Music Man Ashland Style

August 20th Thursday night.

Meredith Wilson’s “Music Man” opened on Broadway in 1957 and has appeared on stages around the world for more than 50 years. It has been a popular production for high schools and amateur production companies. The movie was a big hit in 1962. I have seen the show several times, as recently as a few years ago when I watched an abysmal production on Broadway for $100 a ticket.

I am happy to say, last night’s performance was the best I have ever seen. The director’s interpretation of the Musical, set in 1912 Iowa, was amazing.

The Oregon Shakespeare Company has always been extremely liberal when it comes to its casting, asking the audiences to be “color blind” and accept all sorts of actors in roles that have been traditionally stereotyped. Sometimes it really falls flat, like casting a skinny white kid as the “son” in Raisin in the Sun, a story of prejudice and conflict within a black family. Or casting Aeriel, the Tinkerbell-like fairy in The Tempest, with a tall Asian, or the traditionally virile and adventurous Prospero cast as a woman.

So, when I read that Professor Harold Hill’s love interest, Marion Purdue, in the musical was being played by a black woman (right!, lots of interracial couples in Iowa in 1912 and maybe there we three blacks in the whole state then!) I was less than thrilled. But, it worked and after a short while, it was easy to accept Marion as an Iowa librarian.

Having said all that, the thing that really was truly amazing to me about this Music Man was the fact that the director used a deaf actor in a key supporting role. the actor signed throughout production as other members in the cast signed back spoke and fed back what the deaf actor was "saying". The dialog on stage was total seamless and flowed as though signing was perfectly natural. The cast made it look easy, I am sure it took lots of work.

Also, with ASL(American Sign Language) such a visual part of the show, the director decided to use another visual, color, to express how Harold Hill “lifts” the town as a musical Pied Piper. When the play opens, all the cast (Iowans) are dressed in grey. Even the American flag on the set is grey. Harold Hill, a slick travelling salesman, comes to River City Iowa dressed in a bright red and white jacket and pants.. and is the only color on the set. But as the show progresses and time passes and Hill’s idea of creating a marching band for the children of the town begins to take hold, color is introduced to the costumes and the grey begins to dissappear.. By the end of the musical, all the costumes are brilliant colors, the kids are wearing their sparkling band uniforms and the American Flag is the traditional red, white and blue.

Bravo OSF!!!