<\/p>\n
Traveling salesman Harold Hill admits he plays billiards, and he\u2019s proud to use his \u201cjudgment, brains and maturity\u201d to score in that game.<\/p>\n
But since the youth of River City, Iowa, recently gained access to a pool table as opposed to a billiards table, he predicts they\u2019re about to take \u201cthe first big step on the road to \u2026 degradation.\u201d<\/p>\n
As you listen to these lyrics in the song \u201cYa Got Trouble,\u201d which Harold sings to the townsfolk of 1912 River City in the musical \u201cThe Music Man,\u201d you might think: \u201cHuh? What kind of crazy distinction is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The song continues with more odd distinctions, as Harold suggests the pool table will lead young people to gambling, dime store novels, \u201cbeer in a bottle,\u201d and just about every evil in between. It\u2019s enough to \u201cmake your blood boil,\u201d he hints to the adults in the crowd.<\/p>\n
The song shows what a clever salesman Harold Hill is, said actor Elliott Andrews, who will portray the title character when Broadway in Scranton brings the musical \u201cThe Music Man\u201d to the Scranton Cultural Center for four shows June 12-14.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo appreciate it, you\u2019ve got to look at the lines right before it,\u201d Andrews said, noting that Harold Hill isn\u2019t giving a canned sales pitch. Hill has only just learned there\u2019s a new pool table in town, and he uses that information to compose a patter song, inventing a need and convincing the townsfolk he can fill it.<\/p>\n
What Harold offers is musical instruments, uniforms and instruction in a boys\u2019 band, guaranteed to keep the kids busy and out of trouble.<\/p>\n
But Harold intends to take the money and never deliver what he\u2019s promised. The one person in town who sees through him is Marian \u201cthe librarian\u201d Paroo.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe definitely realizes (he\u2019s a con man),\u201d Andrews said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n
Still, Marian falls in love with Harold \u2014 and he falls for her as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the method that he takes to do it, he does help the town,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cThe result is quite beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a monologue Marian has, with her younger brother Winthrop listening, Marian remembers Harold promised \u201cfireworks and cymbals and big drums and feathers.\u201d And he did deliver something good, \u201cin the way that every kid walked around this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe falls in love, if I can speak for her, in the effect he has on the community,\u201d Andrews said.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Harold, the actor continued, the adult residents of River City also became happier, perhaps unrecognizable from the \u201cstubborn \u2026 stuck in their ways \u2026 rude and not welcoming\u201d people they once were.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows the change one person can make,\u201d the actor said. \u201cYou can make a change in your workplace, your church, your line in the grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he travels the country with the show, Andrews said, he\u2019s noticed many theater-goers are grateful for a chance to see an old-fashioned musical from the \u201cGolden Age\u201d of musicals, like this one, which won five Tony Awards after its 1957 Broadway debut.<\/p>\n
\u201d \u2018Music Man\u2019 persists,\u201d he said. \u201cThe jokes are excellent. The songs leave you tapping your toes. The heart of it is still there. This is what we all trained for, and I\u2019m so grateful to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowadays, \u201cThe Music Man\u201d is most often performed by community theaters and school groups, Andrews said, adding that as the tour travels the country, \u201cwe\u2019ve met many sixth-grade and sophomore-in-high-school counterparts of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another fun fact: \u201cMusic Man\u201d composer and Iowa native Meredith Wilson also wrote the fight song for the University of Iowa athletic teams, and when the musical tour played in Iowa City, members of that school\u2019s Hawkeye Marching Band showed up to loan their talents to opening night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Music Man\u201d will be at the Scranton Cultural Center, 420 North Washington Ave., Scranton, at 7:30 p.m. June 12; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. June 13, Tickets are available at scrantonculturalcenter.org or through the box office at 570-344-1111.<\/p>\n
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