Bringing that old-fashioned feeling to ‘The Music Man’

Young Chang

Actor Eileen Boyd suggests sitting your kids down with a grandparent

or older adult before watching “The Music Man” for a quick lesson on life

in the early 20th century.

They could learn, for example, that back then cracker barrels were

huge barrels containing crackers in grocery stores.

Pickle barrels contained pickles.

Salesmen traveled via train, and towns actually gathered during

occasions such as the Fourth of July because it was neighborly.

Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” to run at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center from Tuesday through May 5, brings this sort of

Midwestern small town to life.

River City, Iowa, is the setting and visiting salesman Harold Hill --

with his fast-talking ways -- is its star.

The multiple Tony Award-winning musical, which first debuted on

Broadway with Robert Preston and Barbara Cook more than four decades ago,

is about how Hill cons the town’s parents into adopting his music program

for their kids. They buy instruments and costumes and fall for Hill’s

ploy.

The story climaxes when Hill is forced to prove his musical-conductor

skills. There is, of course, a love-story with the local librarian as

well.

“It’s a redemption story very much, both for the town and for

Professor Hill,” said Boyd, who plays Maud Dunlop. “For Professor Hill,

because he is able to change his ways, but also for the town, because

they’re able to ease up on their stubbornness and their

close-mindedness.”

Songs include all-time stage classics like “Gary, Indiana” and “76

Trombones.”

For actor Albert Parker, who plays Mayor Shinn, the musical harken

back almost a lifetime as the 74-year-old grew up with “The Music Man.”

The New Jersey resident’s favorite part of portraying the mayor is

that the character is “loud and blustery.”

“He’s not crooked, but he not only is mayor of the city, he owns the

pool hall, and then he married for money,” Parker said. “He does a lot of

boasting and talking and everything, but nobody pays any attention to

him. . . . That’s fun to play.”

The actor, who has enjoyed a decade of touring with shows since

retiring from his teaching job in the late ‘80s, said he even shaved off

his beard to get the part.

“Every show that I was in [before this], I was able to keep my beard,”

he said. “For this part, I just knew that this mayor wouldn’t have a

beard, so I shaved it off before the audition. It just gave me a look

that I knew was right.”

Parker said the current version of “The Music Man” differs from the

traditional versions in that director/choreographer Susan Stroman has

distinguished the production with her Broadway touch.

“The Susan Stroman dancing is just wonderful,” he said. “It’s tough --

it’s hard on the dancers -- but it’s so wonderful.”

FYI

* What: “The Music Man”

* When: Tuesday through May 5. Performances will be 8 p.m. Tuesday

through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

* Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

* Cost: $20-$55

* Call: (714) 556-2787