The Music Man
opened on Broadway in 1957. It stars con man Harold Hill poses as a boys' band
organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive Iowa
townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Harold is no
musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons.
Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps
her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to
fall in love. Harold risks being caught to win her.
Act I
In the early
summer of 1912, aboard a train leaving Rock Island, Illinois, Charlie Cowell
and other traveling salesmen engage in a heated argument about consumer credit
("Rock Island"). The conversation eventually turns to another topic:
a con man known as "Professor" Harold Hill, whose scam is to convince
parents he can teach their musically disinclined children to play musical
instruments. On the premise that he will form a band, he takes orders for
instruments and uniforms. But once the instruments and uniforms arrive and are
paid for, he skips town without forming the band, moving on before he is
exposed. Upon the train’s arrival in River City, Iowa, a stranger stands up and
declares, "Gentlemen, you intrigue me. I think I shall have to give Iowa a
try." Retrieving his suitcase, clearly labeled "Professor Harold
Hill," he exits the train.
The townspeople
of River City describe their reserved, "chip-on-the-shoulder
attitude" ("Iowa Stubborn"). Harold stumbles across his old
friend Marcellus Washburn, who has "gone legit" and now lives in
town. Marcellus tells Harold that Marian Paroo, the librarian who gives piano
lessons, is the only trained musician in town. He also informs Hill that a new
pool table was just delivered to the town's local billiard parlor, so to launch
his scheme, Harold convinces River City parents of the "trouble" that
will be caused by that pool table ("Ya Got Trouble"). Harold follows
Marian home, attempting to flirt with her, but she ignores him. At home, Marian
gives a piano lesson to a little girl named Amaryllis while arguing with her
widowed mother about her high "standards where men are concerned",
telling Mrs. Paroo about the man who followed her home ("Piano Lesson/If
You Don't Mind My Saying So"). Marian's self-conscious, lisping
10-year-old brother Winthrop arrives home. Amaryllis, who secretly likes Winthrop
but teases him about the lisp, asks Marian whom she should say goodnight to on
the evening star, since she does not have a sweetheart. Marian tells her to
just say goodnight to her "someone" ("Goodnight, My
Someone").
The next day is
Independence Day, and Mayor Shinn is leading the morning festivities in the
high school gym, with the help of his self-important wife, Eulalie MacKecknie
Shinn ("Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"). After Tommy Djilas, a boy
from the wrong side of town, sets off a firecracker, interrupting the
proceedings, Harold takes the stage and announces to the townspeople that he
will prevent "sin and corruption" from the pool table by forming a
boys' band ("Ya Got Trouble [Reprise]/Seventy-Six Trombones"). Mayor
Shinn, who owns the billiard parlor, tells the bickering school board to get
Harold's credentials, but Harold teaches them to sing as a Barbershop Quartet
to distract them ("Ice Cream/Sincere"). Harold also sets up Zaneeta,
the mayor's eldest daughter, with Tommy, and persuades Tommy to work as his
assistant. After another rejection by Marian, Harold is determined to win her,
telling Marcellus that she’s the girl for him ("The Sadder But Wiser
Girl"). The town ladies are very excited about the band and the ladies'
dance committee that Harold plans to form. He mentions Marian, and they
intimate to him (falsely, as it turns out) that she had an inappropriate
relationship with deceased old miser Madison, who gave the town the library,
but left all the books to her. They also warn Harold that she advocates
the "dirty books" by "Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac"
("Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little"). The school board arrives to review
Harold's credentials, but he leads them in song and slips away
("Goodnight, Ladies").
The next day,
Harold walks into the library, but Marian ignores him yet again. He declares
his unrequited love for her, leading the teenagers in the library in dance
("Marian the Librarian"). For a moment, Marian forgets her decorum
and dances with Harold. He kisses her, and she tries to slap him. He ducks, and
she hits Tommy instead. With Tommy's help, Harold signs up all the boys in town
to be in his band, including Winthrop. Mrs. Paroo likes Harold and tries to
find out why Marian is not interested. Marian describes her ideal man ("My
White Knight"). She tries to give Mayor Shinn evidence against Harold that
she found in the Indiana State Educational Journal, but they are
interrupted by the arrival of the Wells Fargo wagon, which delivers the band
instruments ("The Wells Fargo Wagon"). When Winthrop forgets to be
shy and self-conscious because he is so happy about his new cornet, Marian
begins to see Harold in a new light. She tears the incriminating page out of
the Journal before giving the book to Mayor Shinn.
