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Hugh and Meredith? Be still, my heart!

Kathy Werner - Columnist
Posted 4/9/20

Read any good books lately? Actually I have, thanks for asking!

Last December, in a moment of weakness, I went online and secured tickets for The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton …

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Hugh and Meredith? Be still, my heart!

Posted

Read any good books lately? Actually I have, thanks for asking!

Last December, in a moment of weakness, I went online and secured tickets for The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster for September 17, 2020. I won't tell you what I paid, but it is a measure of my admiration for Mr. Jackman.

You can imagine how fervently I am praying that things will be back to some new normal by then and the show will go on.

Luckily, I have already had the pleasure of seeing Hugh Jackman onstage when he starred in The Boy from Oz on Broadway in 2004. It was love at first sight, and I dragged my sisters, mother, and friends down to see the show several times. I mean, there is no one more charming onstage than Hugh.

Imagining that wonderful man playing the lead in one of my favorite musicals was a temptation too great to resist. I found some face value tickets (not second market resale tickets) and pushed the button. And then in a few months, the entire world turned upside-down, but I am wishing and hoping that Hugh and Sutton will still tread the boards in the fall.

I also adore The Music Man musical, written by Meredith Willson. I did one of my deep internet dives and found out more about this fascinating man. Willson authored two memoirs which are still in print and available on Amazon, so you know I had to have them. The first is “And There I Stood with My Piccolo” and follows Meredith (born in 1902) through his Iowa boyhood in Mason City and his experiences studying at Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art (now the Julliard School) and playing the piccolo and flute with a variety of orchestras including the John Philip Sousa Band. He ended up on the West Coast and performed on many radio shows, even playing a recurring role on Burns and Allen's radio show. Along the way he wrote some memorable tunes, including “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You” and “It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas”.

Willson also wrote a second memoir “But He Doesn't Know the Territory” about the creation of his most famous musical The Music Man. It took years of rewrites before the show hit the stage to rave reviews, and Willson regarded it as his love letter to his Iowa boyhood.

These memoirs are essentially loosely-strung-together anecdotes of his adventures, not great works of literature, but highly enjoyable. Hey, the guy writes hit musicals (he also wrote The Unsinkable Molly Brown), he doesn't have to be Shakespeare.

So now I love both the late great Meredith Willson and the immensely talented Hugh Jackman. Fingers and toes crossed that we get to see this spectacular combination of actor and material in September.

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