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‘The Music Man’ at Porthouse hits all the right notes
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Reviewed by: Fran Heller Contributing Writer
Everyone leaves smiling.
The bubbly production of “The Music Man” at Porthouse Theatre gives you plenty to smile about.
Terri Kent’s breezy direction, the inspired choreography of John R. Crawford, and an energetic ensemble with top-notch leads result in a summer evening of great entertainment for the entire family. It runs through August 10.
A nostalgic throwback to small-town America in 1912, Meredith Willson’s 1957 smash hit remains a classic in the musical canon.
“The Music Man” was Willson’s first Broadway musical and his best. Created over a period of eight years (1949-57) with endless rewrites, the show became the hit of the decade, eclipsing the grittier, darker “West Side Story” for the Tonys, including Best Musical. Then, as now, faced with a war and the threat of nuclear attack, Americans opted for an escape valve, and Willson’s sunny-side-up musical comedy provided it.
The plot revolves around “Professor” Harold Hill, a traveling salesman and con man who sells boys band instruments. As the charismatic charlatan hoodwinks the townsfolk while fleecing their pockets, the local librarian remains skeptical. That is, until she, too, falls under his spell.
Hill may sell bogus boy’s bands, from instruments to uniforms, but what he also hawks is hope.
Story and song are perfectly integrated. One reason for such cohesiveness is that the same person wrote the book, music and lyrics, a rarity in musical theater, where collaboration is the norm. Willson also wrote about what he knew, and the musical hews closely to his small-town Iowa boyhood, where his mother was the piano teacher, like Marian Paroo in the musical.
The jokes are corny, and the storyline, saccharine.
So what is it about “The Music Man” that endures? It’s Willson’s brilliant score, with virtually every song a winner n a smorgasbord of musical styles of which many were a first for the Broadway stage. His revolutionary lyrical approach rivals those of another musical visionary, Stephen Sondheim.
Consider the brilliant opening number, “Rock Island,” sung a cappella, in which a group of traveling salesmen mimic the sound of a choo-choo train.
In “Pick a Little, Talk a Little,” the town gossips natter like a gaggle of hens, and the mother-daughter argument in “Piano Lesson” goes up and down the piano scale.
For the attentive listener, the show is as much a verbal treat as a melodic one. Melissa Fucci’s peppy musical direction is amply rewarding.
Nolan O’Dell’s storybook setting of Main Street, River City, Iowa, cleverly serves as the backdrop for the story’s numerous locations. The seamless metamorphosis from town center to the two-story library interior is especially eye-catching.
Comely Kayce Cummings is lovely to look at and delightful to listen to as the aloof librarian Marian Paroo. Cummings sings like a lark in the love ballad “Till There Was You,” in which she recognizes that Harold Hill has awakened her to life and love. T.C. Kouyeas Jr.’s starlit sky sets the romantic mood.
As Harold Hill, Eric van Baars proves an irrepressible music man. Fleet of foot and with a well-articulated vocal range, van Baars struts his stuff in such gems as the revivalist number “Ya Got Trouble” and in the musical’s most popular hit, the march-like “Seventy-six Trombones. ”
Susan Murphy is Mrs. Paroo, Marion’s feisty and practical-minded Irish mother, who lovingly warns her uppity daughter that reading Chaucer and Balzac is no way to catch a man. Aidan Patrick Wilson is a bundle of personality as the lisping young Winthrop Paroo, who is transformed from moody introvert to chatty cornet player.
Barbershop quartet songsters Douglas Bailey, Nate Cross, Gunther Henkel-Moellmann and Bryan Kelly sweetly harmonize in “Lida Rose” and “Goodnight Ladies.”
The town biddies are led by the mayor’s imperious wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn (a droll performance by Sara Hubacher). Rohn Thomas elicits a chuckle or two as the henpecked husband Shinn, whose speech is littered with malapropisms.
Kaitlyn Black sparkles as the mayor’s daughter Zaneeta, who hankers after the town’s bad boy, Tommy Djilas (Brandon Arnold). As dancing partners, these two rising talents can sure cut a rug.
The excellent Timothy M.R. Culver as Marcellus Washburn, Hill’s erstwhile scam partner, is quite the hoofer. A terrific character actor, Culver reveals his rich tenor in leading the show’s most dazzling song and dance number, “Shipoopi,” a choreographic highlight.
The 33-member ensemble sings, acts and dances as one, a reflection of director Kent’s vision, passion and discipline. These young musical actors seem to be having a heap of fun on stage, and their spontaneity spreads through the amphitheater.
Judith Pickard Cronk’s costumes deserve top billing, all 600 of them! From spats and straw hats for the gents, to long skirts and peplums for the ladies, and of course, the boys’ band uniforms rendered in patriotic red and white, Cronk’s mouth-watering palette never ceases to amaze. Kudos to the unnamed, unseen dressers who pull off lightning-quick changes without a hitch.
The story may be hokey and hopelessly old-fashioned, but the music remains immortal.
WHAT: “The Music Man”
WHERE: Porthouse Theatre on the grounds of Blossom Music Center; 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls
WHEN: Through Aug. 10
TICKETS & INFO: 330-672-3884, 330-627-2497 or www.porthouse
theatre.com
Everyone leaves smiling.
