a song stuck in your head that won't go away? This morning it was Trouble from The Music Man. That starts with T, which rhymes with P, which stands for pestering the crap out of me! 
Tis one of my favorites though. I remember seeing it at the old Camden County Theater in the Round with Gig Young as Harold Hill. My mother loved musicals; my father - not so much. So whenever a road show would come around, he'd stay home and Mom would drag young Billy along with her. That could explain my love of musicals. But not my enjoyment of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. Like many, she didn't like those either.During my first attempt at college, I fed my thespian appetite acting in Siena's "Little Theater." The director loved operetta. After performing in several, I fell under its Victorian spell. Some say I'm a contrarian and like it because no one else does. My appreciation of jazz paragon, Sun Ra, gets the same explanation. Pshaw say I, but enough digression, back to the subject at hand. Or back to the heavy-handed treatment of the subject.
Meredith Wilson wrote The Music Man basing many of the characters from people in his home town of Mason City, Iowa. However, that is a landlocked city in the north central part of the state. In the play, the opening scene occurs on a train going from Rock Island, Illinois into Iowa. That makes the most obvious River City, Davenport, Iowa located on the Mississippi directly across from Rock Island. Living in Davenport for four years, I attest to the natives' belief that they are the town in the play.Aside from a story about a con man and catchy songs, including several in barbershop quartet style*, this musical attracts me because it's neato trivia:
- Music Man won the Tony for Best Musical beating out West Side Story.
- In the 1980 revival starring Dick Van Dyke, the lisping boy, Winthrope, was played by a young Christian Slater.
- Many false trivia facts concern Ron Howard in that part. I have heard that he played Winthrope on Broadway (false) and that the movie was his first acting job (false). By the time the movie was made, 1962, he was a two-year veteran of The Andy Griffith Show. It was his first film role.
- The song, Till There Was You, from the play was recorded in 1963 on Meet the Beatles (With the Beatles in the UK). Wilson's widow later stated that the estate made more money from the royalty rights of the Beatles' recording than it did from the play itself.
I've been asked where I get ideas for these musings. They come from many sources. Today, a song stuck in my head led my love of musicals, operetta, spurious claims of contrarianism, reminisces of Iowa, and Music Man trivia.A mind is a terrible thing when wasted. - as ever BB
"You really ought to give Iowa a try.
Provided you are contrary..." - Iowa Stubborn from The Music Man.
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