The Music Man
May. 24th, 2025 07:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwHow foundational is "The Music Man" to musical theater in the US? It's not the case that everything follows from it, but I suspect it would be safe to say that anybody interested in subsequent musicals could sing at least part of it. Or I can, apparently. On Bluesky, John Chu linked to Cole Escola (from the currently running "Oh Mary") performing "Iowa Stubborn" at Miscast25:
I knew every (original) word, although I'd be hesitant to sing it by myself. I sang along. Even though there was a production in my high school, the voices in my head are from the 1962 movie version soundtrack, which my parents had on LP. Is it in my house now? I don't know.
Lots of amazing (to me) information on the wikipedia page about the play - it beat out West Side Story for best musical Tony. Christian Slater played Winthrop in a revival as an 11 year old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Music_Man
That article doesn't have my favorite piece of trivia about the movie, though. The studio wanted Cary Grant to be Harold Hill CG: "Not only will I not play it, but if Robert Preston doesn't do it, I won't even see the picture."
I knew every (original) word, although I'd be hesitant to sing it by myself. I sang along. Even though there was a production in my high school, the voices in my head are from the 1962 movie version soundtrack, which my parents had on LP. Is it in my house now? I don't know.
Lots of amazing (to me) information on the wikipedia page about the play - it beat out West Side Story for best musical Tony. Christian Slater played Winthrop in a revival as an 11 year old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Music_Man
That article doesn't have my favorite piece of trivia about the movie, though. The studio wanted Cary Grant to be Harold Hill CG: "Not only will I not play it, but if Robert Preston doesn't do it, I won't even see the picture."
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Date: 2025-05-24 08:29 pm (UTC)I love that.