Deconstructing The Music Man

For those unfamiliar with Theatre Charlotte, it is a small, 70 year-old building, originally built to stage single set interiors—drawing room comedies, dramas and mysteries. As time marched on, musicals were added to the season mix. Now, Theatre Charlotte mounts 2 main stage musicals per season, as well as a Student Theatre Guild summer musical. With our small stage and little wing space (the area on both sides of the stage, unseen by the audience), doing a large musical becomes a daunting challenge. In addition to space issues, there are certain budget constraints, as well. So, when taking on task of staging a huge show like THE MUSIC MAN, a lot of thought must go into how to present it in our facility and with our budget and do so while maintaining the integrity of the script.

One of the definitions of what is called deconstruction would be the effort to take the limitless context into account, to pay the sharpest and broadest attention possible to context, and thus to an incessant movement of recontextualization. This is a fancy way of explaining the study of the script in order to laser-beam onto the essential elements and eliminating all that is unnecessary. This process has been done with varying degrees of success for recent Broadway revivals of SWEENEY TODD, COMPANY and to an extent, CHICAGO.

To deconstruct THE MUSIC MAN, I studied the script for focus and through-line. I researched other productions of the show and read all that Meredith Willson wrote about the creation of THE MUSIC MAN. I decided that the focus really could be on the people of River City, Iowa and their life being changed from “Iowa Stubborn” to one filled with hope and inspiration. The first step with the set designer was to compress the 16 different locations into as few as possible. We decided on 9 different locations. We then discussed the essential elements of each of these locations and what we could minimally present and still maintain an understanding of place in the imaginations of audience members. I wanted to put the focus on the people of River City (and their colorful 1912 clothing) and the effect of the Pied Piper of boys’ bands, Harold Hill.

Set designer, Rebecca Primm, and I decided that what we wanted were merely outlines of buildings—nothing “filled in”—no walls and no doors (except for the one into Mayor Shinn’s house)—with the skyline of important buildings hung from stage pipes. The selected colors are muted, Victorian era pastels with the pop of color coming from the costumes—or clothing—worn by the people of River City.

This reliance and focus on the people and the script could only be truly successful if the cast was strong—energetic and diverse, with unique personalities. We were fortunate in being able to assemble such a cast. They are amazing actors and singers who move really well with each projecting an individual and interesting personality—no mean feat with a cast of 41!

I think the set is functional and has just enough to suggest time and place, the lighting to assist with time and place, as well as mood and atmosphere and the costumes providing color and defining personalities and relationships.

It has been a challenging, yet rewarding experience! In my next posting, I will return to bragging about the members of the amazing cast.

-Ron Law
Director, THE MUSIC MAN at Theatre Charlotte
9/8/11

THE MUSIC MAN runs September 9th through 25th at Theatre Charlotte. Tickets can be purchased through CarolinaTix at (704) 372-1000 or online at http://www.carolinatix.org/default.asp?tix=59&objId=2565