THE STORY

When The Music Man opened at the Majestic in New York City, December 19, 1957, New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson said that, “If Mark Twain could have collaborated with Vachel Lindsay, they might have devised a rhythmic lark like The Music Man, which is as American as apple pie and a Fourth of July oration."

Fast-talking hustler, Harold Hill, becomes “Professor” Harold Hill when he takes on River City, Iowa in the summer of 1912, convincing the citizenry that the new pool table will send their children into trouble and degration. His solution: a band with instruments and uniforms that he will sell them. He plans to bilk them of their money and leave town quickly. 

Although she sees through him, the town librarian, Marian Paroo, slowly falls for Hill’s attentions. She comes to see him as “her someone” and knows for sure that he has inspired confidence and self-assurance in her shy young brother Winthrop. 

Reviewing a 2008 revival of The Music Man at the Chichester (UK) Festival, Michael Billington wrote in the Guardian that this show “survives because, apart from a flawless score, it combines optimistic illusion with the ring of authenticity.”