THE MUSIC MAN (1962)

Robert Preston’s intensely likable theatricality, hearty & artless, carries just about all before it in this (too) faithful* staging of the B’way Classic. Something of a memory musical for Meredith Willson (book, lyrics, score), it’s cornfed, but pure, a classic stranger-comes-to-town set up with fast-talking salesman Harold Hill in for a speedy turnaround on the promise of a Boys’ Band right here in River City, Iowa, before beating a quick retreat with the cash, leaving a gymnasium’s worth of broken promises. Morton DaCosta’s directing strategies, much of it straight from his original B’way staging at the Majestic Theatre, work far better in the stylized form of an integrated musical than on his AUNTIE MAME/’58 debut. Not that he holds back from placing a camera behind a piano keyboard for a trick composition, and refusing to cut production numbers begging for a trim. But then, subtlety ain’t the point on this piece of faux Americana, with a small town that might be Main Street in DisneyLand. (In a sweet piece of artistic irony, lenser Robert Burks immediately followed this tale of small town comic hysteria with small town deadly hysteria in Hitchcock's THE BIRDS/’63.*) The songs, whether brash or flowing, are cleverly designed to fit together like music puzzles, and tuneful enough to tempt even The Beatles into doing a ‘cover.’ (‘Till There was You,’ the only ‘showtune’ they ever recorded.) And how nice that the songs come straight at you instead of being snuck in as if faintly embarrassed of the basic conceit of musical comedy. Confrontation rather than finesse, and proud of the immense craft involved in pulling it off. Plus a solid cast much helped by a recent restoration that turns the whole show into Pop Art. But the key remains Preston, gaining dramatic force from visible mileage showing on his sadder-but-wiser personal chassis, even a hint of mortality. Something no one else has even thought of bringing to the role. A Special Delivery of unexpected emotion coming in on the Wells Fargo Wagon.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Weird how much Shirley Jones’s Marian the Librarian and Preston’s Harold Hill match up with Hillary & Bill Clinton. (And just how great would either couple be in THE BIRDS? Yikes!)

DOUBLE-BILL: Preston’s career was revived with the stage production, but further film roles that could make good use of his presentational/ theatrical style proved hard to find. He was largely off the screen for nearly a decade before Sam Peckinpah (of all people) let him nearly steal JUNIOR BONNER/’72. Then, another big screen lacunae before Blake Edwards found him for S.O.B./’81 and VICTOR/VICTORIA/’82.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Sharp-eared musical comedy mavens will note that one number from the stage show, MY WHITE KNIGHT, is partially replaced by the pleasant, but weaker BEING IN LOVE. (‘Partially’ as the ‘break’ is unchanged.) Why so? Scuttlebutt has it that Willson’s mentor, the great Frank Loesser (of GUYS AND DOLLS fame) had too many fingerprints in the composition of KNIGHT, and Willson wanted a number that was 100% his. It’s a good reason to look for the B’way Original Cast recording which also the advantage of Barbara Cook’s Marian and a uniquely lifelike best-seat-in-the-house acoustic.