The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
"Music Man" takes to the stage
By Alana West, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: June 14, 2007
When a fast-talking musical instrument salesman comes to town, romance blooms and small-town Iowa citizens burst into song at a moment's notice in Meredith Willson's "The Music Man."
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The play is set to open June 21, with 8 p.m. performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday at the Manchester High School auditorium. Advance tickets are on sale at the Coffee Mill and at the Manchester Market.
The cast numbers nearly 100 members, and includes all ages from children to adults. Lead roles include Jared Throneberry, as Professor Harold Hill, Karen Kidder Barrett as Marian Paroo, Breeda Miller as Marian's mother, Daniel Korth as Winthrop, Hannah Sucha as Amaryllis, Mark Palms as Marcellus, Richard Spring as Constable Locke, Mark McDonnell as Charlie Cowell, Carl Curtis as Mayor Shinn, Sally Copley as Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn, Jacky Palms as Zaneeta, the Shinn's daughter, and Delaney Duckham as Tommy, Zaneeta's steady.
Many more also participate off-stage, running the lighting, sound and special effects, organizing props, making costumes and building and painting the sets. Choreographers set dancers' feet in time to music played by accompanists and orchestra. Songs are learned, lines memorized, and synchronized movements become second-nature.
"So much happens behind the scenes. It's a pretty elaborate set," said Carol Palms, music director. "There was creative and thoughtful work going into everything."
"Lots of people contributed in many ways," said Linda Kendall Knox, the play's director, whose husband Peter is also the show's producer. "Karen is a dream to work with. She has lots of natural ability, asks questions and takes direction. And Jared's voice is so beautiful. He is Harold Hill."
Suzanne Willets Brooks, choreographer, of Ypsilanti, said she has enjoyed working with everyone, comparing each contribution to the harmonious patterns of an enormous quilt.
"It's a triumph to see people living so quietly get up and sing and dance, and create this whole vision of everything. It's the creative spirit. It reminds us of why we're alive," said Brooks. "Kids do it all the time. Their drama, movement and voices make a paradigm. It's hopeful, like this musical."
Kendall Knox said she is looking forward to dress rehearsals, when all the technical details can be ironed out.
"My goal for this show has been to try to help build the theater community ... instead of community theater," she said.
Willets Brooks said they are starting to fit all of the loose ends together.
"It's like pushing a 300 pound (bowling ball) through the eye of a needle," she said. "It helps every time we do it. It gets a little less hard. We can see the flow of things."
Producer Peter Knox said that the musical has several interesting assets that make it unique when performed in Manchester, including ubiquitous pianos, family ties to the original characters of "The Music Man," and an upright orchestra.
"There will be three pianos on stage," he said.
Knox also said that Palms' great-grandfather was named Hill, and also was a music instructor traveling through Willson's hometown in Iowa, where there was also a Marian who was a librarian, at about the time the script was written.
"He sold hymn books, and organized choir groups," said Knox. He added that Palms' brother, David Wells of Grand Rapids, decided to become one of the Barbershop Quartet members because of this piece of family history.
A special feature of this musical is that the orchestra will be entirely onstage, overlooking the cast from the back of the stage.
"It will be three dimensional," said Palms, adding that she will be eight feet in the air, with some 12 feet up in blocks Hollywood Square fashion, but made to look like a building.
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