The bubbly production of “The Music Man” at Porthouse Theatre gives you plenty to smile about.
Terri Kent’s breezy direction, the inspired choreography of John R. Crawford, and an energetic ensemble with top-notch leads result in a summer evening of great entertainment for the entire family. It runs through August 10.
A nostalgic throwback to small-town America in 1912, Meredith Willson’s 1957 smash hit remains a classic in the musical canon.
“The Music Man” was Willson’s first Broadway musical and his best. Created over a period of eight years (1949-57) with endless rewrites, the show became the hit of the decade, eclipsing the grittier, darker “West Side Story” for the Tonys, including Best Musical. Then, as now, faced with a war and the threat of nuclear attack, Americans opted for an escape valve, and Willson’s sunny-side-up musical comedy provided it.
The plot revolves around “Professor” Harold Hill, a traveling salesman and con man who sells boys band instruments. As the charismatic charlatan hoodwinks the townsfolk while fleecing their pockets, the local librarian remains skeptical. That is, until she, too, falls under his spell.
Hill may sell bogus boy’s bands, from instruments to uniforms, but what he also hawks is hope.
Story and song are perfectly integrated. One reason for such cohesiveness is that the same person wrote the book, music and lyrics, a rarity in musical theater, where collaboration is the norm. Willson also wrote about what he knew, and the musical hews closely to his small-town Iowa boyhood, where his mother was the piano teacher, like Marian Paroo in the musical.
The jokes are corny, and the storyline, saccharine.
So what is it about “The Music Man” that endures? It’s Willson’s brilliant score, with virtually every song a winner n a smorgasbord of musical styles of which many were a first for the Broadway stage. His revolutionary lyrical approach rivals those of another musical visionary, Stephen Sondheim.
Consider the brilliant opening number, “Rock Island,” sung a cappella, in which a group of traveling salesmen mimic the sound of a choo-choo train.
In “Pick a Little, Talk a Little,” the town gossips natter like a gaggle of hens, and the mother-daughter argument in “Piano Lesson” goes up and down the piano scale.
For the attentive listener, the show is as much a verbal treat as a melodic one. Melissa Fucci’s peppy musical direction is amply rewarding.
Nolan O’Dell’s storybook setting of Main Street, River City, Iowa, cleverly serves as the backdrop for the story’s numerous locations. The seamless metamorphosis from town center to the two-story library interior is especially eye-catching.
Comely Kayce Cummings is lovely to look at and delightful to listen to as the aloof librarian Marian Paroo. Cummings sings like a lark in the love ballad “Till There Was You,” in which she recognizes that Harold Hill has awakened her to life and love. T.C. Kouyeas Jr.’s starlit sky sets the romantic mood.
As Harold Hill, Eric van Baars proves an irrepressible music man. Fleet of foot and with a well-articulated vocal range, van Baars struts his stuff in such gems as the revivalist number “Ya Got Trouble” and in the musical’s most popular hit, the march-like “Seventy-six Trombones. ”
Susan Murphy is Mrs. Paroo, Marion’s feisty and practical-minded Irish mother, who lovingly warns her uppity daughter that reading Chaucer and Balzac is no way to catch a man. Aidan Patrick Wilson is a bundle of personality as the lisping young Winthrop Paroo, who is transformed from moody introvert to chatty cornet player.
Barbershop quartet songsters Douglas Bailey, Nate Cross, Gunther Henkel-Moellmann and Bryan Kelly sweetly harmonize in “Lida Rose” and “Goodnight Ladies.”
The town biddies are led by the mayor’s imperious wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn (a droll performance by Sara Hubacher). Rohn Thomas elicits a chuckle or two as the henpecked husband Shinn, whose speech is littered with malapropisms.
Kaitlyn Black sparkles as the mayor’s daughter Zaneeta, who hankers after the town’s bad boy, Tommy Djilas (Brandon Arnold). As dancing partners, these two rising talents can sure cut a rug.
The excellent Timothy M.R. Culver as Marcellus Washburn, Hill’s erstwhile scam partner, is quite the hoofer. A terrific character actor, Culver reveals his rich tenor in leading the show’s most dazzling song and dance number, “Shipoopi,” a choreographic highlight.
The 33-member ensemble sings, acts and dances as one, a reflection of director Kent’s vision, passion and discipline. These young musical actors seem to be having a heap of fun on stage, and their spontaneity spreads through the amphitheater.
Judith Pickard Cronk’s costumes deserve top billing, all 600 of them! From spats and straw hats for the gents, to long skirts and peplums for the ladies, and of course, the boys’ band uniforms rendered in patriotic red and white, Cronk’s mouth-watering palette never ceases to amaze. Kudos to the unnamed, unseen dressers who pull off lightning-quick changes without a hitch.
The story may be hokey and hopelessly old-fashioned, but the music remains immortal.
WHAT: “The Music Man”
WHERE: Porthouse Theatre on the grounds of Blossom Music Center; 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls
WHEN: Through Aug. 10
TICKETS & INFO: 330-672-3884, 330-627-2497 or www.porthouse
theatre.com
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