review

Robert Preston was the best thing--and the worst--that ever happened to The Music Man. His 1957 Broadway performance as Harold Hill, the smooth-talking con man who breezes into a hick town to defraud its residents and ends up losing his heart to the local librarian, was so exuberantly charismatic that it made him a star overnight. Five years later, Preston appeared in the film version of The Music Man, one of a handful of Hollywood musicals to clearly suggest the theatrical impact of the stage show on which it was based. Since then, every director who takes on The Music Man has labored in the long shadow of the 1962 film version. Not even Susan Stroman, who staged the 2000 Broadway revival, managed to break free from its now-stifling example, while Craig Bierko, who played Harold Hill for Ms. Stroman, did little more than mimic Preston's indelible performance.

All this points to the reason the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of The Music Man is making so positive an impression on its audiences. Bill Rauch, the company's artistic director, has done what I thought impossible: He's turned his back on tradition and given us a high-concept Music Man in which every detail has been rethought and refurbished. Yet Mr. Rauch's innovations never obstruct our front-row view of Meredith Willson's sweet salute to turn-of-the-century American life. It's as though a faded painting had been scrupulously restored and hung in a brand-new gallery. Yes, it's still the same old show, but you'll see things in it that you didnt know were there.

Read the complete review.