Ya Got Trouble

I've been in callback land this week which means I usually obsess and listen to the same show over and over again. So I thought it was high time to write about one of the funnest Golden Age musicals - The Music Man.
If you are just coming out of a 60 years long coma - here's a quick synopsis. Harold Hill is a con man who convinces a bunch of naive Iowans that he will save their young folk from the sin of pool by putting together a marching band. Conveniently he sells instruments and preaches the effectiveness of "The Think System" where you don't have to play the notes, but simply think of them. Of course he plans to leave town with the money from the instruments before the band can really take shape, but instead he falls for Marian Paroo, the town's librarian. He gets caught in his huge lie, but it all works out in the end - as most musicals of this time period are wont to do.
It's just fun and has some of the best characters:  A fast talking con man. A barbershop quartet! Funny ladies dancing in togas! And of course, it gave us the funniest word I know of - Shipoopi.
The Music Man also has some of the best musical theatre love songs. I remember thinking in a young, particularly dramatic moment after watching the movie that "Till There Was You" would be my guidepost to finding my "someone."

There was love all around,
But I never heard it singing.
No, I never heard it at all.
Till there was you.

But it's kind of a good way to think about love! I also think Marian being this beautiful, brainy soprano is where I started my perpetual jealousy of soprano parts. I wanted to play her SO BAD! She's smart and kind. She feels like she doesn't fit in. She's not overly fussy and knows what she wants. I imagine she's kind of what Belle might be like without that complicated Stockholm syndrome.

Here are two fun facts for you:
1. For you Utahns - the character of Marian Paroo was based off of a medical records librarian from Provo, Utah named Marian Seeley that Meredith Willson met during WWII.
2. "Ya Got Trouble" was originally written as a spoken monologue, but instead of cutting it (like he originally planned to), Meredith Willson transformed it into one of the most well known (and most parodied?) songs of the Golden Age.
Here is one my favorites of the many (many, many, many) parodies. It's from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (which you should be watching if you love musicals and laughing).


What are some of your favorite things from The Music Man?