OSF 2009

Preview: The Music Man (2009)

Written by John November 10, 2008 Hits: 1258

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The Music Man poster Without even hitting preview performances yet, it's safe to say that The Music Man is one of the most adventurous productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in many years. The play, with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Wilson and a story by Wilson and Franklin Lacey, is normally a huge affair with dozens and dozens of extras and a full pit orchestra. Pit orchestra? Mais oui!, for The Music Man is, of course, a musical, which we haven't had a lot of at OSF. Nevertheless, here it is, and under the direction of Artistic Director Bill Rauch no less.

The Play

The play revolved around Professor (warning: contains no professorial substance) Harold Hill, a con artist who goes from small town to small town, selling the people of each on the benefits of a band for the boys of the town - discipline, self-respect, love of music and so on. He takes pre-paid orders for instruments, music, and eventually even uniforms, but then skips town before anyone gets wise to the fact that he's no band director. Thanks to some poo-pooing of the locals by fellow traveling salesmen on a train as they pass through Iowa, he decides to disembark and try his luck. The Iowans are portrayed as being incredibly stubborn, arrogant, and distrustful of outsiders.

Even if you haven't seen it, you know where this is going, right?

Soon enough, Professor (warning: contains no professorial substance) Hill has manufactured a controversy over a pool table leading to a decline in moral values and leveraged that into his sales pitch. The center section of the play concerns itself with Hill ingratiating himself in the town, particularly with a suspicious librarian, Marian Paroo, who seems to see through him. Orders are taken, songs are sung, and suspicions are lowered in some quarters and raised in others until it all comes to a head: Professor (warning: contains no professorial substance) Hill has his money and an escape route, but is conflicted because of his burgeoning love for Marian Paroo, meanwhile conclusive evidence finally reaches the Mayor's hands that Harold Hill is a fraud.

Bill Rauch has an interesting take on the play that runs... well, not counter, but it's different from the usual reading. See the Production section, below, for more on this.

The Cast

Michael Elich Here's why I'm really, really excited about this production. If I had been asked, before I knew anything about the upcoming season, who out of the current Oregon Shakespeare Festival company would make the best Professor (warning: no professorial substance) Harold Hill, I wouldn't have waited a moment before picking Michael Elich. He is exactly the right man for the part, and I'd be surprised if the audition list had been very long; Rex Young, maybe, or Jeffrey King? No matter, Michael Elich it is and I'm very nearly giddy. He absolutely blew the doors off of Petruchio in the most recent The Taming of the Shrew, which seems like the most analogous recent role of his. Seriously, go see this show for him if nothing else.

Gwendolyn Mulamba

Gwendolyn Mulamba anchored last year's Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, both at OSF and when the show moved on to the Kennedy Center. Prior to that she gave a sublime Varya in The Cherry Orchard, and she has an incredibly distinguished career in New York and across the country. I can't say I've got a feel for her in the role of Marian Paroo, but I know it's likely to take someone with her sheer presence to make a compelling pair with Mr. Elich, so good call here, too.

One of the luminaries of the OSF company, Richard Elmore looks to be a rock-solid Mayor Shinn; it's a significant role that requires a deft touch not to devolve into simple foolishness. His 25 seasons at OSF (you heard me) have given him the opportunity to do just about everything, and in my six years he's done all of it well. Oddly enough, one of my favorite things he's done lately was a narration for archy & mehitabel at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.

If Gwendolyn Mulamba is going to anchor Michael Elich, it's a likely bet that Linda Alper's Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn is going to keep Elmore's Mayor Shinn spinning in midair. A lot of the straight-up goofiest lines in the whole show are hers, which is all to the good - I've met Ms. Alper in a play preview and, never mind her acting for a moment, she is herself a true bon vivant.

The Production

We actually know a lot about this production already. In numerous interviews and even an audio track on OSF's website, Bill Rauch makes it clear that he is focused on the theme of community transformation within The Music Man. That's no surprise - Mr. Rauch made his bones with the Cornerstone Theater Company, which he cofounded. Cornerstone for many years didn't have a fixed location; instead, it went into communities that typically had no theater presence within it and recruited members of the community to participate in productions. Exposing these theater novices to the arts, it was hoped (and often happened), would transform the participants and even the community at large. So, a play about a man who comes to town and guides the the citizens to a new outlook on life is going to be right up his alley.

Rauch has described his design concept in specific terms. The townsfolk will begin costumed in blacks and grays, or perhaps sepia tones, and they'll be acting with relatively low affect. Professor (warning: contains no professorial subtance) Harold Hill will start with garish tones in his clothes and manic affectation. As time goes on, each force will act upon the other, drawing towards a stable medium that reveals the essential humanity in all concerned.

Musically there will clearly be a lot of reworking going on; a quick perusal of the artist rundown shows a 7-piece pit, which means there won't be any true marching band sounds unless there are a lot of uncredited extras waiting in the wings. If you saw last year's The Comedy of Errors, expect a similar style of sound (if not a lot of western themes).