Last night I went to a show, live stage production that is. The show has already been mentioned in one of the other Tangent blogs, but I have a little different take on the whole thing. I happen to like “The Music Man”. I liked the movie version, and I’ve liked most of the stage productions I’ve seen. There have only been a couple, but that is because they tried doing too much with too little. You need to have a large cast for this, including children. While you don’t need a whole town, you do need enough on stage to let the audience believe there is a whole town.
It is a light hearted musical to be sure, most late 1950’s to early 1960’s American musicals were light hearted. It was the mood of the country.
I’m not sure why I enjoy this show so much. Could it be I remember my father singing 76 Trombones when I was younger? Could it be that I enjoyed teasing my sister about her only career choice (Marian the Librarian)? Did I have a subliminal desire to be in a boys’ band?– Nah.. I really don’t know. Maybe it is because they didn’t play this on the TV as often as they did “The Sound of Music”? It could also be that since I am a big Beatles fan, having hear “Till there was you” in “The Music Man” just made the show more interesting.
Anyway to this day, I enjoy a well performed version of “The Music Man”, and Saturday’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen live. Believable actors, good chemistry, nice set design made this show flow. I’ll point you to the other blog for a more in depth review, I don’t need to waste my words, when something is already written. The only thing I disagree on is I like the show, he doesn’t. I would like to add that I really enjoyed the young actress who played Marian. It could be some hometown bias here, but I really enjoy watching her on stage.
This was my first time seeing the Music Man at all, and I didn’t really get the show. I really enjoyed the huge song and dance numbers though, and I think all involved did a wonderful job. I would have enjoyed the show much more had the seats not been so uncomfortable! Marian the Librarian had a lovely voice.