If Meredith Willson were writing "The Music Man" today, the Madison County Library Board would be facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit (Marian Paroo, plaintiff) for permitting a hostile work environment, and Charlie Cowell would be facing mandatory sensitivity training for his micro-aggressions ("Girly-Girl," indeed!).
But if we leave our politically correct lorgnettes at home for the evening, "The Music Man" remains a terrific musical, full of wonderful songs and timeless observations about human nature. We saw the Brandywiners' production at the outdoor theater at Longwood Gardens on July 28; the show continues Aug. 2, 3, and 4. The weather could not have been nicer, and I didn't see a single empty seat.
The Barbershop Quartet -- Allen Supplebeen, Cam Hay, Aaron Kirschner, and Steven Soltow -- stole the show, as they tend to do. Sam Gorman, the young actor who played the formerly introverted Winthrop Paroo, did a great job with his big number, "Gary, Indiana." Marian the Librarian was played by Rachel Burghen, whose lovely voice shone in "My White Knight" and "Till There Was You." And how funny that Robert Miller, who played the slick Harold Hill, is in real life the father of Julia Miller, who played Amaryllis Shinn!
The only criticism I have is that Longwood is a very busy place on Saturday evenings in the summer, and some of the noise from the music and fountain display was distracting. The sound system had some glitches as well -- we could hear the stage manager's instructions a couple of times -- but that's to be expected given the complexity of miking such a giant cast.
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