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Show : ! IV : - zr ; nl t (Left) Some of the best work in "Music Man" comes from the compulsively harmonic barbershop quartet. The yj golden throats are (left wmmmmMmmmmmmm to right) Dick Cum-mings, Cum-mings, Bill Tatomer, Bob Toy and Mike Phillips. Phil-lips. (Right) There's a lot of flirting in this show. First, Prof. Harold Hill (Scott Morgan) tries to soften Marian the Librarian Li-brarian (Debby Rapp) then... (see Page B3) photos by David Hampshire 3 - - A i X i i '7TTs O T1 O oil a ..VmnmcBilngM Page Bl Thursday, December 23, 1982 Music Man' should use more of the Preparation Method by Rick Brough Meredith Wilson's "Music Man" is about the traveling con man, Harold Hill (Scott Morgan) whose specialty is selling band instruments and uniforms to gullible small towns, with the promise that he will help them establish their own local boys' band. The "Professor" wouldn't know a note of music if he choked on it, but he used The Think Method: If the kids meditate long enough on the music they want to produce, they can play it. The artists at Park City Performances have obviously obvious-ly used more than the Think Method to stage their current cur-rent production of "Music Man." The show has too many good moments. But they haven't put enough time into the Preparation Pre-paration Method. The tasks involved in music, singing, dancing, and costumes are of DeMille-size proportions. The results are mixed, ranging from quite good to quite bad. At its best, the play works up a kind of town-hall merriment, and with that the production could almost clunk along to a satisfying conclusion. However, "Music Man" is a bustling production with out much at its center i.e., where the performances should be. The actors are competent enough, but hardly hard-ly anyone asserts his personality per-sonality against the large, milling population of River City, Iowa, or the extensive music score. The malady is so widespread that one is drawn to conclude director Don Gomes didn't find the time to bring the cast along. As Professor Harold Hill, Scott Morgan faltered in his lines, and seemed somewhat insecure in his part a mortal defect for a role that calls for boundless energy, charisma, razzle-dazzle, and a gradually awakening conscience. con-science. We should stress, however, that Harold Hill is a cutthroat cut-throat part. The actor scarcely has a dozen lines before his first song and what do you think that is? "Trouble in River City," the Matterhorn of musical numbers. num-bers. It's understandable, then, if Morgan can't quite warm up to the proper level of buyant self-confidence for the remainder of the show. The script is filled with a snappy lingo that travelling salesmen are supposed to wield as expertly as a cowboy whirls a lariat. But he does.i't seem comfortable with it. Morgan is fine and relaxed when he tries to score with leading lady Deborah Rupp in the "Marian the Librarian" Libra-rian" number. The rhythm is different here hokey-pokey and flirty. Morgan's voice is good and he is in nice form leading his boys' band for the first time. ("Think, men, think!") At this point he is reminiscent of his memorable memor-able work in last summer's "Godspell." No individual singer puts as much soul into the songs here as Debby Rapp. (She has improved in this respect, I think, since "Fair Lady.") Unfortunately it backfires on her. Rapp's acting as the repressed, restless librarian is good, but it isn't as expressive as her singing. Marian is a colorless part, granted, but Rapp seemed a bit too resigned to her fate. In particular, she was quite superficial toward the end of the play when she is required to "bloom" from Hill's attention, and convincingly defend him before the townspeople. towns-people. The production has a flurry of short supporting roles, and the actors are on for relatively brief periods. They have to push their parts, "to make hay while the moon sighs" (to use one of the slumsy phrases that Mayor Shinn might favor.) Leading the pack is Carroll Horton as Marian's mother, who lays out a humor and warmth that makes her the best-realized character in the play. Charles Latterner's Mayor Shinn is a thoughtful comic creation, though I don't always agree with the final result. He quickly establishes estab-lishes the mayor as a pompous, grouchy character, charac-ter, and he likes to stand in a snarling crouch with his arms spread as if he were about to lead a ban-i himself Latterner hits that one pose too much, but is sufficiently laughable as a pedant who thinks carefully and precisely precise-ly to pick the ri'ht maimed metaphor in Ins speech. Fred Hightower, as the sidekick Marcellus, has a surprisingly watery role. In the script, he's mainly a confidant for Professor Mill someone who ies the Music Man an excuse to explain his plans and inner feelings to the audience It's Music to B3 H 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1 I I I I y 44- MERRY CHRISTMAS -Uj :ziNOW OPEN:zz"zi: Z-JZZZZZZZZZI Featuring: ZZ" JT X I I I Stetson L-- Tony Lama IK SsN Justin s u "N 1 Nocona ) I Karman 9 - 9, 7 days a week. z '' '', ' -"4 'ft " "I IP II IP' 4 til I Iff m ' i y ar". v,' 4 |