Sunday, June 3, 2012

But you can win me yet

Arena Stage has continued their run of classic musicals with the current The Music Man. A friend managed to snag free tickets, so I checked out their production last night. It stars Burke Moses, who I saw as Sky Masterson on Broadway YEARS ago, and Kate Baldwin, who I apparently saw in 1776 at Ford's in 2003. (She was Martha Jefferson.)

I hadn't seen The Music Man in years. I'm fairly sure I've seen the play at some point. I know I've seen the movie, but it's been a long time. The songs are incredibly enjoyable; Meredith Willson did just a stupendous job with it. And the music allows Arena the room for a lot of great dancing--one of the company's strong points. "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Shipoopi," "Marian the Librarian" all provide fantastic opportunities for entertainment. I could watch those kids dance all day. (You can see a clip of "Shipoopi" on Arena's website.)

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the story itself, particularly the journey of Marian. I love that the story for her ultimately isn't that she must get the guy. It's that she's opened herself up, has bonded with people in town, isn't the rather dour woman we meet at the beginning of the show. I LOVE that at the end, she's all, "It's cool, you can take off--not a problem. My life is better for having met you, but I am legitimately OK with you leaving." Seriously, how awesome is that? That just seems incredibly progressive to me for a show that was written in the 1950s.

A confusing element was how Hill hoodwinks the people of River City. He really doesn't seem quite as bad as the show wants us to think he is. It's not like he takes these people's money, tells them for weeks that they'll get uniforms and instruments, and leaves town before they realize the supplies are never coming. They get the instruments. They get the uniforms. They even get instruction booklets on how to play. So, the big con is that...he can't actually teach music? That doesn't really seem like such a big deal to me. I mean, hello! The town has a music teacher. Problem solved!

Possibly the biggest problem in the play is the relationship between Marian and Hill. It's a problematic relationship because we don't really get to see many falling-in-love moments for them. Much of their dialogue is antagonistic. It reminds me of My Fair Lady, in that the relationship relies a LOT on the actors playing the parts. (To date, I've seen one production of My Fair Lady where I felt the relationship worked--at Signature, in probably 2006 or 2007.) Kate Baldwin did an admirable job; she managed to convey Marian's emotions--her doubt, her hope, her skepticism. But though Burke Moses did a good job with the slick hucksterism of Hill, I never bought that he felt anything real for Marian. The chemistry wasn't there.

And to make some sort of comment on looking back fondly on "easier" days, the play is set in the 1950s. Kind of. The play itself could never be; it's solidly written in the early 1900s. Hill says he's class of "aught five." They talk about Model Ts. For heavens sake, they get excited about the Wells Fargo wagon. So why stick all these people in clothes from the 1950s? I mean, sure, they look great (who doesn't love 1950s fashion?), but it makes no sense. I hate when theaters do this.

But the singing was good and the dancing was enjoyable. I do continue to have problems with Arena's Fichandler space; I feel like it isn't optimized acoustically. It's a theater-in-the-round, and if an actor isn't facing me while talking, I frequently have no idea what that person said. I don't think I caught a word of what Nehal Joshi's Marcellus Washburn sang in "Shipoopi." I don't think everyone was miked, and it showed. Very badly. I had the same problems during Oklahoma, and I would hope that this kind of thing would be fixed. In this day and age, I shouldn't have to struggle just to make out dialogue.

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