The review

Seeing “The Music Man” performed by Big League Theatricals at Stephens Auditorium was like watching a Disney movie come to life. The show contained romance, action, comedy and, of course, a whole lot of music.

And it all takes place in Iowa.

Gerritt Vandermeer plays the handsome traveling salesman named “Professor” Harold Hill. His business is selling musical instruments. He slyly enters a community, talks all the parents into buying instruments for their children, promises to form a glorious boys’ band for the city and sneaks out of town before the parents realize he does not have the slightest clue how to teach or even play any sort of musical instrument.

In the summer of 1912, business is thriving for Harold Hill when he happens upon the town of River City, Iowa. This town, based upon author Meredith Willson’s hometown of Mason City, soon falls under Harold’s spells and promises.

However, Harold accidentally falls in love with the pretty, but militant, town librarian played by Carolann Sanita.

Harold is stuck between abandoning the woman he loves or facing the expectations of the angry Iowan community that was promised a superb boys’ marching band.

Perhaps the crowd favorite of the night was the tiny horn-playing Winthrop Paroo, played by Joshua Siegel. The small blond lisper, brother to the librarian, evoked smiles and laughter with his booming voice, says Sarah Carlson, freshman in anthropology.

“The little kid playing Winthrop was really good,” she said. “He carried his lisp throughout the play and proved to be a good actor.”

The visual appeal of this musical, hands down, won the audience’s heart, if nothing else. The costumes were bright, brilliant and comical.

The gossipy women of River City, singing their bouncy and contagious “Pickalittle” song, wore hats with humongous bows, ribbons and scarves that bobbed up and down in time with the melody.

The sets and backgrounds created an intricate realism that at the same time adhered to the vibrancy and happiness of the production.

Scene changes occurred in a matter of seconds, and houses rolled smoothly away on unseen wheels to reveal another beautiful set, hidden behind the one just used.

Multiple award-winning choreographer Susan Stroman is one of the best choreographers in the business, and she proves herself deftly in this production.

The first singing number of the night is performed on a moving train. The actors, bouncing in unison with the beat of the song, imitate the bumping of the old train going down the tracks. One has to look twice, because it actually looks like the cast is riding on a train, and not sitting on a stationary set.

The rest of the musical showed a transition through a wide variety of dance and song type, says Cameron Good, freshman in mechanical engineering. The talented cast handled the challenging choreography and dance with ease, much to the delight of the audience.

“The choreography was amazing,” Good says. “It went through ballet, swing , jazz and gymnastics. The presentation and singing were magnificent and the cast was extremely well-chosen. It was one of the best plays I’ve seen.”

Most audience members had similar reactions, as they bubbled out of Stephens Auditorium with large smiles and humming the big number, “76 Trombones.”

The musical was an all-around fun time for everyone in attendance, says Yukari Ikuno, junior in marketing and international business.

“I thought ‘The Music Man’ was a really, really great musical,” Ikuno says. “It was so fun and exciting. The dances made me want to start dancing with them and I loved the music. It was especially fun because I used to be in a marching band.”

Audiences everywhere will take delight in “The Music Man,” a happy production that appeals to all ages, especially long-time residents of Iowa, because this wonderful musical takes place in their back yard.

The town

It’s no secret that Meredith Willson was a fan of the town he grew up in.

Meredith Willson’s Iowa home town of Mason City is pretty much unmistakable as the inspiration for the fictional “River City,” and the city is proud of its place in musical history.

“He’s Iowa’s favorite son,” says Carl Miller, chief executive officer for the Mason City Foundation and former mayor of the city. “It’s very exciting and thrilling to still see his stuff all over America.”

In the spirit of Willson, Mason City has brought the days of “The Music Man” back to life with “The Music Man Square,” a multi-million dollar complex dedicated to the musical, the writer and helping people learn to play music.

“When you come in the door, you hear ’76 Trombones,’ and you walk on the wooden street and you know you are in 1912 — July 3, 1912,” Miller says.

Miller speaks of an indoor recreation of the set of “The Music Man,” complete with the offices, soda fountain and barber shop. It wouldn’t be complete without River City High. The setting serves as a fitting place for banquets and brings in a large number of visitors each week.

“We’ve had as many as 530 people eating on the street,” Miller says. “We’re getting about 500 visitors a week.”

The Music Man Square also has a conservatory, complete with a major recording studio, library and practice spaces.

“We call it a conservatory but it’s really a music building,” Miller says. “Young people can record in there and burn it and send it off to the college of their choice.”

It’s a big complex and one of the big tourist attractions for Mason City, which also boasts the McNider Museum and a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture.

“We call it the home of ‘The Music Man’ with the Wright stuff,” Miller says.

More Music Man Square information can be found at www.themusicmansquare.org.

— Jeff Mitchell

The man

Meredith Willson writes about what he knows with “The Music Man,” his first Broadway musical. Willson was born in 1902 and grew up in Mason City, which is the inspiration of the musical’s setting, River City, Iowa.

He learned the flute while he was a child and left Mason City for the Damrosch Institute of Musical Art in New York after high school. Willson became first flutist in John Philip Sousa’s band, and later the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s first-chair flutist.

Willson spent time as conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, musical director for ABC, movie and television show score composer and, during World War II, worked in the Armed Forces Radio Service.

Among his accomplishments, Willson’s first trip to Broadway in 1957 won eight Tony Awards, but he also wrote two other popular Broadway musicals: “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” in 1960 and “Here’s Love” in 1963. In addition, he won an Oscar and an Academy Award for the film adaptation of “The Music Man” and the cast of the musical received the first Grammy Award ever presented.

“He was not only very prolific, but when you go through the variety in which he wrote, it was also very extensive,” says Carl Miller, chief executive officer for the Mason City Foundation. “But 400 scores — can you imagine it?”

Miller says Willson was also recognized by three presidents: John F. Kennedy praised him for work with the Boys and Girls Club, Richard Nixon commended him many times for his involvement on the West Coast and Ronald Reagan gave him the Medal of Freedom posthumously.

One small accomplishment might hit a sour note at Iowa State. In 1950 Willson penned the University of Iowa fight song.

Willson died in 1984 at the age of 82 in Santa Monica, Calif.

— Jeff Mitchell