Act II
The ladies
rehearse their classical dance in the school gym while the school board
practices their quartet ("It's You") for the ice cream social.
Marcellus and the town's teenagers interrupt the ladies' practice, taking over
the gym as they dance ("Shipoopi"). Harold grabs Marian to dance with
her, and all the teenagers join in. Regarding Winthrop's cornet, Marian later
questions Harold about his claim that "you don't have to bother with the
notes". He explains that this is what he calls "The Think
System", and he arranges to call on Marian to discuss it. The town ladies
ask Marian to join their dance committee, since she was "so dear dancing
the Shipoopi" with Professor Hill ("Pick-a-Little,
Talk-a-Little" [Reprise]). They have reversed their opinions about her books,
and they eagerly tell her that "the Professor told us to read those books,
and we simply adored them all!"
That night, the
school board tries to collect Harold's credentials again, but he gets them to
sing again and slips away ("Lida Rose"). Marian, meanwhile, is
sitting on her front porch thinking of Harold ("Will I Ever Tell
You?"). Winthrop returns home after spending time with Harold and tells
Marian and Mrs. Paroo about Harold's hometown ("Gary, Indiana"). As
Marian waits alone for Harold, traveling salesman Charlie Cowell enters with
evidence against Harold, hoping to tell Mayor Shinn. He only has a few minutes
before his train leaves, but stops to flirt with Marian. She tries to delay him
so he does not have time to deliver the evidence, eventually kissing him. As the
train whistle blows, she pushes him away. Charlie angrily tells Marian that
Harold has a girl in "every county in Illinois, and he's taken it from
every one of them – and that's 102 counties!"
Harold arrives,
and after he reminds her of the untrue rumors he's heard about her, she
convinces herself that Charlie invented everything he told her. They agree to
meet at the footbridge, where Marian tells him the difference he's made in her
life ("Till There Was You"). Marcellus interrupts and tells Harold
that the uniforms have arrived. He urges Harold to take the money and run, but
Harold refuses to leave, insisting, "I've come up through the ranks... and
I'm not resigning without my commission". He returns to Marian, who tells
him that she's known since three days after he arrived that he is a fraud.
(Harold earlier claimed to have graduated from the Gary Conservatory in 1905,
but Gary, Indiana, was not founded until 1906.) Because she loves him, she
gives him the incriminating page out of the Indiana State Educational
Journal. She leaves, promising to see him later at the Sociable. With his
schemes for the boys' band and Marian proceeding even better than planned,
Harold confidently sings "Seventy-Six Trombones". As he overhears
Marian singing "Goodnight My Someone", Harold suddenly realizes that
he is in love with Marian; he and Marian sing a snatch of each other's songs.
Meanwhile,
Charlie Cowell, who has missed his train, arrives at the ice cream social and
denounces Harold Hill as a fraud. The townspeople begin an agitated search for
Harold. Winthrop is heartbroken and tells Harold that he wishes Harold never
came to River City. But Marian tells Winthrop that she believes everything
Harold ever said, for it did come true in the way every kid in town talked and
acted that summer. She and Winthrop urge Harold to get away. He chooses to stay
and tells Marian that he never really fell in love until he met her ("Till
There Was You" [Reprise]). The constable then handcuffs Harold and leads
him away.
Mayor Shinn leads
a meeting in the high school gym to decide what to do with Harold, asking,
"Where's the band? Where's the band?" Marian defends Harold. Tommy
enters as a drum major, followed by the kids in uniform with their instruments.
Marian urges Harold to lead the River City Boys' Band in Beethoven's Minuet in
G. Despite the boys' limited musical ability, the parents in the audience are
nonetheless enraptured by the sight of their children playing music. Even Mayor
Shinn is won over, and, as the townspeople cheer, Harold is released into
Marian's arms ("Finale").
http://articles.mcall.com/1988-07-22/entertainment/2654857_1_music-man-meredith-willson-harold-hill
