Arena Stage "Music Man"-set in the 1930's...

[matineeidol2013]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 5:23pm

http://www.playbill.com/multimedia/gallery/3964/Kate-Baldwin-and-Burke-Moses-Star-in-Arena-Stages-Music-Man/?pnum=1

Can't quite say I understand that choice....

My my does this production look underwhelming.

Updated On: 5/22/12 at 05:23 PM

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 5:37pm

I bet they said it would "raise the stakes" if they were economically depressed. Being fooled out of their money would make them angrier. pfft

[jv92]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 5:44pm

The whole point of MUSIC MAN is that it's a valentine to 1912-era America! Call me a purist, but this is a stupid idea.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 6:35pm

Maybe they'll do "Grease" next, and set it in the '80s!

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 6:36pm

Is someone going to write to the Times a la Sondheim/Porgy and Bess??

[Kalimba]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 7:42pm

Oh it's just Mollie Smith being "artistic and creative". Try lambasting one of her productions on ATC and one of her board members will quickly jump down your throat.

[binau]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 7:44pm

Porgy and Bess actually changed the writing etc.., I think there is a difference.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:08pm

Weren't Wells Fargo wagons essentially a thing of the past by the 1930's?

[E.Davis]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:12pm

I thought the costumes looked a little off.....

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:24pm

^Same…And I’d say it’s maybe the 50’s! look at them socks and skirts

But, Donna Migliaccio can do no wrong in my book.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:27pm

I have tickets for Thursday night. I'll let you know how it is.

[matineeidol2013]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:29pm

very curious to hear dottie!

[RainbowJude]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:36pm

There's nothing like that moment when uninspired directorial choices and bad design choices come together. This production of THE MUSIC MAN may play differently, but as represented here it looks like an amateurish community theatre production that's ported in a professional leading lady to raise the bar. I can't remember the last time I saw a set of photos of a professional production that did such little service to the marketing of the show. But then again, it really looks like there is little that could have been done to improve things in that regard.

[keb2]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:37pm

Ironic that it's set in the Great Depression, since tickets are above $100, and the student discount hardly helps... I'd love to see it, but I can't justify spending that much money for two tickets!

(says a girl who subsists on student rush/lotto tickets, and occasionally splurges on a show she knows she'll love—usually because she's seen it before)

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 5/22/12 at 11:40pm

Arena Stage offers last minute "hot tix" at a reduced price (can't remember how much). I think they release them 30 minutes before curtain. I've done that a couple of times, though the more popular the show, the fewer of those tickets are available.

[lida rose]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 12:18am

it's a very solid production. not as good as oklahoma! last year, but the in-the-round staging and intimacy of the theater, as well as the strength of the performances, make up for the sparse production design & questionable directorial choices (which didn't bother me at all while i was watching it). kate baldwin's marian is definitely the highlight, her voice sounds incredible on those songs.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 1:13am

From page 1 of the libretto:


Dear Director,

"The Music Man" was intended to be a valentine and not a caricature. Please do not let the actors - particularly Zaneeta, Mayor Shinn and Mrs. Shinn, who takes herself quite seriously - mug or reach for comedy effect. The Del Sarte ladies also should be natural and sincere, never raucous, shrewish or comic per se.

The humor of this piece depends upon its technical faithfulness to the real small-town Iowans of 1912 who certainly did not think they were funny at all.

Faithfully,
Meredith Willson

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 6:28am

Thank you, Mr. Wilson.

[Patash]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:04am

What a wonderful idea. Take a really big fun costume musical and set it in a period with dull and colorless costumes. WTF?

[GetUp&LiveIt]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:14am

Saw it the other evening. Molly Smith should be shot. Kate Baldwin as expected is gorgeous. The rest is a train wreck. Waste of money.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:20am

A concept not grounded in any historical reality. Nothing about the musical style(s) suggests the Depression, and the look in the clips indicate a purposeful dreariness. To what end? I'm sure the idea is to show a con-man brightening their downtrodden lives, but the strain in sustaining that conceit, with all of the references to 1912 Americana, must be bizarre.

What the hell does happen with the Wells Fargo Wagon? And Marian wearing slacks int he library -- oooh, how provocative. If the concept really works, I look forward to hearing how and why.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:24am

So so me, I think it looks kind of interesting.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:34am

Take good, old-fashioned, pre-World War One American ideology and innocence and shift them into a post-war Depression era Midwest that never existed even in Grandma's rose-colored memories.

Pointless.

The show was constructed as a valentine to a specific time period. So naturally, someone wants to remove it.

"Grease!" the '90s Musical!

"Little Women" set in the 1970s.

It sounds like academic theatre presented for some director's project at a university. Good luck with that.

"Theatre for the Historically Impaired"

[Kalimba]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:38am

Wow, for once the people over at ATC are on the same page as us on this one. Like I predicted, the board member from Arena posted that it's, "another lovely Molly Smith directed show". How can one possibly be objective when they're on the board?

To me it comes off more like, "oops, we don't have enough money in the costume budget, we're going to have to come up with a cheaper concept."

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/23/12 at 9:44am

Maybe they should set it in 2012 Iowa and just buy off the rack at Walmart.