Published: July 10, 2009 11:04 am      

'Music Man' opens at GMS auditorium

A crook developing a conscious may seem like a contradiction, but that’s exactly what happened Thursday night in the former Gainesville High School Auditorium.

During its debut performance, Meredith Willson’s The Music Man proved that sometimes all a town really needs to come together, is a good, old fashioned hoax.

A Butterfield Stage production, The Music Man is set in 1912 in an Iowa “chip-on-the-shoulder-attitude” town called River City. However when the townspeople are conned by a traveling salesman known as Professor Harold Hill (played by Shane Studdard), attitudes begin to soften.

Hill’s scheme is to convince the townspeople to buy musical instruments, uniforms and theory books for their young boys to join “the band.”

According to Hill, the small town and its youth is in a dire, ethical dilemma due to the recent edition of a pool table to the community. As a solution, Hill suggests the parents purchase the musical instruments and other ‘necessities’ so that he can start a band with the boys and thus keep them from mischief.

Hill may not ever, actually teach the boys a single note, but he does achieve in unifying the town. In fact, he even gets the bickering school board members to become inseparable through song. At the beginning of the play the school board members are a cacophony of squabble, but by the end of the play they have transformed into a barbershop harmony quartet.

But Hill’s greatest triumph and demise comes when he meets the town’s librarian Marian Paroo (played by Gena Winters). Hill is determined to dupe the scholar/music teacher in order to pass as a genuine music professor, but winds up finding himself out-smarted.

As stated by Butterfield’s Executive Director Tamera Broyles in her producer’s note for the play’s program, “The cast, crew and countless volunteers have worked tirelessly for over six months creating River City.”

In the first scene alone, it became apparent to audience members how much time was spent in creating the production. During the song, “Rock Island” a group of traveling salesmen are seen sitting on a train. A few side railings of the train’s benches may have come unglued during the performance, but the audience barely seemed to notice as the men sang and bounced around, giving a realistic impression that they were actually riding a train bound for Iowa.

The only other glitches that occurred during the performance were primarily due to sound, which Broyles said she was concerned about prior to the show.

“For me (I’m always worried about) the technical issues,” said Broyles. “It’s because, especially in an auditorium as big as this one, getting the sound right is so, so tricky. This building doesn’t have a built-in system where you have 18 mics, which is what we needed to do the show.”

As a solution, Broyles added, six mics were used from Butterfield, while the others were borrowed.

All technicalities aside, the play featured a large cast beaming with talent. Gene Winters wooed the audience with her voice, especially during her heart-tingling performance of “Till There Was You.” Other stand out performances included the Irish accent and humor of Sandy Carpenter who played Mrs. Paroo and her stuttering son Winthrop Paroo (played by Caleb Yosten).

The stammering Mayor Shinn played by Kenny Bezner served up quite a few laughs as did his outrageous wife turned dancer Eulalie Shinn (played by Nancy Moore). However while the cast was brimming with talent, the true star is director and Music Man himself, Shane Studdard.

His charm, coyness and song not only won over River City, but also the audience. In his director’s note for the program, Studdard said, “I saw this show when I was 8 years old as my first live theater experience.

My cousin, C.P., was Harold Hill and I never forgot the songs. I’ve wanted to do this show ever since.”

While she was anxious leading up to opening night, Broyles said once she saw its first performance, she was blown away.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It was just like all the blood, sweat and tears were worth it.”

Cast for the show includes: Christine Beutner, Matt Beutner, Kenny Bezner, Elizabeth Blessing, Blake Boyter, Jordan Brown, Katie Carpenter, Sandy Carpenter, Damia Cleaver, Emily Cleaver, Matthew Cleaver, Victor Cleavor, Lynn Compton, Kailey Day, Skylar Dickerson, Jillian Enderby, Helen Exel, Sam Fink, Stephanie Fink, Bruna Gomez, Ronnie Hardin, Julian Hesse, Domanick Hubbard, Richard Johnson, Cabie Lamb, Samuel Leach, David Lennington, Micaela Lennington, James Lewis, Stephanie Lindsey, Peyton Luke, Tawni Luke, Nancy Moore, Ronnie Pilcher, Martin Richardson, Matalin Rigsby, Paul Silverman, Blanton Stogdill, Mary Studdard, Rachel Clo Studdard, Shane Studdard, Whitney Taylor, Clinton Earl Trewin, Amy White, Emily Rose White, Grace White, Jack White, Gena Winters, Crystal Wright and Caleb Yosten.

The orchestra for the play includes: music director Marc Sanders, Mikel Combs, Brad Hawkins, Betty Lee, Angela Shindler, Matt Morey, Jeff Richey, Henry Hernandez, Marty Kobuck, Alex Dubrov and Eric Edwards.

Assistant director is Sandy Geyer, choreographer is Leslie Edelman, technical director is Martin Richardson, lights are Jacob Pearce, Tyler Lennington, Kaelyn Wright, sound is Wayne Lindsey and stage manager is Kathy Zachary.

The Music Man performances will continue tonight, July 10, and again Friday and Saturday (July 17-18) at 7:30 p.m. in the former GHS Auditorium, 1201 S. Lindsay. Tickets are $8-$25 and are available at the door.

For more information on The Music Man or Butterfield, visit www.butterfieldstage.org or call 665-8152.