Weather can't freeze out 'The Music Man'

Shawano Community High School is bringing a classic musical back to its stage for the second time in 13 years when “The Music Man” debuts Thursday.

The Broadway smash that inspired two movies was originally scheduled to debut Tuesday for Shawano Community Middle School’s students and staff, but the recent cold weather closed schools and forced the high school to forgo its traditional middle school performance for the first time in recent memory, according to director Jonathon Kent.

The show was supposed to open at 3 p.m.Wednesday for the community, but SCHS officials opted to move the premiere back to Thursday and will be adding a Sunday matinee, Kent said.

“When you consider that we’ve lost four days (of rehearsals) … it has been a very fluid thing here,” Kent said. “We’ve never had the weather we’ve had. It’s required us to change rehearsal schedules.”

Because the middle school performance was cancelled, Kent is offering all middle school students in Shawano — including the parochial schools — the chance to attend any of the performances for $3. The regular student ticket price is $6.

Despite the weather issues, the show has been coming along well, Kent said, noting that a cast of 45 and an orchestra of 20 will make up this year’s show. This includes an adult barbershop quartet, several teachers and a dozen middle school students.

Kent is experiencing deja vu with this year’s show, as he had previously produced “The Music Man” at SCHS in 2001.

“This was perfectly suited to the potential cast we had,” he said. “There are only so many school appropriate shows out there.”

The show follows con man Harold Hill, who is played by Will Johnston. Hill poses as the organizer of a boys band, selling them musical instruments and promising to teach the boys how to play, but he is secretly planning to skip town with the money.

“Will is a very good Harold Hill, not that he is a con man in real life,” Kent said. “He is very well suited to this.”

However, Hill’s journey to a town in Iowa leads him to Marian Paroo, a prim librarian who sees right through the facade of the “professor.” Maria Fuller will portray Marian.

Kent noted that Johnston and Fuller carry much of the show, not only in plot but vocally, as well.

“The Music Man,” which features the familiar songs “Seventy-six Trombones” and “Shipoopi,” carries the message that no matter how bad someone is, there is always the opportunity to change for the better, Kent said.

“Redemption is available for all of us. Harold Hill was not a very good person when he came into this show, and then he finds love, but even more than that, he finds himself as not being the cad he was when the show began,” Kent said. “It’s a great high school show, and it has a very positive message.”

This is the 15th SCHS musical Kent and band director Christopher Kent have produced.