Two-time Tony Award, Grammy Award, and Emmy Award winner Hugh Jackman will make his highly anticipated return to Broadway in what is widely agreed to be the greatest role ever created for an actor in the history of musical theater: Professor Harold Hill in Meredith Willson’s beloved classic, The Music Man. Two-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy superstar Sutton Foster will star as Marian Paroo. The production, directed by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle, will begin performances on September 9, 2020, and officially open on October 15, 2020.
One of the most universally cherished treasures of the American musical theater, The Music Man was an instant smash hit when it premiered on Broadway on December 19, 1957. It went on to win five Tony Awards, including the prize for Best Musical, and ran for 1,375 performances. The Smithsonian Institution ranks The Music Man as one of the "great glories" of American popular culture.
Unlike, say, the daringly iconoclastic revival of Oklahoma! that played Broadway a few years back, this production of Meredith Willson's classic musical proudly revels in its old-fashionedness. Why mess with something that isn't broken, it seems to be asking, especially since we've got our stars as our ace in the hole. From his first surprise entrance (at least to those who have never seen the musical before) to his showstopping numbers 'Ya Got Trouble' and 'Seventy-Six Trombones' to his climactic moment, when he stares directly at the audience with a smile that seems to contain more gleaming teeth than there are stars in heaven, Jackman has the audience in the palm of his hand. And when Sutton finally gets to shed her character's decorousness and let loose her tremendous dancing chops, there's definitely no more trouble in River City.
The Music Man has long had the misfortune of being both overexposed and underappreciated, a mainstay of school and amateur productions that doesn't consistently let audiences in on the sophistication and emotional honesty of Meredith Willson's score and storytelling. (Hearing that score played by a 24-piece orchestra at the Winter Garden Theatre under the baton of Patrick Vaccariello is especially gratifying here.) But there's nothing simplistic about The Music Man, and this slightly zany production, deeply felt and deeply funny, sells the show's intelligent warmth with a persuasiveness to rival Harold Hill himself.
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