Seventy Six Trombones

Music Man Overload!

It's OK- I love "The Music Man"  It's majorly on the brain since I was cast as the show's lead about 2 months ago.  We opened on Saturday night and everything went well and I truly am loving this production and this role.  Here are some pictures for those interested:

Random thoughts running through my brain...

On our opening night, two cast members had the stomach flu.  My dad, who is also in the production, jumped in and covered for one guy in the opening train scene "Rock Island"  He rocked it!  It was great!  I was proud.

My Dad had always wanted to play this role I'm currently playing.  He got older and the moment passed for him.  The closest he got was when he was cast as an understudy for the role some years back, but he never got a chance to perform the role.  It makes me sad for him.  He's a great guy and he would have rocked the role!  

The above picture is me and my dad in the final dress rehearsal, me as Harold Hill, him as Ewart Dunlop.  

One more thought- I just love this theater, The Hopebox in Kaysville.  I feel like I'm part of a family and the fact that we are doing this production for and in behalf of Adam Larsen, a young college student who performs in the drumline, and is suffering from Leukemia, makes this all such a wonderful experience.  I can't think of anything else our family could be doing.  Here's one more picture, it's of me marching with two of my kids and two of my nephews during "Seventy Six Trombones"  

Here's "Seventy Six Trombones" the song stuck in my head from yesterday morning:

Iowa Stubborn

I'm currently in a production of The Music Man.  Holy moly this music is good and catchy.

Here's the song for today, Iowa Stubborn.  I love this show so much.

I lubb you.

My White Knight

I've got my favorite musical, "Music Man" on the brain.

I love "The Music Man."  It was a staple in family films I watched as a kid.  Meredith Willson's 1957 classic Musical tells the story of Harold Hill, the scheming travelling salesman who swindles a small Iowa town into buying band uniforms and instruments for their children even though he himself knows nothing about music.

We've recently, as a family, watched the 1962 film.  I've seen it hundreds of times.  My kids loved it!  (Watch it if you haven't seen it, it's great!)  It was fantastic revisiting this beloved film again through more mature eyes.  There is so much depth to the story.  The music is top-notch, clever, fun, catchy and just good.  Oh, and Harold Hill was the first rapper in my opinion.

Aside from the music, Music Man is a great story.  Meredith Willson spent 15 years writing it and perfecting it and he nailed it.  It's about as perfect a production as you can get, with rich characters.  Marian Paroo, the female lead of the production, is a strong female character in a sea of weak doe-eyed female characters from the same era.

One of her ballads, "My White Knight" was playing in my head this morning.  In it, Marian sings of the kind of man she wants in her life.

"And if occasionally he'd ponder
What makes Shakespeare and Beethoven great,
Him I could love 'til I die.  Him I could love 'til I die."

This song is from the stage production, but was omitted from the film in lieu of "Being in Love," another nice song by Meredith Willson, that will certainly be revisited here someday if it happens to get stuck in my head.

Here's "My White Knight"