'The Music Man' hopes to lead Broadway out of winter woes

One of the first songs in “The Music Man” is "(Ya Got) Trouble” and the latest Broadway revival has certainly faced its share.

It was supposed to open in fall 2020, but rehearsals were interrupted by the pandemic shutdown. In 2021, it jettisoned its lead producer, Scott Rudin after allegations of bullying. When the show restarted, both lead actors — Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster — contracted COVID-19. And when the understudies couldn't keep it going, it temporarily shut down.

Now its producers see light at the end of the tunnel — for the show and Broadway. “The Music Man” opens Thursday as the marquee event of this theater season, commanding hundreds of dollars per ticket and signaling a new dawn for a beleaguered theater industry.

“Everything has been thrown at us and we survive,” says Barry Diller, who is producing alongside David Geffen and Kate Horton. “But I won’t say we’ve survived until we open. I woke up this morning thinking locusts might come.”

The musical tells the simple story about Harold Hill, a traveling con man who in 1912 convinces a small Iowa town into forming a band and selling them instruments until love changes him. It's got classic songs like ″Seventy-Six Trombones,” ″Goodnight My Someone,” ″Gary, Indiana” and “Till There Was You.”

"It feels to me like ‘The Music Man’ is sort of the antidote to the stress and the uncertainty and the fear that everybody has been feeling because it’s such a story of hope and community, love and belief fulfilled,” says Horton, who previously held executive roles at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court in England.

The starry revival of the classic musical comedy, which won the Tony Award for best new musical in 1958, includes six Tony winners and 21 cast members making their Broadway debuts.

Four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks says rehearsals went well in the fall and the show started inviting audiences for previews, a crucial time for the creative team to make changes based on crowd reactions.

But then the cast started testing positive for the coronavirus, including Jackman and Foster. When Foster was out, Jackman’s tribute to understudy Kathy Voytko during curtain call went viral on social media. But even so, the show had to be shuttered for 11 performances.

“So the time that would usually be devoted to making changes that improve this show, all that time and energy was devoted to making sure we had a company on stage and preparing understudies and swings and standbys,” says Zaks.

The return of “The Music Man” hasn't been greeted with open arms by all. Many of the protesters who marched against the status quo on Broadway in April 2021, were angry at Rudin but also that theater producers were ignoring fresh voices in favor of a show that celebrates what one critic calls a “sanitized, insular and very white America.” The crowd got particularly rowdy while passing the Winter Garden Theatre, home of “The Music Man.”

Zaks defends his version, which has cut Native American stereotypes and misogyny, and has a diverse cast, one-third of whom are actors of color.

“The people who are making the noise had a valid point. But I don’t think the people who protested about the lack of diversity in the company really knew anything about the company I was putting together,” he says.

“We made a concerted effort to make sure that the stage looked more like the America of today than it might have back in ’57 when it was done originally.”

The arrival of “The Music Man” comes as Broadway seems to be emerging from a brutal winter. The once-durable musicals “Waitress,” “Jagged Little Pill” and “Ain’t Too Proud” closed, while new plays like “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” “Pass Over,” “Is This a Room” and “Dana H” struggled and closed early. Shows often feast during the tourist-filled holidays, but this time many could not because they had to shutter. Casts are healthier now, but January and February are traditionally rough at the box office, even before COVID-19.

Some producers came up with innovative ways to try to survive. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” was trimmed from a two-part play to a more traditional one-part show, and “To Kill a Mockingbird” is moving to a smaller theater.

Two musicals — “Mrs. Doubtfire” and ”Girl from the North Country" — made the unusual choice to go on hiatus, laying off workers until the spring in hopes of surviving.

“Sometimes it’s smart to take a knee when you’re boxing,” says Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the Tony-winner who helped restart Broadway this fall with “Lackawanna Blues” and now directs “Skeleton Crew.” “If you lay down and they count you out, you're out. But it’s OK to take a knee.”

Many of the popular shows before the pandemic have remained big draws despite the omicron variant, including “Hamilton,” “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” “Moulin Rouge!,” “Aladdin,” “Hadestown” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” They benefited from good reviews, positive word-of-mouth and prominence before the shutdown.

“The Music Man” has benefited from being a classic — this is the third Broadway revival — and has two of theater's most beloved performers in Jackman and Foster. Plus, it's a sweet, American valentine.

“I traffic in joy. And after having gone through what we’ve all gone through, the idea that this show might generate joy in the audience, that’s all I really want,” says Zaks.

Diller believes the worst is behind Broadway and, as chairman of the giant online travel company Expedia, predicts international travel will explode in the second and third quarters, fueling ticket buying. That's music to the ears of New York City's marketing arm.

“The arrival of ‘The Music Man’ on Broadway with Hugh Jackman immediately creates a new iconic New York City tent pole that lifts up the entire tourism economy. And, yes, that’s Tourism, with a capital T,” says Charles Flateman, chairman of the board of NYC and Company.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits