Not Your Father's Music Man

Rosetown Playhouse is not alone in staging The Music Man this summer.

Here’s an excerpt from Terry Teachout’s Wall Street Journal review of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of The Music Man:

The surprises start when a lone musician strolls onto Rachel Hauck's penny-plain clapboard unit set, pulls a harmonica out of his pocket and plays a medley of tunes from the show instead of the usual slam-bang knock-'em-dead overture. The stage fills with actors dressed in black, white and gray. This is River City, a town full of upright folk who lead ultra-proper lives (We're so by-God stubborn we can stand touchin' noses/For a week at a time and never see eye to eye). Then a too-friendly gent in a gaudy red waistcoat dances into town and tells everyone he meets that what they need is a brass band. One by one, the locals succumb to the in-your-face charm of the unscrupulous "Professor" Hill (Michael Elich) and sign on the dotted line--and as they do so, they start to sport flashy-looking socks, handkerchiefs and other accessories. By intermission, the stage is as colorful as a double rainbow....

Sounds like a great show.