Over the years, I've seen several productions of The Music Man, Meredith Willson's 1957 valentine to his beloved Iowa that is surely the quintessential American musical. But none compares to the 2009 Oregon Shakespeare Festival's presentation in the Bowmer Theatre under Bill Rauch's dazzling and innovative direction.
Consider the opening gambit, when some traveling salesmen are riding in a moving railway coach headed for River City, Iowa. Their sales-speak is, "Ya gotta know the territory," and they all have much to say.
One of them, Charlie Cowell (John Pribyl), who lugs around a suitcase containing anvils (a hard sell, you'd think), sounds off about Professor Harold Hill, a music man, accusing him of being "just a bang beat, bell-ringin', big haul, great go, neck-or-nothin', rip roarin', ever'-time a-bull's-eye salesman."
The pace of their remarks matches the train's motion accelerating, decelerating and coming to a full stop. Not only is the dialogue brilliantly written and conceived, it is stunningly delivered and evoked a thunderous ovation from the audience, such as might be accorded a play at its end, but not at its start.
Oh, yes, The Music Man is hugely entertaining.
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