Operatic Society To Present ‘The Music Man'

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30172, 2 July 1963, Page 11

Operatic Society To Present ‘The Music Ma n'

‘Tn a fait Broadway season whose successes deal so clinically with such subjects as marital frustration, alcoholism, dope addiction, juvenile delinquency and abortion, The Music Man’ is a monument to golden unpretentiousness and wholesome fun,” says "Time” of the musical to be presented by the Christchurch Operatic Society in the Theatre Royal for a season beginning on Saturday. “Time” summarises the plot of the musical as: “The Music Man is Professor Harold Hill, a glib-tongued, a fast-footed woman-chasing rascal of a travelling salesman from Gary, Indiana, who bursts into staid River City, charms a frozen-faced populace into digging their cookie jars and mattresses to buy instruments and uniforms for a boys’ marching band that will be led by Professor Hill himself. The show winds up

with an enlivened townsfolk who know the score, and a mildly-reformed Pied Piper who has scored with the pretty librarian.” Meredith Willson, the writer of the show, based River City partly on his home town of Mason City, lowa.

Stan Lawson is producing the show for the Christchurch Operatic Society. Before producing it for the Auckland Light Opera Club last year, be made a special trip to study the London production. The musical director, Keith Newson, saw the New York production. Eighty are in the cast, including a chorus of 40 and a ballet corps of 18. There are four ballets. Lenor Barry-Baker has been responsible for the choreograph. Professor Harold Hill will be played by Douglas Nottage, of Auckland, and Patricia Aldersley, of Hastings, will play the female lead, Marian Paroo.