Would THE MUSIC MAN work on Broadway again?- Page 2

[magruder]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 7:29am

There is nothing dated about The Music Man. Old does not necessarily mean dated. Written in 1957 and set in 1912, it was always a cannily written period piece, so the references in "Rock Island" were always meant to sound quaint and archaic (even though Uneeda Biscuit is still around). Moreover, for a supposedly old-fashioned show, the score is remarkably brash and fresh, filled with those unusual syncopated numbers for Harold, like "Ya Got Trouble," "Sadder But Wiser Girl," "76 Trombones"... Also, speaking of "Rock Island," what show has as strange and unusual an opening number? For a show about music conquering a town, Meredith Willson finds music everywhere, from the organic way Amaryllis' cross-hand piano exercise becomes "Goodnight My Someone", to the school board being a natural barbershop quartet, to the way Harold and Marian are meant to be together because they share the same melody ("Goodnight My Someone" and "76 Trombones"). It's a smart entertainment that holds up beautifully, and I would expect to see it back on Broadway again when enough time has transpired after the most recent revival.

Updated On: 6/10/05 at 07:29 AM

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 8:35am

I agree, I don't see anything dated in The Music Man. It's a period piece - but still manages to touch and win over an audience.
Now "West Side Story" while a great musical, has a very dated book.

[mikewood]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 8:43am

I actually rather enjoyed the revival on Broadway a few years ago, and considered it to be a success. I saw it three times, but I thought the post Craig Bierko future was dismal....my third time was with Eric McCormick (sp?), and the show was a pale shadow. You need to channel Robert Preston as Craig Bierko did, and Will came up very short. I don't think Harold Hill is one of those parts that lend itself very well to individualized interpretation, one of the reasons Matthew Broderick's Hill was so "universally" reviled...at least by me.

[mikewood]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 8:47am

As for the "dated" issue, well yes, it is dated. It was a product of its time. Heck, it was a show about a traveling saleman selling "boys band" equipment. These days you say the words "boys band" people thing N'SYNC or Backstreet. guh!

But the dated nature is part of its charm I believe. Certain shows can't be updated, but I guess that could be a whole other thread....! hmmmmmmm.

[mikewood]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 8:50am

Again, I'm not asking if this would work on Broadway NOW. I'm asking if it could EVER have a healthy run again. >>>

Yes, if healthy run can be considered a single season.

[MissMommy]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 8:59am

Was just watching the special material on the DVD with my 11-year-old daughter (who aspires to play Harold Hill in her summer camp production, God love her!), and they said the studio wanted Sinatra (at the height of his movie stardom) for Harold Hill, but Meredith W. said "No Preston, no movie". Wish they'd been able to do the same for Harvey and Hairspray.

Anyhoo I think what it would take to sell a new Music Man is a new Robert Preston. Not someone channeling the genius. Not someone taking it in a whole new direction. But someone as unique, dynamic, twinkling, grounded, riveting, and pounding with energy in his own way as The Man was in his way. It's like asking for a new Ethel Merman, I know. But it would sure sell it for me.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 9:53am

exactly Mikewood, and that's what i also meant by dated......

it's dated folks deal with it.

[RockyRoad]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 9:59am

I don't understand the need to update everything! Music Man is set in a real-life period. People go see Shakespear, Ibsen and greek plays without crying that it needs to be updated.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 10:04am

I don't think it needs to be updated, that would ruin it's charm.......and I didn't mean I wanted a 2005 version with the setting to be in modern times.

[magruder]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 10:26am

Something that is "dated" is regarded as so out-of-sync that it has become obsolete or inappropriate for our time. The Music Man, as I wrote above, was written in 1957 as a period piece set in 1912. If it seems old-fashioned, it was knowingly written that way. There weren't traveling salesman selling boy bands around the country in 1957 either. (Even in 1949's Death of a Salesman, the traveling salesman is going the way of the dinosaur.) Beyond the show's quaint surface, the show features a town full of neurotics that can't stand each other dealing with a subversive outsider who turns the town upside down. That score is also jittery and percussive and incredibly unusual. Yes, the show is 48 years old, but dated? Not in the least. If you want to see dated, head straight to Sweet Charity.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 11:35am

You can't update a show like that. The writing just doesn't lend itself to that.

And I think a show being dated doesn't necessarily have anything to do with its time period, but what characters and themes can appeal to a modern audience as well as the references that it makes. I think Music Man will appeal less and less as time goes on.

Most likely, they'll revive it on Broadway again in like 30 years anyway, but it probably won't do well. Nostalgia can only hold on for so long...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 11:37am

My two cents. I'm doing a production of this show as we speak, and it still works like gang busters. The premise is irresistable, and despite it's corn, the score is completely infectious, and when you have a solid cast, the show can be in turn hilarious, exhilirating and even moving. It's a stoic audience member who doesn't respond to that finale.

That said, the academic in me will go on a limb and say that I think the show is, indeed, dated. At least dated in terms of the intent behind the original production. The show was written to appeal to the parents of the baby boomer generation (indeed the original Winthrop and Amaryllis would have been baby boomers themselves). I think the show was written to be nostalgic of a period of Americana, that in 1959, was still fondly remembered -- either first hand, or from stories on Grandma's lap.

So many references in the show are completely obsolete today, that an audience would have to have a mini dictionary to get all the jokes in the script.

Does that mean the show no longer works? Of course not. How dated is something like WEST SIDE STORY? SOUTH PACIFIC? HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS? A CHORUS LINE?

But all these shows still work, and I think credit is ultimately due to the writing team. All these shows, including THE MUSIC MAN, are so solidly constructed, I think audiences will continue to embrace them long after their "timliness" has worn off.
Updated On: 6/10/05 at 11:37 AM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/10/05 at 12:20pm

It will eventually come back. It's one of the most perfectly constructed shows ever written.