Shirley Jones Joins Son Patrick Cassidy in THE MUSIC MAN Concert Tour, Beginning Tonight in Mason City

Meredith Willson's beloved family musical, THE MUSIC MAN, returns to the stage in an all-new concert staging starring the Marian of the classic film, Academy Award winner Shirley Jones, who will not only essay the role of Mrs. Paroo, but will serve as host and narrator. She will be joined on stage by her son, Patrick Cassidy as Prof. Harold Hill. A little known bit of Hollywood history: Shirley was pregnant with Patrick during the filming of The Music Man.

Performances begin, appropriately enough, in Willson's home town (and model for River City) Mason City, Iowa tonight, September 18th; subsequent tour stops include Prior Lake, MN; Paducah, KY; Topeka, KS; Springfield, MO; Oklahoma City, OK; and Little Rock, Arkansas, with more cities to be announced. Meredith Willson's The Music Man in Concert is presented by 2 Luck Concepts LLC; tour direction by Columbia Artists Theatricals, Gary McAvay, President (www.cami.com). Concert adaptation is by Evans Haile, with additional material by Patrick Cassidy and Phil LaDuca. For more Tour information, visit ShirleyJonesMusicMan.com

The Music Man In Concert features Shirley Jones as host and Mrs. Paroo, her son Patrick Cassidy as Harold Hill, joined by a 12-piece big brass band on stage as well as a local choir. Glenn Casale (Peter Pan on Broadway) directs a cast that also includes Teri Bibb (Phantom of the Opera on Broadway) as Marian the Librarian along with Janna Cardia, Julie Cardia, Michael Dotson, Phil Gold, Danielle Hansen, Perry Lambert, Dink O'Neal, Joseph Torello, Janis Uhley.

Shirley Jones serves as host and storyteller, sharing her experiences from 50 years ago, when she was starring as Marian the Librarian in the now classic film. Today, on stage, she takes on a second part: Mrs. Paroo, Marian's mother. But it's the third role that Shirley will say is most important: mother to Patrick Cassidy now starring as Harold Hill.

The Music Man has book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and sells band instruments and uniforms to the naive Iowa townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. But Harold is no musician and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love. Harold risks being caught to win her.

In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances. The 1962 film version, starring Robert Preston as Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo, was one of the biggest hits of the year and also highly acclaimed. In 2005, The Music Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." NBC has announced plans to broadcast a live performance of The Music Man in 2015 as the third installment of the series of live musicals that began with The Sound of Music Live and continues with Peter Pan Live for this year's holiday season.