Music Man Tickets

The Music Man is a musical with lyrics, book and music by Meredith Willson. The musical is adapted from a story written by Franklin and Willson Lacey. The musical is known from the year 1957 when it became a hit on stage of Broadway by winning five consecutive Tony Awards, including in the category of “Best Original Cast Album.” It also remained on number one position at the Billboard chart for 245 weeks straight. Now the revival of the famous musical is going to be staged in your own town. If you are planning to attend it this season, make sure you book your share of Music Man tickets in advance.

The Music Man was Willson’s inspiration from his own childhood that he spent in Mason City, Iowa.  He began writing a journal in 1948 named “And There I Stood with My Piccolo.” At first he wanted to make a television special on his writing; hence, he approached the producers Ernest Martin and Cy Feuer. He also got in touch with MGM’s producer named Jesse L. Lasky. When all of these attempts went fruitless, he finally decided to simplify the text and turn it into libretto. There was a lengthy dialog in the work that thought of deleting all together, but later on realized it sounded more lyrical and turned it into the song Ya Got Trouble. All the troubles he had to go through in order to successfully take his inspirations to the Broadway stage are mentioned in his book titled “But He Doesn’t Know the Territory.”

The Music Man has many of its characters inspired from real personalities. For instance, Mario Paroo the character was inspired from a person named Marian Seelay belonging to Provo, Utah that Willson had met during the World War II. During that time Seelay was working as a librarian in the medical records section. In the original production of Broadway as well as of the film that followed, the “School Board” is played by Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America’s International Quartet Champions from 1950.

The Music Man took years of development with several changes in the productions. In the start it had forty tracks which were later cut down to twenty and had about fifty drafts till one was finalized. Broadway’s original show’s producer was Kermit Bloomgarden, Morton CaCosta was the director and it was choreographed by Onna White. Finally the musical opened in December of 1957 at Majestic Theatre. For about three years it ran on the same stage but was moved to The Broadway Theatre for its 1,375^th performance which ran in April of 1961. Broadway’s original cast was compiled of Barbara Cook, Robert Preston, Pert Kelton, Eddie Hodges, David Burns and Iggie Wolfington.

The Music Man was then taken to the United Kingdom where it opened at the Bristol Hippodrome stage. It was followed by West End London production which premiered at Adelphi Theatre in March of 1961. This production starred Partricia Lambert, Van Johnson, Ruth Kettlewell, C. Denier Warren and Dennis Waterman. A Broadway revival show was opened for tryouts and after eight performances finally opened in June of 1980 at New York City Center. Another Chinese translated production was inspired and staged at Central Opera Theatre in Beijing the same year.

Till the date, The Music Man has managed to win three Theatre World Awards and six Tony Awards. Each one of its revival has been received well by critics and fans. Currently, another revival Broadway show is opening at 5^th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. This revival is starring a number of famous theatre performers. If you want to attend its current season, make sure you book your share of Music Man tickets as soon as possible for they are selling like hot cakes already!