“The Music Man” Review

The Mt. Vernon High School Theatre department puts on two musicals every year, one in the fall and one in the spring. For the spring of 2022, they staged “The Music Man.” The show dates were April 21st through the 24th. There are many returning fan favorites in the cast as well as some new faces. 

The cast included Daimon Anderson as Harold Hill, Ben Dostalek as Marcellus Washburn, Katie Bowsher as Marian Paroo, George Fair as Mayor Shinn, Autumn Philpot as Mrs. Shinn, and Bry Noesges as Mrs. Paroo. They gave an exceptional performance in every one of their shows.

In the musical, Harold Hill is a swindler who finds a dull, lifeless town and decides he should create a band so they will buy instruments from him. He plans to skip town as soon as he gets his payment, but he starts to feel guilty about conning them when he gets more involved with the people, mainly Marion Paroo. The mayor does not like him and has it out for him from the beginning. The mayor discovers the story of his past that he told the town is not as true as he lets on, and he tries to chase him out of town. The mayor asks for the support of the people and originally he has it until Marion Paroo shows the people how much fun they had the last couple of weeks with Harold Hill in town. They decide to stick up for him and he is able to stay with Marion and live happily ever after.

One song that was very well received was “Shipoopi.” It was very upbeat and the cast had a lot of fun performing it. Bella Pittman, one of the performers stated, “The Shipoopi number was one of my favorites because the dance moves were super fun and I got to dance with Caleigh Johnson and Bry Noesges, which was awesome.” The audience could see the pure joy on all of the actor’s faces as they sang and danced. 

The orchestra was very lively. The cast and orchestra worked together flawlessly to create a dynamic performance that the audience seemed to enjoy. There were a few community members that were a part of the orchestra too, however, it was mostly made up of high school students.

The costumes were very intricate. Many characters had fancy hats and dresses. The hats often had enormous plumage. Every single costume was top-notch. Mrs. Shinn, the mayor’s wife in particular, had many extravagant outfits. The actress herself was very proud and the costumes really helped to bring this to life. Her outfits aided the actress in taking the character to the next level in performance. 

The band costumes that the characters wore were actually the original Broadway costumes. When asked about the costumes, Pittman stated, “I was really excited when we got the rental band uniforms. The outfit was a creme skirt and a red marching band jacket, both with gold accents. And there was a red hat too, with a white plume and more gold accenting. These band uniforms were the actual costumes from Broadway. The band uniform costumes were just really cool and part of one of the best scenes, which made it even better.” The costumes were a very large part of the show. They were worn towards the end of the show.

Overall it is a very sweet story and the entire cast and crew put on a phenomenal performance. It was bittersweet for many as it was the last show of their high school careers and everyone put their best into making the show as great as it ever could have been.