BWW Interviews: Staging MUSIC MAN for a Contemporary Audience

"I try to do every play I direct keeping in mind both people who have never seen it before and those who might know it well. I ask myself, 'What would today's audience want to hear and how can I tell the story for this a contemporary public?' I actively look for ways to put a spin on even a well-known show like the Music Man so that some things strike the audience as surprises, as fresh and different. I want them not to sing along with tunes they know, but be caught off guard a little and be so busy watching the story unfold that they forget they already know it."

Director/choreographer Marc Robin is discussing his latest staging of Meredith Willson's classic musical, the Music Man, for Maine State Music Theatre. Robin was part of a panel that also included the shows stars, Curt Dale Clark and Lauren Blackman, MSMT's Props Designer Kyle Melton, and the company Director of Communications Carol Marquis, moderated by BWW's Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, the fourth such talkback in the company's summer series, Peek Behind the Curtain, which drew a standing-room only crowd.

Elaborating on his vision, Robin says, "This show is not only abut love, but also about one of life's big lessons, that, as Harold Hill says, 'If you pile up enough tomorrows, you'll find you've collected a whole lot of yesterdays.' You have got to take time to smell the roses, because tomorrow you might not be able to."

Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, who plays the traveling salesman Hill, chimes in," What I love about this show is that it is about two people who are broken, and each gets fixed by the other. It is extra special for my character because Harold Hill doesn't realize the fix has happened until after it already has at the footbridge. When Marian hands him the page she has torn from the book to protect him, and confesses she has known he is conning all along, that flutters his heart."

"That moment takes over," co-star Blackman continues. "Marc told us that this is one of those shows you [as an actor] don't have to fix. I always go into the line, and it takes over me. We both get a little emotional every night because it's so perfect. Marian has decided she is not going to change her entire life for some guy, and then that guy just walks in and flips her world 180 degrees; and she realizes she has to slow down, stop waiting for everyone to catch up with her, and take time to smell the flowers."

But, as everyone on the panel concurs, it is not just about its two central characters, but also about the transformation of a small heartland town and its folk. Robin, in his signature directorial manner, makes each and every ensemble member's story come alive individually. He explains why this is important to him: "I started in the chorus, and I loved that experience." As a director/choreographer, "what I love about working with the ensemble is our ability to create a tapestry in which each and every person has his own history. When we started rehearsal for this show, I gave the cast a homework assignment: they were to write down the answers to some questions like 'to whom were they related, whom did they like most and least, whom they were with, and whom they might rather be with.' After making all those decisions, I told them to come in and act on those choices. I even made some staging decisions and revisions based on the backstories and relationships they had created. What you see on stage is each actor playing his full story, the story that is only suggested by what's on the page."

In addition to this kind of preparatory work for the actors, the panel said they found more context and clues for their characters in Willson's music. Blackman cites how the orchestral underscoring sets the tempo for the lines the actors speak, and if they are spoken in concert with the music's inspiration, "You speak, then start to sing, and it becomes the perfect moment."

Clark talks about the brilliant underscoring, " another hallmark of a classic musical that tells you [as an actor] where you are supposed to go; it sets the mood." He gives as an example Hill's speech to Winthrop toward the end of the musical: "The music right after he talks to the boy will rip your heart out. That is Meredith Willson speaking with his fingers."

The mention of Winthrop brings up some queries about the excellent cast of child actors in the show, headed by Andrew Lyndaker as Winthrop, whom Clark calls "an amazing young man," while Blackman praises Robin's directorial ability to elicit such a moving performance "without ever giving him a line reading. You just told him to think about how important the words were [despite the character's lisp], and he went home and worked on it and came back and blew us away."

