'Music Man' is coming

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 21, 2003 by Ivan M. LincolnDeseret News theater editor

The performers on stage may represent River City, Iowa, in the early 1900s, but there'll be a few Utah connections when Meredith Willson's 1957 hit "The Music Man" rolls into the Capitol Theatre Tuesday.

The actor playing sweet-talking con man Professor Harold Hill is Gerritt VanderMeer, who had a featured role in an award-winning short film screened two years ago at the Sundance Film Festival.

Backstage, three Utah County thespians -- company manager Adrian Riggs Young and her husband, T.J. Young, the assistant director and "swing" artist -- fill in whenever another cast member drops out, and

Adrian's sister, Katharine Riggs, is production stage manager.

And Mark Light-Orr, who plays anvil salesman Charlie Cowell (the guy who attempts to thwart Hill's shenanigans), played for two seasons with the Utah Shakespearean Festival.

-- GERRITT VANDERMEER says this touring version of the recent Broadway revival "is aided by the fact that the casting is much younger. There's not so much pressure to 're-create' the Robert Preston version. The movie was great, but for a modern audience, the pacing makes it look dated. This production moves much more quickly."

The younger cast also puts a fresh spin on the romance between peddler Harold Hill and librarian Marian Paroo. In the 1962 movie, Preston and Shirley Jones looked more like a May-December romance. VanderMeer and Carolann Sanita, who plays Marian, are closer in age.

"The material is really strong," VanderMeer said during a telephone interview from Houston, adding that his own background is mostly in classical theater. "Musical theater is a new endeavor for me."

However, he said he did some singing when he was growing up in Indiana and was a member of the Perdue University Varsity Glee Club - - "probably my favorite thing in college."

"I wasn't the greatest engineering student in the world and decided that maybe I should try something else. I finished my degree by a hair, then a beginning-acting professor got me into UCLA's acting school."

As for life on the road, VanderMeer said, "Living out of a suitcase is a big adjustment, and it's probably not my favorite lifestyle, but you can't beat the opportunity to do this kind of work."

While attending UCLA, VanderMeer became involved with a film that was showcased during the 2000 Sundance Film Festival -- Jennifer Arnold's acclaimed short, "Maid of Honor." "I played the hapless groom," he said.

-- TWO UTAH COUNTY natives traveling with the show, T.J. and Adrian Young, are accustomed to living out of suitcases. This is T.J.'s fourth tour and Adrian's third.

Adrian comes from a family with "theatrical blood," she said. Her mother is director Syd Riggs, who's helmed shows throughout the Wasatch Front. "It's her fault I'm in theater."

During a telephone interview from Houston, T.J. and Adrian took turns answering questions.

T.J. and Adrian met when both were in Brigham Young University's Young Ambassadors ensemble.

"Really, it was our last year in Young Ambassadors, during the 1998-99 school year," Adrian added. "He was president and I was stage manager." Both agreed it was the perfect preparation for the "touring professional world."

Compared to the BYU touring group, which took them to such far- flung places as North and South Africa, all over Asia, Morocco and (for Adrian) to Vietnam, "this national tour is a piece of cake compared to that."

While T.J. has been a performer, Adrian's expertise is the business side. She was an usher at Sundance Summer Theatre when she was 15, and over the next 11 years she worked as a box-office manager, house manager and stage manager.

T.J. also kept busy at Sundance, performing in seven or eight shows and working at the Sundance Lab with such stars as Sally Field, Christopher Lloyd and Carol Burnett.

Ray Roderick directed the touring edition of "The Music Man," and T.J. was his assistant, continuing to be Roderick's "eyes" on the road -- making sure the company maintains the original intent.

This marks T.J.'s fourth show with New York-based Big League Theatricals. The others include playing the doomed Lun Tha in "The King and I," Chuck in "Footloose" and the dance captain in "Titanic."

During a break between tours, T.J. and Adrian were married in September 2000. Home base is still Orem, and they own a residential lot in Alpine where they'd like to build a home someday. "We're considering doing just one more tour, but we'd like to settle down," Adrian said.

"I don't have 'Broadway' in my blood," added T.J., who plans to pursue a career in medicine. "Something we've noticed on the road, after visiting all kinds of cities and states, is that the best place for us to settle down is right there in Utah. It's a good, family environment."

E-mail: ivan@desnews.com