The Music Man

Product Description:

Music and lyrics written by Meredith Willson.

Principal cast includes: Robert Preston (Harold Hill); Barbara Cook (Marian Paroo); David Burns (Mayor Shin); Pert Kelton (Mrs. Paroo); Iggie Wolfington (Marcellus Washburn); The Buffalo Bills.

Recorded on December 29, 1957.

THE MUSIC MAN has been a Broadway smash since it first opened in 1957, and this cast album endures as one of the genre's finest. Composer Meredith Willson was a protTgT of Frank Loesser--he of "On A Slow Boat To China" fame. Set in small-town Iowa at the turn of the century, THE MUSIC MAN is a nostalgic tour-de-force. Barbara Cook (about whom it has been said, "if the angels don't sing like her, then God is cruel") and Robert Preston (in his first singing role) head the fine cast.

The story revolves around Preston's "Professor" Harold Hill, a travelling salesman and charming con man. He shows up one day to sell musical instruments and marching-band uniforms to the townspeople, pitching the notion that such items will keep their children out of such trouble as after-school billiards games. "Trouble," he reminds them, "starts with a 'T' and that rhymes with 'P'--and that stands for 'pool!' "The hitch is that Hill falls in love with the local librarian, Marian Paroo (Cook). Willson uses marching themes, barbershop quartets, lovely balladry, and quick, witty wordplay to create an enchanting, romantic musical comedy.