About the work
The Music Man is a musical by Meredith Willson, who supplied the music, lyrics, and book (with Franklin Lacey), premiered on Broadway in 1957. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical—famously beating West Side Story. The work is a nostalgic love letter to the American Midwest of Willson's own Iowa childhood.
Plot
The charming con man Harold Hill arrives in 1912 in the small town of River City, Iowa, posing as a music professor. He intends to sell the townsfolk instruments and uniforms for a boys' band, claiming a miraculous "Think System" of instruction, then vanish with the money before any lessons take place. But the stern, lonely librarian Marian Paroo sees through him—and falls in love with him all the same. When Hill sees how his swindle has given the town a new sense of community and her withdrawn younger brother newfound confidence, he abandons his escape and stays to face the truth.
Cultural significance
The Music Man is among the best-loved American musicals, famous for its rhythmically spoken, train-rhythm opening number Rock Island and the rousing march Seventy-Six Trombones. The ballad Till There Was You was later recorded by the Beatles, the only show tune they ever released. The work embodies an idealised Americana nostalgia and has seen numerous revivals, most recently an acclaimed 2022 Broadway production starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.