Meredith Willson’s The Music Man– Buoyant But…

In an era where a con man gets off easy and/or is celebrated, the old fashioned concept of reformation – and by love! – is soothing. In fact, this entire production is soothing i.e. positive, entertaining, and undemanding. The issue is that it shouldn’t be quite this much.

Decisions about traveling salesman/grifter Harold Hill made by director Jerry Zaks and perhaps star Hugh Jackman make the character less smarmy and, surprising with this actor, less charismatic than the story dictates. (Recently  the same need-to-be-liked marred Bradley Cooper’s Nightmare Alley.) This is not a good guy. We need to believe his awareness of selling snake oil in order for the change of heart to emerge. By the time conversion occurs, Jackman is playing it (capably) as if Hill had been merely mercenary. The audience, however, hasn’t witnessed it.

This is not to say the multi-talented performer doesn’t give us a good show – replete with hat tipping skills – but rather that it could have been better. On the charisma front he lacks snap – in part, a matter of vocal crispness. Here the character knows he can get by on his looks, a trap in casting Jackman rather than a less obviously handsome man. The star seems to agree.

Benjamin Pajak and Marie Mullen

I also find Jackman’s face front performing to the audience disconcerting, especially when he’s meant to be convincing those on stage. Co-star Sutton Foster as Marian the librarian doesn’t make this mistake. When she turns towards us, she’s in her own imagination, not looking forward and taking us out of narrative.

Foster credibly delivers prim repression, anger, and (as Marian) a turn-around that surprises her. She even manages Zak’s signature mugging moments with charm. Though traditional soprano (for musical contrast and representation of innocence) is missed here, particularly in the usually lilting “My White Knight,” Foster is good in the role.

You know the story: A hustler travels from town to town selling naïve parents the illusion of creating a boys’ band in order to keep the kids from corruption. He collects money for musical instruments and uniforms (provided), but skips town before the necessity of lessons.

Hugh Jackman, Sutton Foster and the Company

In River City, Iowa, Hill sews seeds of warning vis-à-vis a new pool table with a sadly understated rendition of “Ya Got Trouble.”  He then worms his way into the life of the only musical citizen, attractive Marian Paroo through her Irish mother (an appealing Marie Mullen) and shy, stuttering young brother Winthrop (Benjamin Pajak – just wonderful! He acts, sings, listhps to perfection and actually plays some cornet). The young woman is at first thoroughly suspicious.

Meanwhile, blustery Mayor Shinn (an oddly low key Jefferson Mays, from whom we expect more) tries to prove Hill a fraud while his wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn (the fabulous Jayne Houdyshell, who could mine humor from a telephone book), gets caught up in dancing at the Independence Day festivities, and the town council are successfully distracted by being turned into an excellent barbershop quartet: Phillip Boykin, Nicholas Ward, Eddie Korbich, Daniel Torres.

Shuler Hensley makes little out of Hill’s former partner, Marcellus, now a River City inhabitant. Gino Cosculluela dances well as Tommy, but his role has otherwise been so cut, we get no sense of the character’s bad boy becomes responsible arc in the original script.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster

All this takes place on a seemingly cross-purposed set by Santo Loquasto: A barn front which rises or through which actors pass makes no sense but for this being farm country. Scrims are painted with appropriate (pretty) outsider folk art landscapes, but giant cut-out trees seem exaggerated cartoons. A gym interior replete with hanging apparatus is swell and the cross section of Marian’s house, though on the uncomfortably small side, otherwise works.

The played down showstopper is a toy Wells Fargo “wagon” that makes its way down a background hill to emerge almost full sized on stage drawn by the most realistic horse (costume) you may ever see.

Loquasto’s costumes are marvelous, men’s just varied enough to look well on stage together, women’s frou-froued pattern, texture, and oh, the hats! Wait till you see them in ersatz Grecian costumes for the tableau vivant.

Warren Carlyle’s choreography is zippy and fun, though the usually inspired library number is hampered by too much furniture in the room. Kudos for keeping dancers’ facial expressions in keeping with exuberant steps and for the children in the cast who are terrific.

Hugh Jackman and the kids

Director Jerry Zaks, who with Carlyle and Loquasto was responsible for the last Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, moves and paces his company with skill. Some of the objections above, however, are of his making; certainly lack of snap. The ladies’ “Pick a Little, Talk a Little” misses a great opportunity for chicken-like head and shoulder action. A finale during which Harold and Marian tap dance at length minimizes what should be an eruption of “Seventy Six Trombones” that follows. Marching down an aisle would’ve helped here.

The Music Man is a good show and buoyant, just what we need right now. That this production isn’t all it might be won’t keep an audience, especially those unfamiliar with the piece, from taking pleasure in it. At an unfathomable  $488.00 for an orchestra seat, this is a good thing. Prices today limit audiences, particularly young people who might fill tomorrow’s seats. What is The Broadway League thinking?!

Photos by Julieta Cervantes

Meredith Willson’s The Music Man
Book/Music/Lyrics by Meredith Willson
Additional Lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman
Directed by Jerry Zaks
Choreographed by Warren Carlyle
Winter Garden Theater  
1634 Broadway