The Music Man

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

Click on the title for info on the song.

Original score

• Rock Island
• Iowa Stubborn
• Trouble
  • aka Ya Got Trouble [no note]
• Piano Lesson
• If You Don't Mind My Saying So
• Goodnight, My Someone
  • aka Goodnight My Someone [no note]
• Seventy Six Trombones
  • aka Seventy-Six Trombones [no note]
• Sincere
• The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl
  • aka The Sadder But Wiser Girl [no note]
  • aka The Sadder but Wiser Girl [no note]
  • aka The Sadder-but-Wiser Girl [no note]
  • aka The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl For Me [Title in the song list for the original Broadway cast recording]
• Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little
  • aka Pickalittle [Title in original Broadway and tour playbills]
• Goodnight Ladies
  • aka Goodnight, Ladies [no note]
• Marian The Librarian
  • aka Marian the Librarian [no note]
• My White Knight
  • aka Being in Love [no note]
• The Wells Fargo Wagon
  • aka Wells Fargo Wagon [no note]
• It's You
• Shipoopi
• Lida Rose
• Will I Ever Tell You
  • aka Will I Ever Tell You? [no note]
• Gary, Indiana
• Till There Was You
  • aka 'Til There Was You [no note]
  • aka Till I Met You [no note]

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.

• Studio Cast (1959)
  Meredith Willson , Rini Willson
• Studio Cast (not listed yet)
  Julie Andrews , Thomas Lang , Cynthia Pells , Robert Dugan , Mary Marion
• Studio Cast (not listed yet)
  Gordon Goodman , Chuck Nelson , Jeanne Steel , Patti Beams , Eleanor Forgione
• Studio Cast (not listed yet)
  Janet Waters , Bryan Johnson (i) , Mike Sammes Singers
• Studio Cast (not listed yet)
  Tom Head , Helen Carroll , Helen Ferrel , Harry Harlan , Hildy

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)