The Music Man – and Woman – Come to Hartford

Starring Shirley Jones, Patrick Cassidy, Lisa Vroman and Jason Graae

Performances: April 22-27, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, Mortensen Hall, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT
Box Office: 860-987-5900 or www.bushnell.org

Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy made theater history in 2004 when they co-starred as the temperamental Dorothy Brock and boisterous Julian Marsh in the hit Broadway revival of 42^nd Street. They became the first mother-son duo ever to share a Broadway stage. The chemistry was so right and the experience so much fun that they're teaming up again, this time as the warm and wise Mrs. Paroo and the fast-talking Harold Hill in The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts' semi-staged concert production of The Music Man.

"My mother got me the job," Cassidy kids during a phone interview from his home in LA. "If she could become my agent, I'd probably be better off."

Jones, who made her Broadway debut as a replacement nurse in the original production of South Pacific and later co-starred with her then husband Jack Cassidyin the musical Maggie Flynn, confirms that she was the one who floated her son's name by the producers. "I had already been hired and they asked me for ideas about Harold Hill," she acknowledges during a late morning long-distance conversation. "I felt it would be a great role for Patrick, so I suggested him. They liked the idea, and here we are."

According to Cassidy, it's a role he has always wanted to play. Some might say he was born to do it. Not only did his mother play Marian (the librarian) in the beloved 1962 movie version opposite Robert Preston. Not only did Cassidy have the pleasure of performing with Preston in a benefit in Los Angeles years later. Not only did he grow up savoring every morsel of the cherished show by watching the film over and over again as a child. He was also somewhat of an uncredited member of the movie's cast. His mother was pregnant with him during its filming.

"I literally heard the show when I was in the womb," he says with obvious emotion. "I can't tell you how special this is for me. I feel spiritually connected to Robert Preston through this. And to be sharing it with my mother…I don't know how we're going to get through certain scenes without crying."

Both Cassidy and Jones confide that a few special touches have been added to the Bushnell production to augment her role and enhance the moments they share with each other on stage. Mrs. Paroo will now be in the entire "Shipoopi" dance number, plus she'll be singing a bit more than just the trio of "Piano Lesson" with Amaryllis and her daughter Marian.

"Patrick and I will be coming out for a little encore," Jones says with a wink in her voice. "I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone, but following the curtain call, there's not likely to be a dry eye in the house."

With all the history and aura surrounding this Hartford production – which is serving as a 50^th anniversary tribute to The Music Man's winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1958 – does the actress filling Marian Paroo's shoes feel at all intimidated? Not in the least. Overwhelmed, maybe, but not intimidated.

"I'm not really nervous," says Phantom of the Opera veteran Lisa Vroman. "I'm more excited and honored to be sharing the stage with one of my idols than intimidated by it. I hear she's just the nicest person, is a lot of fun, and loves to laugh. I have worked with Patrick before, so I'm really looking forward to it. But I hope I can get through this show without crying. I mean, oh my God, I'm going to be singing with Shirley Jones!"

Like Cassidy, Vroman has had The Music Man on her wish list for most of her life. She grew up "with every measure and every word" in her head but never had the opportunity to play Marian – till now. And even though this is a "concert" version, she and the rest of her cast mates will be performing the entire show. They will be off book and in costume, dancing full choreography and performing fully realized scenes, with less than one full week of rehearsal.

"It has really emerged into a full show," Jones says. "It's all Patrick's fault. He said that he just couldn't do it with a script in his hand. So Phil McKinley, the director, came out to LA for three days and worked on choreography with us. It's going to be a little tough for me, doing all that dancing, but it will be fun."

Cassidy readily accepts the blame for turning a manageable staged reading into a 900-pound gorilla. "Don't think I'm not choking on my words," he laughs. "We have one week to mount a full production. It normally takes a week just to learn 'Trouble!' But I felt there was no way I could play Harold Hill while holding a script. He's a fast-talking salesman who is always on the move. He's not a passive guy. He's got to swindle these people and then get out of town. I needed to be free to express that physically."

Fortunately, Jones, Cassidy and Vroman are very familiar with the material and are making the most of their time together. So is the fourth principal, Jason Graae, the gifted journeyman character actor who plays Harold Hill's former partner in crime, Marcellus Washburn. Graae, whom Vroman calls "the funniest man I know," played Washburn in a concert version of The Music Man at the Hollywood Bowl in 2002.

"This time I'm going to reinvent 'Shipoopi,' " jokes Graae. "I'm going to bring out all the pain and pathos in the number. But seriously, I'll have to scale down my performance from a 20,000-seat amphitheater to a 2,000-seat house. And we didn't do the full book at the Bowl. So I'm really looking forward to this."

Graae is also happy to be working with all three of his co-stars again. Graae has performed in concert with Vroman, done a musical called "Duets" and a TV pilot presentation of a show called "He Said, He Said" with Cassidy, and last season played the peddler Ali Hakim to Jones' Aunt Eller in the Pittsburgh CLO's production of Oklahoma!

"I've had them all and loved them all," he exclaims. "From now on I will be doing all my shows with them."

Graae may be joking, but Jones and Cassidy will be teaming up again this year – in Colorado Springs in September to do a Rodgers and Hammerstein evening with Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, then in October to do Carousel in Massachusetts. Cassidy will play Billy Bigelow and his mother will play Cousin Nettie.

"I'll have done all three old lady roles in the shows that I did when I was young," observes Jones. "I'll have gone from Laurey to Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, Marian to Mrs. Paroo in The Music Man, and Julie Jordan to Nettie Fowler in Carousel. What's fun is that now I've graduated into character parts. I did Hidden Places for Hallmark (in 2006) and earned an Emmy nomination (for playing old Aunt Batty), and I recently did six shows on Days of Our Lives in which I played a 90-year-old woman dying of cancer. It's the hardest work I've ever done because it's a new show every day."

While Jones is best known for her girl-next-door musical roles, she attributes her career longevity to the uncharacteristically dramatic featured part she played in the 1960 film Elmer Gantry. As the downtrodden but proud and principled prostitute Lulu Bains, Jones earned her only Oscar and established herself as a serious actress at a time when movie musicals were falling out of favor.

"That role was the best thing that ever happened to me," Jones states emphatically. "It gave me the career I have today. It kept me from falling into a category. Until then I was a singer, and they weren't making musical pictures anymore. I thought my career was over. But Burt Lancaster (who starred in and co-produced the film) saw me on a Playhouse 90 show and felt I could do the part. It was fabulous, and I'm eternally grateful to him for giving me the opportunity."

So what's next for the still-gorgeous and multi-talented 74-year-old who isn't looking to stop performing any time soon?

"I'd love to do even more work with Patrick, although Broadway would be pretty tough at this point," she admits. "To do 8 to 9 shows a week? Certainly not if I had to carry a show. But when I came back to Broadway for 42^nd Street after being away for 38 years, it was a wonderful feeling. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed the camaraderie, the excitement backstage of working together. You don't get that in TV and film. You do your scenes in isolation. After experiencing that community again, I said, 'I want to do this some more!' "

*****

Performances of The Music Man at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts are April 22 through 27, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $22 to $53 and can be purchased by visiting the Bushnell Box Office at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford, CT, by calling 860-987-5900, or only at www.bushnell.org. Groups of 10 or more should call 860-987-5959.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.