Theatre Register
The Music Man

The Music Man

Shows · The Music Man

It took eight years to write — including over 30 drafts and 40 songs — but by the time it was produced on Broadway, The Music Man had clearly established newcomer Meredith Willson among the most impressive talents of the musical theatre. The idea for the show had first been suggested by Willson’s friend, Frank Loesser, who enjoyed listening to the composer’s tales of growing up in a small lowa town. Though the plot w…

Opened
1957
Performances
1,375
Type
Musical
Era
Golden Age
Music: Meredith WillsonLyrics: Meredith WillsonBook: Meredith Willson & Franklin Lacey

Productions4 on Broadway

1957 Majestic Theatre Original. December 19, 1957 · Morton DaCosta 1,375 performances · 5 Tony wins
1980 City Center Revival. June 5, 1980 · Michael Kidd 21 performances
2000 Neil Simon Theatre Revival. April 27, 2000 · Susan Stroman 699 performances
2022 Winter Garden Theatre Revival. · Jerry Zaks 376 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing 1 entry

US Music Theatre International The Music Man matched on title alone — a lead, not a confirmed licensor

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature45 passages

During the 1958-1959 season, it was possible to see such major attractions as The Music Man for $2.50 and My Fair Lady for $2.30. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p13

The role of Professor Harold Hill was rejected by a number of actors, including Danny Kaye, Dan Dailey, Phil Harris, and Gene Kelly, before it went to Robert Preston who gave a memorably dynamic performance in his first appearance on the musical stage. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p201

waiting just around the corner were The Music Man, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Hello, Dolly! (with Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the first two) book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p498

In the 1954 production, Barbara Cook had played the secondary female role of Carrie Pipperidge; in the intervening years she had created two roles on Broadway (Hilda in Plain and Fancy and Cunegonde in Candide ), and so this time around she was Julie Jordan, the musical’s leading lady (and three months later she create… book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p650

The musical played for 1,375 performances and was the third-longest-running of the decade’s musicals. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p670

The script was published in hardback by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 1958, and although there are a number of recordings, the original cast album is the essential one (Capitol LP # W/WAO-990; issued on CD by Broadway Angel, # ZDM-7-64663-2-3). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p672

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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