Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT
through June 20, 2019
by Michael J. Moran
Musical theatre doesn’t get more classic than this 1957
Tony-winning “Best Musical” love letter by composer, lyricist, and book writer
Meredith Willson to his roots in 1912 small-town Iowa. So, as Jenn Thompson,
director of this exhilarating revival, notes, “It seems impossible that
Goodspeed [America’s favorite musical stage] has never produced The Music Man
before now.”
With a “Golden Age” score that melds jazz (“Rock Island”),
barbershop quartet harmony (“Lida Rose”), and hit parade standards
(“Seventy-Six Trombones,” “Till There Was You”), this is exactly the kind of
show that nobody does better than Goodspeed. So it’s no surprise that an
outstanding 28-member cast and production team bring Franklin Lacey’s story of
a huckster boys band salesman gone right to rollicking life in its belated
debut on this historic stage.
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| Photo by Diane Sobolewski |
Created by Robert Preston (and to be recreated by Hugh
Jackman on Broadway in 2020), no better choice could have been made for the
title role than Edward Watts, previously seen at Goodspeed in Thoroughly Modern
Millie and 1776. His ringing tenor voice, unctuous charm, and magnetic stage
presence command the attention of Iowa’s “River Citizens” from his opening
number, “Ya Got Trouble.”
Watts is well matched by co-star Ellie Fishman, featured in
Goodpseed’s Rags, as spinster town librarian and music teacher Marian Paroo.
Fishman’s crystalline soprano and serio-comic acting skills memorably convey
Marian’s quirky path from suspicion to love.
In supporting roles, D. C. Anderson is a hoot as the
word-mangling River City Mayor Shinn, and Stephanie Pope is inspired zaniness
personified as his wife Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn. Amelia White relishes the wry
humor of Marian’s mother, Mrs. Paroo, and Alexander O’Brien is touching as
Marian’s younger brother, Winthrop. Barbershop quartet members Branch Woodman,
C. Mingo Long, Jeff Gurner, and Kent Overshown steal the show whenever they appear.
As in Hamilton, and so many plays and musicals produced in
the last decade, the director has chosen diverse casting for this production.
Goodspeed’s limited stage, through imaginative use of the theatre’s aisles,
fits comfortably into the 21st century. Hilarious (“Pick-a-Little,
Talk-a-Little,” “Shipoopi”) or exuberant (“Marian the Librarian”) choreography
by Patricia Wilcox, period-perfect scenic design by Paul Tate dePoo III,
elaborate costumes by David Toser, and pitch-perfect music direction by Michael
O’Flaherty further distinguish this not-to-be-missed Music Man.
