The Music Man

• Original Broadway Production (1957)
  New York, NY
• National Tour (1958)
  USA
• London Production (1961)
  London, England
• Film Version (1962)
  unknown location
• City Center Revival (1965)
  New York, NY
• M
  Broadway Revival (1980)
  New York, NY
• M
  New York City Opera Revival (1988)
  New York, NY
• M
  London Concert (1995)
  London, England
• Broadway Revival (2000)
  New York, NY
• M
  TV Film (2003)
  unknown location

There are a total of 28 productions in Ovrtur's database.

Click on the title for info on the song.

• Original score

  • Rock Island
  • Iowa Stubborn
  • Trouble
    • a.k.a. Ya Got Trouble
  • Piano Lesson
  • If You Don't Mind My Saying So
  • Goodnight, My Someone
    • a.k.a. Goodnight My Someone
  • Seventy Six Trombones
    • a.k.a. Seventy-Six Trombones
  • Sincere
  • The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl
    • a.k.a. The Sadder But Wiser Girl
    • a.k.a. The Sadder but Wiser Girl
    • a.k.a. The Sadder-but-Wiser Girl
  • Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little
    • a.k.a. Pickalittle
  • Goodnight Ladies
    • a.k.a. Goodnight, Ladies
  • Marian The Librarian
    • a.k.a. Marian the Librarian
  • My White Knight
    • a.k.a. Being in Love
  • The Wells Fargo Wagon
    • a.k.a. Wells Fargo Wagon
  • It's You
  • Shipoopi
  • Lida Rose
  • Will I Ever Tell You
    • a.k.a. Will I Ever Tell You?
  • Gary, Indiana
  • Till There Was You
    • a.k.a. 'Til There Was You
    • a.k.a. Till I Met You

• ---

• Status unknown

  • Tomorrow
  • River City, Plunge!
  • Fireworks
  • Equinoxal Storm

• ---

• Cut prior to opening

  • I Found a Horseshoe
  • You Don't Have to Kiss Me Goodnight
  • Rasmussin's Law

• ---

• In score but usually not listed in playbills

  • Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean
  • Minuet in G

• ---

• Added to film version

  • Being in Love

• ---

Recordings listed here were done in the studio specifically to release as recordings. They do not represent cast recordings of a particular production.

• No demos listed.

From a story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey

Travelling con man Harold Hill arrives at staid River City intending to cheat the community with his standard scam of offering to equip and train a boy's marching band, then skip town with the money since he has no music skill anyway. Marian the librarian doesn't buy the professor's line but he convinces many of his other potential customers that the new pool table that has just been placed in the billiard parlor could mean "trouble in River City." Things go awry when he falls for her.

Legendary producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin initiated the project in 1951. Frank Loesser continued to encourage Meredith Willson, even after the producers left. It has sometimes been reported that Loesser wrote "My White Knight" when Willson couldn't come up with the right song for the spot, but Barbara Cook has stated that the song was by Willson. In addition, the song was originally intended to be sung in counterpoint with "The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl," and it does work that way (and has been recorded that way). This seems to have been so carefully planned out that it really does seem unlikely that Loesser supplied it as a late replacement for a song that wasn't working.

• The Silver Triangle (Early title)