TOWAMENCIN – North Penn High School (NPHS) Theatre begins its fifth decade with Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. This production first charmed Broadway and the world in 1957 and swept the 1958 Tony Awards beating out West Side Story for Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Author, Best Composer, Best Conductor, Best Musical Director and Best Producer. The 1962 film also received six Academy Award nominations. This spring, more than 100 North Penn High School students are catching the flavor and spirit of this charming show.

Shows will be held April 26, 27 and 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the North Penn High School auditorium, located at 1340 Valley Forge Road in Lansdale. A senior citizen Gold Card matinee is scheduled for 1 p.m. on April 25 and a special family matinee is scheduled for 2 p.m. on April 28. To purchase tickets, please call 215-853-1351 or go to www.npenn.org and click on the link to the NPHS Theatre webpage to download a ticket order form. Tickets will also be available at the door every night beginning at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $5 for students and free for senior citizens with Gold Cards. Silver and Gold Cards must be presented in person to receive the complimentary ticket.          

Self-styled “Professor Harold Hill” (Gabe Quinodoz, senior), confidence salesman extraordinaire, is challenged to convince the stiff-necked Iowans of River City to fall for his Boys Band con, in which he sells band instruments, uniforms and the “Think Music System” to local towns and then skips out with the money before anyone figures out that he can’t read a note of music. However,  local librarian and town piano teacher, Marian Paroo (Jessica Arnold, senior), questions Hill’s credentials, as do Mayor Shinn (Mitchell Yetter, senior), the owner of the spurned pool table and the town’s constantly bickering school board (Ian Mix and Tom Moyer, seniors; Ian Mininger and Cory Taylor, sophomores). Hill quickly neutralizes the School Board by convincing them that their combined voices form a perfect Barbershop Quartet and they are soon strolling about the town singing “Sincere,” “Good-night Ladies,” and “Lida Rose.”  Mayor Shinn finds himself out-voiced by the town’s enthusiasm for the band, including the endorsement of his wife, Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn (Erica Hutchinson, sophomore), who is the new chair of the Ladies Auxiliary for the Classical Dance, formed by Hill and other ladies of the town (Emily Morris, Shannon Benner, Catie Quinn, and Valeri Smith, seniors; Sarah Stinson and Jill Calhoun, juniors).

As for Marion Paroo’s complaints, Hill relentlessly pursues her as well as he charming her widowed mother, Mrs. Paroo (DianaRose Weiler, senior), and befriending her shy little brother, Winthrop (Elijah Baker, second grade, Oak Park Elementary School). Hill even follows Marion into the library where his teasing flirtation has even the strict librarian breaking the rules of no talking or dancing in “Marion, the Librarian” along with Mayor Shinn’s daughter Zaneeta (Hayley Smith, junior) and her boyfriend (Tucker Breder, sophomore) and other teenagers of the town (Rebecca Elliot, Sean Brady, Collin Cousart, seniors; Shweta Akolkar, Christina Baer, Ali Corr, juniors; Tatiana Knies-Smith, Rebecca Rosenblatt, Ryan Aragona, Jacob Gallo, Tyler Ivey, and Niko Markopulos, sophomores).

Harold Hill’s con is working just fine with the help of his friend Marcellus (Pascal Portney, junior) as is his romantic siege of Marion, when Charlie Cowell, anvil salesman (Tyler Ivey, sophomore) shows up ready to spoil his game. Can Harold high tail it out of town and beat the rap before the town gets wise? Or has he finally met his comeuppance with the honest, worthy citizens of River City? Or has Hill’s musical con really turned into a musical miracle that has transformed a town and changed the light-footed salesman into a man with his foot caught in the door and no inclination to get unstuck?  For over 50 years, audiences have been enjoying the answer to those questions.

For more information about the NPHS Theatre spring show and program ads or tax deductible sponsorships available to support the theatre arts at North Penn High School, please email NPHS Theatre director and producer Andrea Roney at [email protected] or 215-853-1294.