We open our 2023 Shedd Theatricals season with Meredith Willson's 1957 "Valentine", as he called it, to his Iowa hometown, The Music Man. Inspired by his boyhood in Mason City, Willson spent over a decade developing a show about a traveling salesman who helps a little boy in a small Iowa town overcome a speech impediment by inspiring him to join a band. The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre on December 19, 1957.
The year is 1912 and the fast-talking traveling salesman "Professor" Harold Hill arrives in River City, Iowa promising the townsfolk that he can stear the town’s youth from “going bad” by establishing a boys band outfitted with magnificent uniforms and instruments he would be able to sell them (of course). It's all part of a big sales pitch (he doesn't know a thing about music and always leaves town a town before anyone figures out that instruments and uniforms aren't enough to make a band! But contending with Marian Paroo, the completely no-nonsense town librarian wasn't part of his plan. Marian sees Hill exactly for what he is and wants nothing to do with him when he tries to make her his newest conquest, but when he helps her young brother Winthrop overcome the severe shyness he suffers from due to his lisp, she falls in love with him. Before he knows it, he falls in love right back…and is stuck!
With classic tunes that include "Ya Got Trouble," "Goodnight My Someone", "The Wells Fargo Wagon", "Till There Was You", "Shipoopi" and the show-stopping "Seventy-Six Trombones", The Music Man is an irresistible, all-American musical for the entire family!
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| Event Personnel |
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| Creative Team |
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| Cast |
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Matthew Michaels, Tommy DjilasClaude Offenbacher, Constable Locke, ConductorMark Norwood, Ewart DunlopNehemiah Nance, Oliver HixMatthew Leach, Jacey SquiresBroder Foshay, Olin BrittTessa Douangaphalvong, Ethel ToffelmierKeri Davis, Maud DunlopClarae Smith, Euphemia BrittHanna Foshay, Hermione SquiresLucy Geller, Corabelle ScovilleJewel Ofelt, Alma HixOwen Colley, Silas YoderKenady Conforth, Fern YoderIsabella Willis, Zaneeta ShinnLucy MacKay, AmaryllisAnna Irwin, Gracie Shinn |
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| Youth Ensemble |
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Eli Chandler, Anwen Cramer Dickinson, Kenton Montoya, Renata Russell, Brenna Scott, |
| |  | Rock Island (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |
| |  | It's You (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |
| | | Shipoopi (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |
| |  | Lida Rose (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |
| | | Will I Ever Tell You? (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |
| | | Lida Rose (reprise) (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |
| | | It's You - Ballet (1957) The Music Man Meredith Willson (w/m) |