It’s been a long time since I watched The Music Man, the 1962 musical starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones (as well as a very young Ron Howard). Preston plays a con man who arrives in a small town in 1910s Iowa and poses as a boy’s band leader, with the aim of fleecing the citizens out of their money and skipping town.
Within minutes, I was enthralled once again by Preston’s energy, voice, and comedic talent. And when Shirley Jones sang, I was blown away by what a magnificent voice she had. I’m not sure she got the recognition she deserved. At any rate, I easily slipped back into this simpler-time story and was happy to spend a couple of hours with some amazing singers, dancers, and actors.
I first saw The Music Man in the sixties, when I was a kid. My best friend Rebecca and I loved the movie. Her parents had the album, and we used to listen to it all the time. This was back when a record was the only way you could buy music. The days before DVDs. Before eight-tracks and cassette tapes.
Our favorite song was “Trouble with a Capital T,” which we’d act out in her living room when her parents weren’t home. We’d line up the song on the album and take our places. I’d stand on an ottoman and pretend to be Professor Harold Hill, Preston’s role, my arms gesticulating wildly in a attempt to reproduce Preston’s verve as he sang about how a new pool table was going to ruin the town’s youth. “Oh, we got trouble/right here in River City!/With a capital ‘T’/And that rhymes with ‘P’/And that stands for pool.”
In the movie the River City townspeople crowded around Preston, and as they became agitated by his appeals they began to echo his lines. In our rendition, Rebecca played all the townspeople (imagination was especially necessary here), simulating their worried looks and choreography as she sang the refrain, “And that stands for pool.”
Speaking of choreography, The Music Man has some incredible dance numbers, including “Seventy-Six Trombones” and my personal favorite, “Marian the Librarian,” which does take place in a library and has some of the best dance moves I’ve ever seen.
In a time when almost everything on TV is violent, dark, or disturbing – or all of the above – I appreciate a story that takes me out of today’s world (which can be violent, dark, and disturbing enough) and drops me into a happier environment.
Yes, the story is about a con man, and I’ve read a few rants on line where people claim Preston’s character should have been arrested. I think that’s way out of line. It’s missing the point. The movie is clearly a comedy, not a serious film. Viewers should take it the way it was intended. In addition, Preston’s character undergoes redemption, an important point of the story that wouldn’t exist if there were no flaws to be redeemed.
The movie’s not without its faults. But what is? The story doesn’t spend a lot of time on character development. There’s enough, however, to hold it together. And I’m happy for the time that is allotted to the song and dance numbers, which are wonderful. The film might be a bit too long, clocking in at two hours and thirty-one minutes. But spending a little extra time in River City isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. In fact, I think my return visit there was perfect.