Review: 'The Music Man' knocks it out of the park
Hugh Jackman's character, Professor Harold Hill, is a spellbinder.
Sound the trombones—all 76 of them. A blazing Hugh Jackman lights up Broadway in a long-awaited, COVID-delayed revival of “The Music Man” that’s a sure cure for your pandemic blues. Jackman blew the roof off on opening night and there’s no chance he’ll be slowing down.
His character, Professor Harold Hill, is a spellbinder. But he’s also a con artist, traveling across the Midwest by train in the early 20th century to hit on the ladies and bamboozle folks into shelling out for musical instruments and band uniforms for their kids and then running off.
Jackman scored big on screen in 2017’s “The Greatest Showman,” playing P.T. Barnum, a scammer who believed there’s a sucker born every minute. Harold Hill is spun from the same cloth. There’s an art to playing a villain you’re meant to love. And Jackman is a virtuoso at it.
A lot of movie stars submit to short runs on Broadway as if they’re doing us a favor. Not the legend that is Wolverine. Jackman looks like he’d rather be on stage than anywhere else on earth. His eyes shine with a joy that’s contagious. He won a Tony for playing fellow Aussie Peter Allen in the 2003 musical bio "The Boy from Oz." Start engraving his name on another one.
But even Jackman must stand in the long shadow of the late Robert Preston, who created the title role on stage in 1957 and on screen in 1962. Jackman honors Preston by not trying to imitate him, soft-selling Preston’s full-charge into "Ya Got Trouble" and "76 Trombones." You might miss the hustle but Jackman’s stealth charm approach pays off handsomely.
How is the show itself? The Meredith Wilson score remains one of the glories of musical theater. From its opening chorus of salesmen singing to the rhythms of a chugging train to barbershop quartets and yearning ballads, the music offers new discoveries on each hearing. Do you know why "The Music Man" beat "West Side Story" for the 1957 Tony? Listen up.
It’s hard getting around the fact that River City, Iowa, where Hill pulls his latest scam, is blindingly white. So cheers to the diverse, colorblind casting and kinetic direction from Jerry Zaks, who staged the smash 2017 reboot of “Hello, Dolly” starring Bette Midler.
It’s not unfair to label both shows as old-fashioned. But neither is old-hat. The trick is not to update them with modern references but to play them for real with a relatable humor and heart. In those departments, “The Music Man” knocks it out of the park.
Jackman also has a dynamite partner in Sutton Foster (“Younger”), who aces the role of Marian Paroo, the librarian who refuses to fall for Hill’s fraudulent games, that is, until she falls for him. Her version of “Till There Was You,” the show’s hit ballad, is meltingly lovely. But she also imbues the role with a strong backbone and a comic zing.
And, surprise, Jackman and Foster don’t just rely on acting and singing. The stars dance their butts off, throwing themselves into Warren Carlyle’s choreography with high-stepping abandon. “Marian the Librarian,” the exuberant number in which Harold invades Marian’s place of business to break down her romantic resistance, is a showstopping sensation.
Not everything works on that level. Cuts to the text result in characters rushing past each other on stage with little time to register. A few songs don’t sit well on the star voices. It happens. And the big wowser ending with the whole cast in band uniforms falls curiously flat.
But “The Music Man” hasn’t survived for 65 years by accident. It’s family entertainment that’s built to last. Jackman and Foster prove that for a new generation as they send this exhilarating blast from the past rocketing into musical-comedy heaven.
