By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Fort Hays State University's Department of Music and Theatre is set to bring its version of The Music Man to the stage with performances beginning Thursday.
The show is the first from the department since March 2020, said Terry Crull, associate professor of music and director of choral activities.
"This is a big show," he said. "Everybody loves it and to be the first thing we have after out of the pandemic. We're excited, and the fun cast is working hard."
Songs from the show are widely known, including 76 Trombones and Wells Fargo Wagon, Crull said.
"Everybody knows songs from the show, even if they don't know they know the song from the show," he said. "Even if you don't know, you know music from The Music Man. You will know it when you hear it, and you'll say 'Oh, that's in the show!' "
Many will remember the show from the 1962 movie version that featured Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.
Crull said the performance is set in fictional town of River City, Iowa, just across the border from Illinois, with characters based on people known to the show's creator Merideth Wilson.
Playing those parts are seasoned veterans of the department, Crull said.
"Braden Boyer is playing Harold Hill. Jenna Confer. ... Jenna is is our Marian Paroo the librarian, stuck-up librarian, who falls in love with Harold Hill and saves him from getting tarred and feathered when he's going to get run out of town," he said.
The story tells of Hill conning the people of River City into purchasing band instruments and equipment as he pretends to be a music instructor.
"They never practice because he doesn't know one note from another," Crull said. "But he sells them some band instruments, uniforms and whatever else and then when they catch him, here come the kids and uniforms, and they're supposed to play the minuet in G."
With a seasoned pit from the department, he said having the players pretend to be inexperienced is a fun aspect of the show.
"I mean the pit orchestra, college kids going on, you know, like a first-grade clarinet squeaking and whatever else, is hilarious," Crull said.
And with the show being the first since early in 2020, Crull said he expects large crowds for each performance.
"Show up and have a good time," Crull said. "Come early so you can read the program. Get your tickets early because like I said, this is a very popular show and it's been two years since we did a show. So we anticipate full big crowds and should be fun of course."
"It's a big cast so there's lots of families that are going to be taking up a lot of seats," Crull said. "We've already sold a lot of those tickets to the kids in the show. So yeah, it's just about 1912 stubborn Iowans who get flim-flamed into buying in band instruments and yet it turns out, all good, as a great musical should, with a happy ending."
Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:30 Sunday in the Felten Start Theatre in Malloy Hall on the FHSU campus.
Tickets are available at the box office, or by calling the FHSU Music Department at 628-4533.
