The Music Man was the end product of Meredith Willson's lifetime of human experience: his Iowa childhood, his years as a flautist in John Phillip Sousa's band, his prowess as a popular, symphonic and film composer. Add to this his years as an observational humorist on the Maxwell House Coffee radio program (making him something of a forerunner of Garrison Keillor). The catalyst seemingly came when friend and colleague Frank Loesser suggested to Willson that his childhood reminiscences could make for a highly enjoyable musical comedy.

Rousing marches, ragtime, barbershop quartet singing, love duets which hearkened back to an earlier era, were combined with infectious dancing and colorful staging. Threading this all together was the humor, at times broad, but also curiously "camp" owing to Willson's wry and shrewd take on his early environment (this is especially perceptible in the 1962 film version). This saved the work from becoming cloying, yet was never so barbed as to lose the genuine affection for this golden age. A megahit, The Music Man came to be the third longest running musical of the 1950s and '60s. Much of the credit rests on the broad shoulders of leading man Robert Preston.

Set in 1912 Iowa, charlatan Harold Hill comes to River City, intent on extracting money from the town folk for musical instruments and band uniforms. With his engaging mesmerism, he wins over all but the town's librarian, Marian Paroo, who intends to expose him until she sees the positive effect the musical project has had on her introverted younger brother. They fall in love and Harold moves toward doing the right thing until a fellow salesman arrives and produces evidence to convict Hill. The latter is saved from a lynching when the band emerges, just barely able to play the notes, yet well enough to thrill the proud parents and townspeople. All ends happily.

The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre on December 19, 1957. The cast included Robert Preston, Barbara Cook, Pert Kelton, Eddie Hodges, and Iggie Wolfington. Songs included "Trouble," "76 Trombones," "Wells Fargo Wagon," "Lida Rose," and "Till There Was You." Preston reprised his role for the Oscar-nominated film version opposite Shirley Jones (for the film, Willson composed "Being in Love," a soliloquy more suited to Jones' style, replacing the original "My White Knight").

© Wayne Reisig, Rovi