The Music Man (1957 Original Broadway Cast) [Angel Reissue]

The Music Man (1957 Original Broadway Cast) [Angel Reissue] Review

Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" has been revised and performed all over the world. While it's a good musical overall, I am not crazy about it myself. I didn't care for Pert Kelton's voice which I felt was like nails on a chalkboard at times. One of the main reasons to listen to this compact disc is for Barbara Cook's singing capabilities as old maid librarian Marian. Pert Kelton plays her mother. Marian thinks she's better than most of the people in her small Iowa town because she reads French literature but manages to fall in love with the music salesman. Apart from Barbara Cook, I didn't care about the rest of the story. I felt the songs were typical of the musical genre and sometimes annoying but I do feel that it's worth seeing once if not at all.

The Music Man (1957 Original Broadway Cast) [Angel Reissue] Overview

Although Robert Preston and Barbara Cook put in stellar performances, it's the music that's the star of this hugely successful document of the 1958 Broadway smash. Written entirely by Meredith Willson, it drew from memories of his childhood in a small Midwestern town. Preston plays a traveling salesman/con artist, while Cook is the dull spinster "Marian the Librarian," whose love for Preston's character makes her come alive. "Seventy-Six Trombones" has become a marching band standard, while "Ya Got Trouble" (featuring dizzying fast-talk from Preston) and "'Til There Was You" (with a gorgeous vocal from Cook) remain well known even among those who have never seen the show. The latter was also a favorite of the Beatles, who covered it on their first album. --Dawn Eden

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