Music Man ending (spoiler maybe?)

[LesMiz24601]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 5:15pm

Just got back from Music Man at arena stage. Thought it was pretty good-enjoyed the performances.

I was however somewhat shocked when it just "ended."

Spoilers guess-
After the "band" walks into the gym, and butchers the minuet in G, the proud parents embraced their kids, as well as Marion and Hill. Then blackout??

Having seen the revival, a regional production, and the two movies- I remembered the most heartwarming moment being the reprise/parade of 76 trombones, as a sort of epilogue. Was that written for the movie, or in the original production. Am I missing something?

[gabrieljwickedone]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 5:24pm

I've done the show and I'm currently in another production of it. The libretto ends the way that you describe the Arena Stage Production ends.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 5:46pm

Hell, we did the show in high school, back when there were still footlights (not really). Yes, the show ends with the parents happily embracing their kids and Marion rushing into Harold's arms.

I've always hated the ending of the movie (and the ending of the Dick Van Dyke revival where Winthrop suddenly turned into Winton Marsalis). The point of the play is that faith matters, not that one can magically become a virtuoso (or Hill can become a conductor) without hard work.

Yes, the kids "think" their way to something vaguely reminiscent of the Minuet in G, but they can't actually play it. What matters is that they and the entire town has been changed since Hill came to town. The boys band should sound like crap. What is moving is that the people of River City think they sound great (not because said people are stupid, but because they, too, want to believe).

[LesMiz24601]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 5:57pm

Yes, the kids "think" their way to something vaguely reminiscent of the Minuet in G, but they can't actually play it. What matters is that they and the entire town has been changed since Hill came to town. The boys band should sound like crap. What is moving is that the people of River City think they sound great (not because said people are stupid, but because they, too, want to believe).

I completely agree with you on that! However I still think the parade led by Hill was fun, and showed that they were able to form the band (in a traditional sense). The revival was one of the first shows I saw on Broadway, and I still remember the ending being rousing.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 6:03pm

Marion and Hill being together should be a moment of focus at the end. It's the button to the end.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 6:16pm

^^^Amen, Dramamama! IIRC, don't we hear "My White Knight" in the final swell of the orchestra?

I've seen high school productions where they actually bring in the school's marching band to play "76 Trombones" and, to me, it's always a case of stabbing the show in the heart for the sake of a gimmick. Even though of course the marching band always gets a standing ovation.



Updated On: 7/10/12 at 06:16 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 6:51pm

If there's a way to do it like the film where you see the "romanticized" band in their own eyes, starting with Zanita staring at Tommy as his uniform changes into a fancy one, then hers, then the others, and suddenly you have what they picture the band to be like, rather than what they really are.

I love the ending to the movie, but if any of those boys actually played the instruments really well before their uniforms changed for the fantasy sequence (and they added several hundred members), it would defeat the point.

At the end of a stage production, if you're going to use a real (and good) marching band, they should be dressed differently and lit differently. A lot can be done with theatrical lighting to suggest to the audience that we're in "fantasy mode."

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 8:45pm

Good point about the film, Best12. You're right that it's clearly fantasy and I should take it as such.

I just find the final scene so genuinely moving, that anything else seems anti-climatic. (But of course in the film, they had to do something while the credits ran.)

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 9:09pm

The night I was there, a high school band entered from the rear of the house at the end.

[ThatShortBlondeChick]

Posted: 7/10/12 at 9:56pm

When I saw The Music Man in Stratford a few years ago they did have the boy's band come out on stage at the end and play during the curtain call (it was odviously a different group of kids that were playing though) and they did change the lighting like what Best12 said.

I think it really ties the whole performance together and gives it a fun, light-hearted ending.