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‘The Music Man’ at Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW: “The Music Man.” Fox Theatre. Through Sunday, July 31.
In 1957, Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” blasted its way into American musical-theater history as a vehicle for Robert Preston (Professor Harold Hill) and Atlanta-born sweetheart Barbara Cook (Marian the Librarian). The show wasn’t just as American as the Fourth of July; part of the flag-spangled spectacle actually occurs on Independence Day.
And its form was revolutionary.
The opening number, “Rock Island,” isn’t really a song. It’s an a capella chant by a group of traveling salesmen who lament the changing times like a barking chorus of auctioneers. (“Gone with the sugar barrel, pickle barrel, milk pan! Gone with the tub and the pail and the fierce!”)
Later in the show, the women counter with “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little,” a ditty that suggests the similiarities between a gaggle of small-town gossips and a flock of peckish hens. (That one could hear echoes of “Pick-a-Little” in the trio of biddies in the Alliance Theatre’s “Color Purple” last year is a testament to that number’s impact and longevity.)
To my mind, the tale of the perky blonde and the charismatic schemer is as pure an example of Americana as “Oklahoma!” and “Our Town.” “The Music Man” is a joyous, nostalgia-dripping love letter to such vanishing traditions as white knights, Wells Fargo wagons and town pageants.
Happily, the Theater of the Stars production at the Fox Theatre through Sunday is a welcome, well-crafted journey back to River City, Iowa, a place that willingly succumbs to the charming ways of scoundrel Harold Hill and his attendant invasion of brass and pompons.
In her recent Broadway show, Cook said that Preston had the “energy to light Chicago for 10 years” — a description that might apply to Burke Moses, who does a terrific turn as the oompahing, one-man brass band that’s Hill. Teri Dale Hansen (Marian) has a lovely, lilting soprano, but her performance doesn’t gel until near the end.
It’s very rare that an actor stops a show, let alone without uttering a syllable. But that’s exactly what the brilliant Ruth Gottschall does when her Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn corrects the mayor’s poop/peep blooper. The actress virtually silences the action with her elastic mug, rolling, saucer-size eyes and withering glare. She’s a first-rate clown in the tradition of Beatrice Lillie and Caroll Burnett, and Mrs. Shinn’s terpsichorean ode on a Grecian urn is worth all the gold in Agamemnon’s tomb.
Also terrific are Chris Gregory and the Harrington brothers: Mike, David and Doug. They’re a pitch-perfect barbershop quartet with a sound as soft, luxurious and cushioning to the senses as down. And who can resist the adorable, shy and tongue-tied Winthrop (Cade Nelson), who pronounces Amaryllis as “Amaryllith.”
These days, a show’s lucky to have one or two memorable tunes. But back in 1958, the cast recording of “The Music Man” was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 12 weeks. And nearly everyone of its songs, from the balladic “Goodnight, My Someone” to the novelty tune “Gary, Indiana,” are keepers.
Here, Norb Joerder’s superb direction and choreography demonstrate why this salt-of-the-earth musical has such staying power. To paraphrase the song “Iowa Stubborn,” you really ought to give it a try.
THE VERDICT: Terrific with a capital “T.”
THE 411: 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $20-$59. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-817-8700, www.foxtheatre.org.
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