Music Man Jr.

Friday night, on the last night of the run, I went to Waverly Junior High School to see their production of "Music Man, Jr." Having just last weekend finished playing "Oliver Hix" in the Fifth Avenue Theater Company's version of "Meredith Willson's The Music Man", I wanted to see and hear what a Junior High version of the show would be like. It was short, for example, the barbershop number, "Sincere" was trimmed by at least 75%. Several songs were missing entirely, but remember that musicals in the 50s were 2 and a half to 3 hours long, and this show was about an hour and 20 minutes. I missed the longer version of the difficult to perform train scene, but I have to say in all ways, that the show exceeded my expectations. The vocals in general were really good. Harold was good, Marion was also, and all the leads had some stage presence. The choreography was missing in a couple of places, but what was there was fun to watch and fit the songs to a tee, especially the parasols during pick-a-little. I know how hard pulling something like that off is. People also do not realize how difficult it is for singers to synch with an instrument track on tape or CD. Conductors are much more forgiving and can cut a measure or vamp if needed. CDs don't do that. The staging was nice, and the stage was surprisingly large. I'm sure that was an extra as the Ohio School Facilities Commission doesn't just build something that nice as a standard measure. There were a couple of things that I didn't like, but I won't criticize anything, because I know that sometimes things happen in staging a show and you don't have time to do anything about it. Well, I will mention one thing that is generic and should hurt nobody's feelings. Marcellus's big dance number, "Shipoopie", was staged pretty far downstage, and he wasn't well lit, and he deserved better, but it was still a great number. I could understand the actors, and there were only a couple of mike issues. Costumes were good. Props and scenery were nice and not in the way. The best $2 I have spent on a live performance in a very long time. I may update this in a bit and add some of this things that amused me about the perfomance. I have to think about it because I wouldn't want anyone to see them and take them as "criticism", even though, that is what I'm doing.