“The Music Man” Produced by: The John W. Engeman Theater, Northport - Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur
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In the late fifties, after a decade of trying to find acceptance among show business producers, Iowa native Meredith Willson finally got the break he needed when playwright/screenwriter Franklin Lacey agreed to help him trim down his then-wordy libretto for “The Music Man.”
The first thing that had to be done, Lacey insisted, was to throw out a long stretch of dialogue in which con man Harold Hill explains why the parents of River City have “…got trouble.” Willson wasn’t about to part with the loquacious narrative entirely; he properly felt it was essential in illuminating the plot. So what the inventive Willson did was turn that rambling spoken sales pitch into a song. The piece, of course, became the signature number in “The Music Man.”
But that’s not the end of the fortuitous story involving playwrights Willson and Lacey, and their decision to alter the original libretto for what became the 46th longest running musical in Broadway’s storied history. Director Morton DaCosta and his producers decided that “Ya’ Got Trouble” was the most difficult number in the show to handle, thus they used it when screening hopefuls for the part of Harold Hill. Singers by the dozens tackled the tongue-twisting composition, but bigwigs Kermit Bloomgarden and others were unimpressed … until actor Robert Preston (whose singing range was limited at best) took the stage.
Preston’s career had included thirty-five movies and half a dozen stage shows at that time, many of the productions casting him in fast-talking roles, and “Ya’ Got Trouble” was right up his alley. Bloomgarden, DaCosta and company signed their Music Man on the spot.
Had things turned out differently, Meredith Willson might never have found the perfect fit for the lead in his Midwestern gem of a show, and local theatergoers could have been ultimately deprived of one of the finest musical productions ever presented on a Long Island stage—that’s how good “The Music Man” was at Saturday’s Engeman Theater press opening in Northport.
In the hands of prize-winning Director Igor Goldin, Rob Gallagher turns in a spectacular performance as the slick salesman Harold Hill. His acting/ singing range is incredible as he delivers numbers like the lively “Seventy-Six Trombones” to provocative “The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl” and Willson’s tender ballad “Till There Was You” with equal aplomb. I was privileged to review the original “Music Man” for my college newspaper at its debut on Broadway in 1957, and I can assure you that Gallagher is every bit as good as the iconic Robert Preston was that opening night.
Much the same can be said for Kim Carson as straight-laced librarian Marian Paroo, Ray Demattis as River City’s tongue-tied Mayor Shinn, and the remarkable Patti Mariano who plays Marian’s sometimes profane Irish mother perfectly. Perhaps it goes without saying that 2013 Encore Award Winners Jennifer Collester Tully (Mayor Shinn’s robust wife Eulalie) and Katie Dolce (their perky daughter Gracie) are ideally cast in their featured roles, and both perform flawlessly. Those two ladies wrote the book on stage presence.
Ten-year-old Jeffrey S. Kishinevskiy as the lisping Winthrop Paroo is simply adorable. The play’s plot resolution revolves around him…quite a responsibility for one so young! But like everyone else in this beautifully staged musical, especially the impeccable barbershop quartet (Richard Costa, Kenny Francoeur, Kevin Necciai, and Kilty Reidy), Jeffrey’s more than equal to the demanding task.
And any critic would be remiss if failing to acknowledge Heidi Friese (as the endearing teen Zaneeta Shinn) and her three actress/dancer partners who’ve been molded into a colorfully clad, precisely coordinated foursome under choreographer Antoinette DiPietropolo. Her charges don’t muff a jump or pirouette, and the orchestra doesn’t miss a single note in two hours.
This show runs through May 18…and I’d be surprised if every performance between now and then isn’t sold out, as Saturday’s was. I know I’m going back—and soon—if I can get in.
Award-winning Smithtown writer Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eight novels, and his theater reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. In Ladouceur’s next thriller, “Harvest” due in late summer, an American doctor is forced to perform illegal surgeries for a gang of vital organ traffickers in The Balkans.