Review: THE MUSIC MAN at ARTS Theatre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Friday 19th July 2024.

The Music Man, produced by Marie Clark Musical Theatre, is a great night out. Director, Adam Goodburn’s cast brings some of our finest music theatre performers on stage, with some promising young talent. Ben Francis, in the pit, doesn’t have seventy-six trombones, only two, but his thirteen-piece ensemble makes a brave sound. Linda Williams’s choreography is outstanding. She and Irena Setchell have collaborated with Goodburn on some really excellent ensemble passages, starting with the outraged travelling salesmen at the beginning, a complex and well-managed scene in the library, and the Shipoopi routine in the second act.

Goodburn and his crew and cast have created an affectionate and detailed vision of a country community of recognizable characters, who fill the stage with energy and fun. You’ll want to relocate to River City.

Harold Hill, whose real name is Greg, is a con man with a list of crimes and conquests longer than a trombone slide. He arrives in cosy and isolated River City, Iowa with a project to scam the populace with a brass band routine. This is 1912, unlike 2024 when a con man can promise world domination. He offers to undo the harm caused to the youth of River City by the arrival of a pool table. ‘You’ve got trouble right here in River City, that’s trouble with a capital T which rhymes with P which stands for pool.’ He sets his sights on the local librarian and music teacher, Marian Paroo. It’s not just because she’s single, attractive, and musical. He explains to an old friend that he looks for women who have a past, as they are always more available. This is, of course, a Broadway musical, so his scandalous past and appalling attitudes will be redeemed by the love of a good woman.

David MacGillivray is a very charming Harold Hill, with a light-footed persona and excellent timing. Emily Fitzpatrick, as Marian, has a strong and clear voice, with a fine performance as a strong-willed woman, thawed by the presence of the first really interesting man to come her way. The cast list is a directory of our best performers. Rodney Hrvatin and Wendy Rainer are Mayor Shinn and his wife Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, and Anne Doherty is so convincing as Marian’s mother. There are two very fine young people in the cast. Evie Dew brings to piano student, Amaryllis, a confidence that has her actually playing the piano to accompany Marian’s singing. Henry Greig is outstanding as Marian’s little brother, Winthrop, whose confidence grows through the show.

The big tune has burst the bounds of Meredith Wilson’s show. In a northern suburbs Bingo hall, the call of ‘76’ is met automatically with the reply ‘trombones’, but there are other lovely ballads such as Goodnight My Someone and Till There Was You, and delightful chorus numbers bringing the whole community together.

The chorus of townsfolk are a strong bunch indeed and there are two smaller groups that stand out. The Pick-a-Little Talk-a-Little group of local gossips: Lucy Trewin, Sash Elliot, Susie O’Connell and Tarsha Cameron, are balanced by a Barbershop Quartet: Max Redmond, Jacob Caudle, Peter Ward, and Director Adam Goodburn, far and away one of our best tenors around. There’s a lovely moment when the two groups appear together.

The pace of the show is aided by frequent use of the drop curtain to cover scene changes, and a stage crew under the charge of Nick Setchell who are really adept and unobtrusive.

It’s a show with such potential I’m surprised it isn’t done more often. I can recall a production at Flinders University some years ago directed by Dr. PJ Rose and that’s all. Any other local company tempted to take it on will have a hard job to top this excellent evening.