‘The Music Man’ marching into Super Summer Theatre

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You really ought to give Iowa a try — especially when the destination is everybody’s favorite Hawkeye State town, the mythical but lively River City.

At least it’s the favorite of anybody who’s ever seen “The Music Man.”

Meredith Willson’s 76-trombone salute to small-town Americana marches back to Super Summer Theatre, playing Wednesdays through Saturdays at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park through June 29.

And for a show that made its Tony-winning Broadway debut during the Eisenhower administration — and depicts America in 1912, the final year of William Howard Taft’s presidency — “The Music Man” has proven remarkably resilient.

Producer Sandra Huntsman of Huntsman Entertainment, which is staging the Super Summer Theatre version, has a three-word explanation for its continuing popularity:

“Humor and heart.”

Both come into play when slippery con man Harold Hill (played by James Horrocks ) steps off a train in River City, determined to fleece its flinty residents, who describe themselves, in the number “Iowa Stubborn,” thusly:

“We can be cold as a falling thermometer in December if you ask about our weather in July, and we’re so by God stubborn we can stand touching noses for a week at a time and never see eye-to-eye.”

But Hill manages to convince those same stubborn River City citizens that the town’s new pool table is “Trouble with a Capital ‘T’ and that rhymes with ‘P’ — and that stands for Pool.”

His solution: a boys’ band, complete with shiny brass instruments and sparkling new uniforms — all of which “Professor” Harold Hill has absolutely no intention of delivering before he skips town.

That is, until Hill meets starchy Marian “The Librarian” Paroo (played by Tia Renee Konsur ), who seems to be the one person in River City immune to his fast-talking charms. At least initially.

Willson, who wrote “Music Man’s” book, lyrics and score, based the musical on his Mason City boyhood. (He recounted the musical’s rocky road to Broadway in a book titled “But He Doesn’t Know the Territory.”)

“Most people think there’s one way to do it,” Huntsman says of “The Music Man,” which her husband Steve — the other half of Huntsman Productions — is directing.

But Steve Huntsman, who’s also designing the set and costumes, is “putting his own unique stamp on it,” she says.

“A lot of times, classic shows are directed to be more broad,” Sandra Huntsman says. This production, by contrast, will try “to bring in a more human element.”

But “Music Man” fans shouldn’t concern themselves with radical changes.

After all, “people are expecting ‘Music Man’ — we’re not setting it in outer space or anything crazy,” she says. “When you are approaching a classic piece, you need to be aware of the expectations.”

And although “we’re definitely honoring the time-honored tradition,” there’s “something for modern audiences as well” in this “Music Man,” Huntsman adds.

Designwise, “we have to be creative” — in part because the Spring Mountain Ranch stage “has a lot of limitations.”

With no overhead fly space and limited room in the wings, she says, “you can’t have a large set that goes on- and off-stage.”

This production’s solution: one set that serves as River City’s library, town square, gymnasium, even the Rock Island Line railroad car that brings Hill to River City.

Staging “The Music Man” also presents some performance challenges, according to Huntsman.

One of them: the size of the cast.

In addition to the adult performers, there’s an ensemble of teenagers and a children’s ensemble as well, she says.

That adds up to about 40 people onstage — including a dozen kids — and even more costumes, because each cast member “has at least three costumes,” Huntsman says. “That’s a lot of costumes,” including “70 handmade dresses, skirts and gowns.”

Onstage, each of those cast members needs to register with Super Summer Theatre audience members watching the musical from a venue that’s about the size of a football field. That means “you’ve got to find that balance” between too subtle and too over-the-top, she says.

But there’s one question she hears more than any other, Huntsman says: “ ‘How are you going to get 76 trombones onstage?’ ”

Fortunately, you don’t need 76 trombones onstage. Not as long as you conjure the bright, brassy spirit of those 76 trombones blazing away — and leading the parade back to River City, Iowa.

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.