and lets it explode in Broadway musical melodic fashion while carefully honing and individualizing its already proven sweetness, sentimentality, light heartedness and shrewd and focused craftiness.
No camp. No goo. No candy floss. No syrup. No sugar. No overkill.
Under his tutelage, every one of songs is recreated, realized and portrayed with a slap, bang, wallop musicality that allows it to flow more clearly, smoothly and easily, thus, resulting in a fruitful collaboration between artist, audience and orchestra in matters of rhythm, harmony and phrasing.
Working alongside an exceptional and tremendously talented orchestral team - Eric Pelletier (reed), Dan Kraszewski (bass), Mark Ryan/Dave Edricks (percussion), Leo Lavallee/Josh Meade (trumpet 1), Justin Schoeneck/Scott Minnerly (trombone) and Phaelon Koski (trumpet 2), Carsey (at the piano) shows off his gift for tender directness, attentive shimmer and expressive vigilance.
Here, everything that happens musically is uncorked with real feeling, promise and range. In turn, important musical numbers including "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Iowa Stubborn," "The Wells Fargo Wagon," "Till There Was You" and "Pick a-Little, Talk-a-Little" reach their intended peak allowing them to pop, stir and resonate in much the same manner and lift as Willson intended when "The Music Man" was first introduced to theatergoers on Broadway back in 1957.
As musical director, Carsey also has great fun with sound and fury of "Rock Island," which opens the two-act musical. Here, spoken word instead of sung melody finds a group of traveling salesman mimicking words and phrases synced to the sound, hiss and movement of a moving train. It's a tough number to pull off, but not here.
As the number evolves, everyone on stage brilliantly - that is, brilliantly - vocalizes, snaps and sizzles - carefully emphasizing consonants, chatter, fast talk and lingo with real and natural entitlement, enthusiasm and gusto. Elsewhere, the four-part harmony song style of the River City School Board finds Carsey in his element producing a barbershop quartet sound that elicits ovation worthy applause whenever these characters take center stage to show off their keen, magnificent musical showmanship.
As with most musicals of this genre, choreography plays a major role in a show's success, its development, its presentation, its evolvement, its entertainment value, its underlying charm, its spirit, its style and finally, its reassuring rip, roar, roll, glide and dash. The implementation of Marissa Follo Perry as choreographer of "The Music Man" is not only an artistic coup for the production itself, but one that is fresh, instinctive, lively, intoxicating and full of detail.
Everywhere you look - crowd scenes, dance duets, solo spotlight turns - Perry's decisive dance strokes give each and every one of the musical numbers an individuality and wonderment that's amazingly colorful, artistic and impressive.
As "The Music Man" inches forward, there's also a wonderful fluidity about her choices - atmospheric, nostalgic, flavorful - that serves the material well. More importantly, her choreographed maneuvers, pairings, partnerships and dance steps are perfectly in sync with the vintage storybook ideology reflective in the sumptuous 1962 film adaptation, the 2000 Broadway staging and the 2022 revival that starred Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.
The decision to use supporting characters in musical numbers that they are not normally a part of (a stroke of genius she shares with Carsey) gives this revival a more grounded, down-home sentiment and ownership that heightens its nostalgic, playful sense of whimsy, nuance and rhythmic flair and uniqueness.
With a strong emphasis on floorwork, synchronization, contrast, athleticism and artistic early 20th century rootedness, "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Shipoopi," "Marian the Librarian" and "Ya Got Trouble" each achieve their intended purpose, drawing everyone on stage and in the audience into the Iowa-honed mentality of the River City populace and Perry's personalized, elan, flutter, power and brilliantly realized artistic finesse.
As traveling salesman Harold Hill, the con man who charms his way into the lives of unsuspecting town folk of River City, Iowa, Moses Jacob is the perfect song-and-dance showman to bring this iconic musical character to life on the Seven Angels Theatre stage.
He's exciting. He's charming. He's personable. He's magnetic. He's polished.
As both actor and singer, he plays the part of Hill with plenty of dash, poise and magnetism, but takes us down a very different path than the one created by Robert Preston, Craig Bierko and Hugh Jackman.
No copycatting here.
Instead, Jacob puts his own personal stamp on the character, which, in turn, works especially well in this revival. The character is still slippery, calculating and brazen. Not to mention risk taking and womanizing. But at the same time, Jacob's portrayal allows Hill to grow, mature and finally see the error of his ways. He also projects a strong sense of style, purpose and center stage showmanship that befits the story and his role in it. There's also great command in his vocal interpretations of the rousing and showstopping "Ya Got Trouble" and "Seventy-Six Trombones."
Marcia Maslo, in the role of Marian Paroo, the bewitching town librarian and at-home piano teacher who suspects Hill of being a genuine and complete fraud, brings a strongness and a refreshing feminine lilt to the part which heightens not only her presence in the story but makes her eventual romance with the town's newcomer - the fast-talking music man who calls himself Harold Hill - more interesting and palpable.
Vocally, her rich, lilting soprano voice is used to full effect in "Goodnight My Someone," "My White Knight" and the showstopping "Till There Was You." Like Shirley Jones and Sutton Foster who also played the part of Marian Paroo, she also she finds the intended meaning behind every lyric she sings and lets it carry her away most engagingly.
A consummate actress, singer, entertainer and performer with dozens and dozens of stage musicals to her credit including "Mame," "Hello, Dolly!" "Bye, Bye Birdie," "Into the Woods" and Gypsy," Joyce Follo Jeffrey offers yet another deeply moving star turn, laced with punch, reserve, humor, color, detail and beautifully layered thought and fragility, which, makes her the ideal choice to bring the role of Mrs. Paroo, Marian's mother, to life on the Seven Angels Theatre stage.
She's polished. She's professional. She's gifted. She's mesmerizing. She's driven. She's captivating.
It's a natural, admirable performance - expressive, determined, protective and all in good fun that blossoms beautifully right through to musical's final curtain calls and bows.
In the roles of Eulalie MacKechnie Shinn and Major Shinn, Sheree Marcucci and Joe Stofko fill the shoes of these iconic musical characters with the humor, laughter and string envisioned by Willson when he first created them for the original 1957 Broadway production. Both offer full-blown comic performances that make their every onstage moment count and shine, playfully mixed with unabashed nuttiness, decorum and giddy gaffe and caricature.
Jimmy Donahue who amuses as Marcellus Washburn, a longtime friend of Harold Hill, directs "The Music Man" with a proud, gosh-oh-gee sentiment and zest that keeps the two-act musical spinning and twirling through the songs, the conversations, the dances, the performances and the very happy ending.
Light, fluffy, colorful and heartfelt, "The Music Man" is everything you'd expect it to be and so music more. It tilts. It sways. It hops. It jumps. It sings. It swells. It excites. It intrigues.
This revival - one of the best productions of the 2023 theater season - is an uplifting musical entertainment of incredible energy, frivolity, sweetness, sentiment and living, breathing nostalgia. The songs are lively, spirited and character driven. The dancing is vintage, home spun spectacular. The performances are fresh, vibrant and full-bodied. The book, written by "Music Man" creator Meredith Willson is rich, flavorful, involving and fancy free. And the show itself not only conjures up fond memories of the 1962 film adaptation that starred Robert Preston and Shirley Jones but creates a tapestry of good cheer, merriment and foot-stomping euphoria, so memorable, when you leave the theater, it's almost as if you're walking on air.
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