The panel goes on to explore not only the performance aspects of the show, but the large-scale technical demands and precise logistics needed to mount Music man at the Pickard theatre. Robin stresses that maintaining a brisk flow was always a priority for him. "Standards have changed. When Music Man was first staged, it lasted three hours and ten minutes, and scene changes often took several minutes during which the audience sat in the dark. Not only has technology changed, but so, too, have audience expectations." Robin, who is known for the cinematic flow of his productions adds, "I use blackouts only for punctuation."

But managing the flow of human and technical resources in the cramped backstage quarters of the landmark Pickard Theatre poses its own set of challenges. " It's a work of art backstage," Clark affirms, using the spectacular forty-three-person finale with all of River City gradually transformed into Harold Hill's marching band as an example. "Marc had to stage it in waves, so each group could bow, go off, change into a uniform and come back on. It is incredibly choreographed, and I get to watch the process and then weave my way through them and hear the audience's gasps. It's the coolest moment of the night! It is a giant puzzle!"

Staging the actors so all moves smoothly is not the only ingredient of the puzzle. Moving the scenery and props - and storing them backstage - while maintaining the show's pacing is a huge challenge, says Kyle Melton, Resident Props Designer. He says many of the units and props have to be built keeping in mind that there is a small crossover space and wings of only six feet and four feet respectively. Melton, who works to realize many of the practical features of scenic designer's Chuck Kading's concept, uses as an example the magnificent train set, which, he explains, "is comprised of two palettes that quickly break in half backstage in order to be stored." He also mentions that almost the entire first act scenery gets loaded into the elevator and whisked away during the last number of the first act, so that the second act's units can be brought up during the interval. He talks about tweaking designs such as the Wells Fargo wagon by "having a Pennsylvania wheelwright build space-saving wheels, which also save $600" and constructing Harold Hill's trick suitcase which opens and becomes a dressing station so that it works "simply, efficiently, and is only as big as it needs to be."

While all this planning is going on backstage, a great deal of marketing and community outreach is taking place in the community, thanks to Carol Marquis, the company's tireless Director of Communications and her colleague, Katie White, Sales and Outreach Manager. Marquis talks about how MSMT has increased its marketing budget in the last three years to create a presence commensurate with the quality of work the company does. She tells of some recent media stories, including a spot on the popular Bill Greene's Maine, which involved Greene's crew shooting lots of backstage footage during Sister Act. The piece which aired July 11 gave so many people "the opportunity to see the fascinating goings-on behind the scenes and spotlight the backstage personnel "whom people don't usually get to see." Since Clark and Marquis have taken up their posts media presence for the company has increased exponentially, and Marquis says it is her goal "to build productive relationships with the media and to make it as easy as possible for media professionals to get everything they need to tell their story." And, she points out citing MSMT's amusing press kits, "to make it fun as well because we are a fun organization."

That spirit of camaraderie within the company and between the theatre and the community is something which makes MSMT special - a feeling attested to by several of the audience members who rose to pose questions. Clark talks about the close-knit relationships actors build over a career and "how they are able to pick up where they left off each time they see each other."

And Robin cites the demanding schedule contributing to the teamwork: " You get here and have two weeks and two days to mount a show, so you hit the ground running. You have to click together [as an ensemble] very quickly in order to get to the finish line."

In the case of the Music Man, as is typical of MSMT, not only has the team crossed the finish line, but they have done it with high style and great feeling. As the Forecaster's arts critic Scott Andrews, who was in the audience, comments to the panel: " I have seen this show many times, and this is the most authentic of any I have seen."

Clark, thanking Andrews for his comment, replies, "I don't say this lightly but in all humility, I am pretty sure that this is what Meredith Willson wanted this show to look like and to convey. He wanted to create that feeling of nostalgia."

Watching the show for the second time last night, this critic could surely concur that the company has brought to life what Marc Robin terms "the beauty and the sunshine, the romantic Valentine" that Music Man is and always will be.

Photo Courtesy MSMT, Katie White, photographer

Music Man runs until August 1, 2015, at the Pickard Theatre, Brunswick, ME www.msmt.org 207-725-8769