Play of the Week: The Music Man

How can you find a play more American than one that includes a barbershop quartet, a marching band, taking place in a Midwestern town on the 4th of July, and whose main character is a conman. Well maybe there have been a few more patriotic plays, but The Music Man is the Play of the Week for the Independence Day weekend.

Meredith Wilson wrote the whole play and the score in the great American marching band tradition and really created a spectacle that is two hours of fun. There really isn't any substance to the plot other than a sappy romance. But the whole thing is fun and lively as any good musical should be.

It won the Best Musical Tony in 1958 beating out West Side Story. It subsequently has had two revivals and been made into both a film and a made for TV movie.


Happy Birthday: Tom Stoppard (b. 1937)
July 4th: Tracy Letts (b. 1965) & Neil Simon (b. 1927)