A Simpler Time
I was just watching The Music Man, a very enjoyable musical. (It beat out West Side Story for the Best Musical Tony. Good call.)
Set in the early 1900s, it's the story of a con man working a small Iowa town. Here's the con: he convinces the city to give him large amounts of money to form a boys' band, and all they get in return are instruments, costumes and sheet music.
That's some scam.
posted by LAGuy @ 1:29 AM
2 Comments:
West Side Story is not as good as The Music Man? Sondheim is not as good as "Shipoopi"? Really?
Funny you mention Sondheim, since when the show debuted, he was an unknown and often not even named in the reviews.
Anyway, I think Music Man is a better show. Why? Well, I've watched both on stage more than once (including on Broadway) and have seen how they work.
Music Man is delightful. A tuneful and well-integrated score--with quite innovative lyrics--and a plot, as corny as it may (intentonally) be, that really moves and is very entertaining.
West Side Story, on the other hand, though it may have had groundbreaking staging (I didn't see the original Jerome Robbins production, of course), has a good if overrated score. Sondheim himself has expressed dissatisfaction with some of his lyrics. But that book--oh my does it stink. One-dimensional characters stuck in an overheated melodrama. And it's quite dated--the dialogue makes them sound silly, not menacing.
Music Man beat West Side Story for all the Tonys except design and choreography. The general feeing of the voters at the time, quite understandably--it was simply a better show. The public agreed. Music Man was a blockbuster while West Side Story was just an average hit. It wasn't until the WSS movie came out in the 60s (and won a bunch of Oscars) that--deservedly or not (I go with not)--it was widely considered a modern classic.
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