'Music Man' earns thumbs up

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Nov 17, 2003 by Chuck Berg Capital-Journal

REVIEW

By Chuck Berg

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

One of the most produced Broadway warhorses is Meredith Willson's "The Music Man," which first showed on Dec. 19, 1957, when it dazzled first-nighters at New York City's Majestic Theatre.

In spite of its corn and nostalgia, Willson's paean to his Iowa boyhood proved a hit with 1950s' audiences.

In times of turmoil, it's "the good old days" that often provide greatest comfort. In 1962, a huge audience, reeling from the Cuban missile crisis, found a reaffirmation of traditional American values in Hollywood's adaptation.

So, what are we to make of "The Music Man" in 2003? On Saturday night at Lawrence's Lied Center, a sparkling road show treatment of Willson's enduring musical drama earned a big thumbs-up.

Perhaps it's redux 1957, with contemporary audiences looking for relief from the daily litany of bad news concerning Iraq, government gridlock, corporate scandal and an economy whose principal benefits are directed to the already affluent.

On Saturday, the audience was also in thrall of a first-rate cast whose peppy singing and dancing re-animated Willson's thoroughly rose- colored world, where even a scoundrel, the self-proclaimed "Professor" Harold Hill, is redeemed by, of all cornball things, love!

In the Broadway original and film, it was Robert Preston who breathed life into Willson's loquacious city-slicker. On Saturday, it was Chris Crouch, who although taller and thinner than his predecessor, made the spell-binding, fast-talker his own.

Brash and supremely confident while willfully cheating the locals, Crouch was equally effective in conveying Hill's moral transformation.

The rest of the cast was as strong as the leads, singing with gusto and musicality, and dancing as if fitted with wings by Jerome Robbins.

The technical side, including the sound system, was first-rate.

The sets, lighting and costumes were likewise evocative, suggesting minimalistic renderings of small town America, a la Norman Rockwell.

And yet lurking just beyond the rosy glow was the shadow of Willie Loman, Arthur Miller's tragic salesman.

The surprisingly dark and enriching subtext, one presumes, stems from this "Music Man" having been based on the heralded Broadway revival of 2000, directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winning Susan Stroman.

While recalling Loman, the Sloman-inflected Howard Hill also resembles Sinclair Lewis's "Elmer Gantry." Indeed, all three "traveling men" are frauds, salesmen with nothing more to sell than hot air. And yet they have charisma and soft spots for the human condition.

In "Music Man," Willson takes pity on his fallen angel, redeeming him through the love of a good woman. He also gives us some of Broadway's most memorable show tunes including "Goodnight, My Someone," "Gary, Indiana," and, of course, "Seventy Six Trombones."

Chuck Berg is a professor at The University of Kansas.. He can be reached at cberg@ku.edu.