music man review 7/14/01

"The Music Man" ensemble radiates style rare even on biggest stagesBruce Stuart"Ever hear of a fellow called Hill," one salesman asks another as their train pulls into River City. By the time the curtain came down on "The Music Man," Thursday nights audience at Eastern Slope Inn Playhouse not only knew Hill, but were happily apart of his reformation from con man to community leader all in a small town in turn of the century Iowa. From overture to final curtain the Mount Washington Theatre Company offered up an exuberant, high-spirited, fast paced, and sometimes brash performance of Meredith Wilson's ageless musical. Everything worked. The voices and acting, the sets and costumes, dance, the ensemble, and all the fun that played for laugh after laugh from the audience. How could it be otherwise when David Miceli, who plays "Professor Hill," belts out: ''I cheer/I rave/For the virtue I'm too late to save/The sadder but wiser girl for me!'' Miceli isn't Robert Preston (whose virtuoso performance in the original 'Music Man' is musical theater legend) he's his own man. Slightly less exuberant but with a pleasant warmth that never quite came across in Preston's performance. When Courtney Parker as "Marian Paroo," sings, "Goodnight My Someone," you almost wish you were that someone. Here is an actor with a strong voice with nice projection. And confident too. "Marion's" mother is played by Karen Minkkiness Page with a audience-pleasing combination of Irish kibitz and motherly concern. Ten-year-old Ged Owen as "Winthrop Paroo" holds his own in a part that is as funny as it is poignant. "Mayor Shinn," played by Dan Perley, is appropriately empty-headed. His stammering was nicely paced. Adrienne Cote as "Eulalie Shinn" was a perfect Grecian fountain. The moment she raised her arms the audience laughed. "Zanetta," her daughter, played by Kathleen Glauber, formed a capable team with "Tommy," played by Nathaniel Keuter, especially in the dance numbers. Daniel Lee Robbins, Lee Cavellier, Kyle Barisich and Ken Legum stole the stage as combative school board members turned barber shop quartet. The harmonies were right. Their movements were as stylish as a handle bar mustache. Mike Emerick as anvil salesman "Charlie Cowell" was downright obnoxious. Effective as the kind of character who, if you met on a train, youd change your seat. Meagan Perley as "Amaryllis," was pleasantly tone deaf. Director and choreographer Clay James has brought it all together beautifully. From the zippy opening train scene, to the Wells Fargo Wagon bit, to the handsomely paced and executed "Schipoopi" in Madison Park, the ensemble radiates a style rare on even the biggest stages. Plan on buying your tickets early. As word gets out, the theater will be packed. Footnote: In a highly unusual musical theater undertaking, Meredith Wilson wrote the book, music, and lyrics to "The Music Man." Born at the turn of the century in Mason City, Iowa, Wilson became a flutist in John Phillip Sousas band. Later he was to be musical director on many late 1930s radio shows produced at the NBC studios in Hollywood. He died in 1982, long a recluse from the musical theater scene.