Delivering Joy

It’s a gem, “The Music Man,� this durable musical about rural Iowa in 1912, where women married young, believed reading Balzac was bad and accepted what life handed out.

   But Marian Paroo, the single librarian of River City, is different. She reads; she speaks up; she hopes.

    This Marian (Allison Berry) is a particularly brittle and desperate Marian, less sweet, less yearning than many who play the part. Berry makes Marian a restless, sometimes sharp and difficult woman who wants something, but does not know it when she sees it. At least not right away.

   But then who would think the fast-talking, fast-traveling Professor Henry Hill (Gavin Lodge), with a girl in every county and a bagful of tricks could fill the bill.

    He is looking for the sadder but wiser girl. Hill sings: I hope, and I pray,    

for a Hester to win just

one more A,� which is another thing about this musical. Meredith Willson’s book, his music, his lyrics are grand. And so are his characters.

   Hill is a good-natured crook, charming, likable and canny about getting across his notion that a pool hall in River City (backed by the mayor) will corrupt the town, will prompt boys to wear pinchback suits, and say odious things like “swell,â€� and “so’s your old man.â€� He has a remedy, of course, one he can sell: seventy-six trombones. A boys’ band with shiny instruments and really swell uniforms. That could save the town from moral decay.

   A band could save Marian’s little brother, Winthrop, who stopped talking when his father died.

   A band could awaken everyone to the possibilities in life. What this Tony-award-winning musical from 1957 is about is revelation. Even salvation. By the final curtain, Marian is rescued from her chilly isolation, Winthrop is too, and the professor surprises himself by delivering what he promised: Joy.

   All this works wonderfully in TriArts’ production. Berry and Lodge, both Equity actors, are a pleasure to watch, and director/choreographer Stephen Nachamie has turned a cast of non-actors into engaging and snappy performers. The tricky opening train scene with a carful of salesmen sets us up for a show crammed with nifty staging and fine theatrics. And the barbershop quartet, the fellows Hill can divert with a pitch pipe’s  A, is hilarious and expert.