UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Fast-talking salesman Harold Hill is no match for the likes of River City librarian Marian Paroo in Big League Productions’ national tour of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man.” The classic, Broadway-style musical comes to Penn State’s Eisenhower Auditorium at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 7.
The six-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy “The Music Man” follows Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a marching band that he vows to organize. This, despite the fact that he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef.
Call the Arts Ticket Center at 814-863-0255 or visit “The Music Man” online for more information about accessibility options and to purchase tickets. The Center for the Performing Arts and the Arts Ticket Center are part of the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture.
Elizabeth D’Aiuto leads the lesson to not ‘read a book by its cover’
Willson started writing “The Music Man” in 1948, and it finally hit the stage in 1957. The songs to the family-friendly story have been shared with generations since and features notable marching music and patter-style numbers, including “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “Ya Got Trouble,” “‘Till There Was You,” “Pick-a-Little” and “Gary, Indiana.”
And though Hill is still the face of “The Music Man,” at the center of the traditional production is Paroo, the town’s thoughtful librarian who captures the hearts of the con man and the audience.
“She’s such an independent woman like me, and she is strong. I think back in the day, Marian could be such an in-the-box character and just a typical Golden Age soprano, but she really is so much more than that,” Elizabeth D’Aiuto said in a Center for the Performing Arts interview. “It’s truly a life lesson to not read a book by its cover. I hope people from older generations can see that I’m bringing something different to it, and the younger generation will be like, ‘Yes, I can really resonate.’”