On Musicals

SUBJECT: The Music Man

Stephen Sondheim's work, particularly the award-winning Sunday in the Park with George, continues to draw admiration from the critical and scholarly community as well as the public.

The intellectual and aesthetic value of an American classic - which continues to make its rounds of community theatres and high school stages, as well as a recent, successful Broadway revival - might not seem as self-evident. After all, Meredith Willson's The Music Man can seem like an unreflective paean to parochial small-town American life, not unlike Our Town. The Broadway revival certainly counted on nostalgia to draw its audience (like so many Broadway revivals!), and it's becoming impossible to even see the film any more without having to penetrate so many folds of Hollywood's self-reminiscent wrapping. (When I was growing up, the film would be shown on TV every year around the 4th of July - an annual television event, like The Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life.)

So what do you make of this musical? Is it substantive, or fluff? Is its strength in its ability to entertain and engage an audience? Does it aspire to any higher goal than simply telling a story with a moral? Is there poignancy in this play? Or is it a vehicle for catchy songs? What is this musical for? Why do it? Why see it?

Consider (for your meditations, if you like, and certainly for class discussion) whether this show is typical of the American Broadway musical, and how. More to the point, consider whether there is anything worthwhile to be had in watching "Seventy-Six Trombones," or in talking about it. I suspect there is ... what do you think?