"Pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find you've collected nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you but I'like to make today worth remembering."
~Harold Hill
Chances are, if you’ve talked to me in the past few months about the spring musical, I've shared with you this particular fact; Meredith Willson's The Music Man is my favorite musical. I first discovered the soundtrack my senior year of high school, through a commercial for PBS that used a clip of The Beatles singing “Till There was You.” I assumed it was another brilliant song by John or Paul until I learned that it was just a cover of Meredith Willson's classic ballad.
One of the reasons that The Music Man is so remarkable is that it’s one of the few musicals where the story, music, and lyrics were originated by a single person. While not strictly autobiographical, the show is very much a reflection of the life of Meredith Willson. The show is based on his upbringing in rural Iowa at the turn of the century. In those days, there were few options for cultural entertainment in the rural Midwest. Town socials, street parades, and the ubiquitous American marching band were all staples of the rural culture through much of the United States.
Meredith Willson had first-hand experience with the American band movement; not only did he grow up surrounded by small town marching bands in Iowa, he was a professionally trained flautist and for three years was the principal piccolo player for the John Philip Sousa marching band. Wilson was a consummate musician and in the years after leaving the Sousa band, he joined the New York Philharmonic, subsequently playing under such conductors as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Willem Mengelberg, and Arturo Toscanini.
While Wilson wrote other stage musicals and music for a few musical films, none of his other works ever gained the same popularity or prominence as The Music Man. He was effectively a “one-hit-wonder,” with his only other notable contribution to modern music as the Christmastime hit, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” When the original Broadway show debuted in 1957, critics and audiences immediately fell in love. That same year, The Music Man won the Tony Award for Best Musical, beating West Side Story.
At the core of the story is protagonist, Professor Harold Hill. Today, he would best be described as an anti-hero; he's likable, charming, and instantly endearing but also deceptive, self-serving, and driven by greed. Harold Hill is a New York City con-man, a traveling salesman known for selling entire towns imaginary equipment and uniforms for marching bands. He does this all under the guise of being one of the great march masters, ready to bring that same experience to the small towns he passes through.
