Theatre of Dare Marches ‘The Music Man’ into Manteo
Theatre of Dare will present their production of the popular musical The Music Man live on stage in March.
James Brumbeloe, Ross Getek, Larry Warner and Doug Dino play bickering school board members who make beautiful music together in Theatre of Dare’s upcoming production of “The Music Man”, opening at the COA Auditorium in Manteo March 11.
If you’re looking for “Trouble”, you’ll find it this month in Manteo. You’ll also find “76 Trombones”, “Til There Was You”, and even some “Shipoopi”.
Those popular Broadway tunes, and many more, are all part of Theatre of Dare’s production of Meredith Willson’s classic The Music Man, which opens at College of the Albemarle’s Manteo Auditorium March 11.
“This show has everything going for it,” says co-director Jimmie Lee Brooks III. “It has a large, all-ages cast. It has comedy and romance. It has songs everyone remembers, and it really is a loving salute to small town American life. It’s a perfect show to do here in our theatre on the Outer Banks.”
It is also one of the most popular musicals ever produced. When it debuted on Broadway in 1957, it won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actor for its star Robert Preston. Preston also reprised his role in the 1962 film adaptation, which was a hit with critics and audiences alike.
The show revolves around traveling salesman Harold Hill (Stuart Parks II), who arrives in River City, Iowa hoping to con its stubborn residents into buying band instruments, uniforms, and instruction books to form a boys’ marching band.
His plan seems to be going perfectly, but the town’s lonely librarian Marian Paroo (Brittney Weber) is suspicious of Hill’s credentials and sets out to expose the scheme.
Meanwhile, Harold makes inroads with Marian’s shy little brother Winthrop (Ethan Lord), a quarrelling quartet of school board members (Jay Brumbeloe, Doug Dino, Ross Getek, Larry Warner), the matronly mayor’s wife (Cindi Lindquist), and the young town hoodlum (Philip Culton). Of course, music, dancing, and hilarity ensue.
“This is a musical the whole family will enjoy,” says Theatre of Dare President Don Bridge, who also plays River City’s befuddled mayor in the production. “Meredith Willson wrote the show as a salute to his native Iowa, and it really is as wholesome and American as apple pie.”
And for theatergoers here on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, it will be a high-stepping, musical cure for those late-winter doldrums.
The Music Man takes the stage at the COA (College of the Albemarle) Roanoke Island Campus in Manteo over two weekends, with shows at 7:30pm on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12, and again on Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19, with 2pm matinee shows set for Sunday, March 13 and again on Sunday, March 20.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students, available in advance online here.
Con man Harold Hill (Stuart Parks II) woos skeptical River City librarian Marian Paroo (Brittany S. Weber) in Theatre of Dare’s upcoming production of “The Music Man”, opening at the COA Auditorium in Manteo on March 11.
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