Madison High School brings a classic musical to the stage with “The Music Man.”
“The Music Man” follows a charismatic traveling salesman, Professor Harold Hill, who sells band instruments with the promise of forming marching bands. The problem is, he leaves before following through.
He visits one small town in Iowa and falls in love with a librarian named Marian.
“It’s just one of the great great shows in musical theater, so you can never go wrong with The Music Man,” said Robert Hibbard, the drama director at Madison High School.
Local dance expert and choreographer, Mindy Larsen, conducted plenty of research to keep the dancing true to the musical’s 1912 setting.
“It’s pre-Charleston, but some of those moves are making their way into even small town Iowa dancing genres,” Larsen said. “I tried to do a lot of movement that was specific to that era. There’s sort of animal-dances. The tango is just coming into style. There is closed partner dancing, and we jazz it up a little bit for our audiences to make it fun and we add a couple lifts and some ballroom.”
Ashton Ballard plays Harold Hill, A.K.A the Music Man. Larsen says he nails the part.
“He has come such a long way in developing his charm and his acting while just absolutely nailing the music, the solos,” Larsen said.
Mary Palmer plays Marian the librarian.
“She has the voice of an angel and it’s really fun to watch both of their journeys as he realizes what actually feels like to fall in love, and she realizes, also what it’s like to fall in love and the magic happens and they both get changed by it forever,” Larsen said.
Hibbard’s favorite part of the musical is when Harold convinces Marian to join him at the footbridge. At first she says, “Maybe tomorrow.”
“He says, ‘Save up enough tomorrows, my dear and you’ll have nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays,’ and to me that’s one of the messages of the whole show,” Hibbard said. “Live your life today.”
The Music Man will run Nov. 9-11, 13 at 7 p.m. at Madison High School. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Click here to buy them online or you can buy them in person.