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(If anyone can distract viewers from a con with charm, it’s probably Jackman, who has long hoped to play Harold Hill and portrayed men of questionable ethics in the movies “ The Greatest Showman,” “ The Front Runner” and “ Bad Education.”) “Musical con artists embody an extreme lionization of American individualism,” Venning wrote, “becoming emblematic of the ways in which our culture wants to understand, forgive, or even idolize those who take advantage of others, precisely because grifters maintain their status as empathetic subjects, even - or perhaps especially - as they turn people and communities into objectified marks.”Īt its best, “The Music Man” can capture “the fragile but glorious potential of American optimism our nation’s ubiquitous eccentric imperfections the transformative power of the arts in education,” wrote Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune.īut its agreeability still depends on whether audiences can excuse Hill’s ruse, enjoy his entertainment, become as enamored as Marian, root for their romance, pardon his career of lies and swindles, then consider his rebirth as authentic. He cited “The Music Man” as one of numerous musicals that centers on, and ultimately romanticizes, a scammer, just as in “The Producers,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and more.
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“Essentially, Hill’s gimmick is selling small-town hicks on high culture and the idea of self-improvement: using their own American idealism as the very bait that turns them into his marks,” wrote Dan Venning in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. He ultimately realizes the error of his ways, as Marian “transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain’s fall,” reads the show’s licensing page. The only person who doesn’t fall for Hill’s scheme is Marian, the well-read woman who is entirely defined by her unmarried status and ends up falling for Hill. (Yep, this “feel-good romantic comedy” is a scammer story!) The locals buy in - they get to protect their youth and enjoy live performances, a win-win indeed - and pay Hill, who plans to leave town just before any of the uniforms and instruments arrive, as he’s done in many, many places before this one. It doesn’t matter that Hill knows absolutely nothing about playing music, let alone teaching it he is so charismatic and charming that his “think system” for such a skill - “If you want to play the ‘Minuet in G,’ think the ‘Minuet in G,’” he claims - seems sound enough. The studios, already lacking diversity, expect high-profile films with nonwhite casts to be “proof of concept.” All it creates is unfair pressure.
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Movies Commentary: How Hollywood’s box-office ‘parlor game’ hurts movies like ‘In the Heights’ He does this by, first, scaring parents with the looming threat that their children could be corrupted, and then pitching them a solution to prevent this exact fate.
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To start, “The Music Man” is Professor Harold Hill, a traveling salesman who sells a small Iowa town on the urgent need for a marching band. “We will ensure our team enjoy the right conditions for creating their most brilliant work and sharing it with the widest possible audience.”Īs Broadway celebrates its return after a historic pandemic closure, offerings like this one beg the question: What exactly are we welcoming back? Why make such great attempts to salvage this particular project in the first place? Upon further analysis, it seems quite a choice to prioritize “The Music Man” in 2021. “‘The Music Man’ is a joyous love letter to the United States and a celebration of what we can achieve when we come together,” said Kate Horton, the executive producer replacing Rudin. The starry revival - also with Tony winners Sutton Foster, Jefferson Mays and Jayne Houdyshell - is now set to begin performances in December, more than a year later than initially planned. Days after Scott Rudin announced he was “stepping back” from his various projects due to allegations of abusive behavior toward his staff, Hugh Jackman assured media that the team behind his Broadway production of “The Music Man” was “rebuilding” without the producer.