The Cazenovia Junior High musical, “The Music Man Jr.,” is coming to Cazenovia at 4 p.m. Thursday Nov. 5, 7 p.m. Friday Nov. 6 and 2 p.m. Saturday Nov. 7. Tickets are $5 and can be reserved by calling 655-5309.
The musical will feature the talents of sixty students including Sean Maliga as the “cunning” Harold Hill, Joe Zambito as Mayor Shinn, Tori Meade as Mrs. Shinn and Natalie Roszel as daughter Gracie, Kyle Markowski as Marcellus Washburn, Rebecca Pfohl as Marion Paroo, Connor Carroll, Will Fellows, Casey Fenton, David Kempf and Jack Woltman as members of the Town Board, Alex Downey as the salesman, Charlie Cowell, Victoria Wright as Amaryllis and Danielle Axelson and Teddy Dwyer as Mrs. Paroo and son Winthrop, Clarese Zirbel as Zaneeta and Trevor Cross, the teen sweethearts.
In “The Music Man,” Harold Hill has developed a bad reputation among traveling salesmen. In order to sell band instruments and uniforms, he promises to form a local student band in small towns. After he’s paid off, it’s a fast freight train and no band.
Then Hill shows up in River City, Iowa.
“This show will surely remind you how warm-hearted, funny and captivating a small town can be when turned up-side-down by a Music Man!” said publicist for the show LouAnn Turner. “The musical captures the nostalgia and warmth inherent in a story of a small midwestern town in the early days of the century.”
The show features musical numbers “Trouble,” “The Wells Fargo Wagon,” “Gary, Indiana,” Good Night, My Someone” and “Seventy-Six Trombones.”
Meredith Willson, lyricist and composer, got his start sharing stories about his hometown, Mason City, Iowa with his friends and colleagues. They found Meredith’s stories so enjoyable, they suggested it would make a great musical. Willson spent eight years perfecting “The Music Man,” writing over forty drafts for the show prior to its Broadway premiere in 1957. In 1958, it won the Tony Award for Best Musical over West Side Story.
The musical has become such a staple of American literature that it has spawned two full length motion picture releases and a recent Broadway revival nearly fifty years after the original first opened to packed houses.
