On Thursday, April 3, Rowan’s Theatre & Dance program presented its opening night of “The Music Man” at the Tohill Theater in Bunce Hall.

“The Music Man” was written by Meredith Willson and first premiered on Broadway in 1957, where it has since been revived on Broadway, most recently in 2022 with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, and West End several times, and won five Tony Awards in 1958, among them being Best Musical.

“The Music Man” tells the story of a traveling con man by the name of Professor Harold Hill, who takes his act to River City, Iowa, in the hopes of swindling its people out of their money by promising the formation of a band. In the process, Hill introduces River City’s population to a world of joy, creativity, and expression that they haven’t seen before. Along the way, Hill must contend with Mayor Shinn, who questions Hill’s credibility as a professor, and Marian, the town librarian, who sees through Hill’s tricks, yet ends up falling in love with him anyway. All the while, Hill’s own budding feelings for Marian cause him to come to a crossroads in his career, as he struggles with whether or not to skip town before his scam is exposed or stick around and see it through to the end.

“I don’t do musicals very often, and so for me, the joy of taking on a classic musical is really special, and I love it,” said Lane Savadove, Rowan professor and director of “The Music Man.” “It’s just out of my normal artistic pathways. I run a theater in Philadelphia, and we mostly do classic plays. But for me, the American musical is a very special art form that is all our country’s, and so taking on not only an American musical, but an iconic American musical and trying to make it relevant to America today is really exciting and fun.”

Rowan’s production of “The Music Man” put a modern twist on the classic show, as many of the characters were gender-swapped, which allowed for the cast and crew of the show to truly make this production their own. For instance, Eulalie McKechnie Shinn, Mayor Shinn’s wife, was played by Aidan Dougherty, a male sophomore theatre major. Additionally, the show’s barbershop quartet was played by female actors instead of male, and the Pickalittle Ladies ensemble was played by male actors instead of female.

“I really wanted to get to explore my queer identity on stage because I’ve been in theatre for a long time, I’ve been queer for a long time, but I’ve never actually gotten to find the intersection of those two. So when we heard about the premise for our version of The Music Man, I was like, ‘I need to be in this, this feels like something that’s really important to me and my journey through theatre,’ and it absolutely was really cool to play a character, especially a character that’s not necessarily meant in the script to be queer, but to put that spin on it was really affirming,” said Olivia Frankenbach, a senior musical theatre major at Rowan who played the role of Marian Paroo.

One of the high spots for Rowan’s production of “The Music Man” was the choreography, put together by Benjamin Helbert, who graduated last year with a concentration in musical theatre and also played Mrs. Squires in the show. Musical numbers such as “Seventy-Six Trombones” and “Shipoopi” allowed the cast to show off their dance expertise.

“We were so proud of our choreography. We really were. We came so far with it, and the people that never get to dance were like, ‘I’m gonna dance and I’m gonna work my butt off. If I’m dancing, I’m gonna be good at it, and if I’m getting a chance to show off a skill I never get to show off, I will not be the weak link.’ Every single person worked so hard to bring up those skills that they don’t get to do as often,” said Kayla Corbo, a senior theatre major who played the role of Mrs. Paroo while also acting as the show’s intimacy coordinator.

Though typically a very difficult show to pull off, with fast-moving lyrics and energetic dance breaks spread throughout a two-hour musical, Rowan’s cast of “The Music Man” pulled out all the stops in an attempt to put on the best show possible. Every cast member, no matter how big or small a role they had, was given a chance to shine both onstage and, at certain points in the show, in the audience as well.

“College theatre is different. This is another level. People are dedicated here, and of course, work ethic is subjective, but seeing how dedicated people are when they really want to be here is amazing. The amount of care that went into intimacy scenes and into dance numbers, we had a cast member get an injury, and we re-worked to make sure she could still dance and she could do things that were comfortable for her. The amount of care and thought that went into every part of the show was really different,” said Jennifer Hoard, a freshman who played the role of Professor Harold Hill.

“The Music Man” was the final Rowan MainStage production of the 2024-2025 season. Near the start of the Fall 2025 semester, there will be a “Season Colloquium”, where all of the directors, choreographers, and designers will present the shows for the 2025-2026 MainStage season.

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