river raisin ragtime revue jon erik kelso

Both McColgan and Teeter have two of the loveliest voices in this show. Paroo, whose daughter Marian (Alicia Teeter), is the town’s librarian and the object of Harold Hill’s affection. There are several excellent performances in PAP’s production, not least of which is Gabrielle McColgan as Mrs. Of course, he always likes to woo a lady or two wherever he goes, but things in River City don’t exactly turn out the way the professor expects. Then, after collecting the money, Hill plans to skip town and head to another to sell his spiel. The last man to get off the train in River City turns out to be Hill himself, who’s decided it’s the perfect town for him to do his special kind of “sales” (Spoiler Alert: he’s a con man.) And so he promises to form a children’s marching band and gets parents to pony up for musical instruments as well as band uniforms. One has to posit that it’s a difficult scene to do well, because all the men on the train have to sway and bounce in precise harmony! (They performed flawlessly on opening night.) Aboard a train heading to River City, a number of traveling salesmen are debating whether they are becoming a dying breed thanks to modern technology. The Music Man’s first scene is a classic – and PAP’s version is a winner. That said, on opening night, this reviewer believed that “Professor” Harold Hill (a charming Alex Perez) spoke and sang perhaps a tad softly (maybe because he has a lot of songs to sing and words to speak). Palo Alto Players’ current rendition of the predictably sweet story doesn’t disappoint. Photo by Scott Lasky - Harold Hill (Alex Perez) convinces the citizens of River City, Iowa that the presence of a pool table in town is trouble in THE MUSIC MAN at Palo Alto Players. “… sure to resonate with audiences of all ages …”īecause of its wholesomeness and down-home characters, the musical still draws in adults who remember the movie, as well as young people seeing it for the very first time.

Many theater fans consider The Music Man the greatest piece of Americana ever written. Of course, it’s been a mainstay of community theatre companies everywhere since then. It won five Tony Awards that year.įive years later, it was made into a wildly popular film adaptation starring Robert Preston, Buddy Hackett, Ron Howard, and Shirley Jones. Meredith Willson both wrote and produced it the 1957 Broadway hit, a portrait of the fictional town of River City, Iowa. If you’re at least 50, it’s likely you’ve seen The Music Man several times over the years.

River raisin ragtime revue jon erik kelso