June 5, 2020 --

Meredith Willson's wonderful 1957  musical, "The Music Man," is scheduled to begin previews September 9, with the official opening October 15.  (Hard to believe it opened 63 years ago, starring Robert Preston and Barbara Cook.) Here's hoping the Broadway stage will come back to life by then.  LPR hopes  that this revival will  place a little bit of oil on the nation's turbulent political waters. 

LPR must add, of course, that this revival, as well as others, points up the need for a Broadway musical repertory company along the lines of the Metropolitan Opera. 

We have a treasure trove of musicals; not all of them can expect as long a run as this production with a cast including Hugh Jackman as Harold Hill, Sutton Foster as Marian Paroo, and Shuler Hensley as Marcellus Washburn.  These brilliant actors have all won Tonys and as it happens, LPR photographed each in 2004 and 2005. 

And speaking of a broadway musical rep company, one musical well suited to a rep production would be "The Most Happy Fella," starring Shuler Hensley as Tony. 

Here are LPR images of Hugh Jackman, sighing autographs after a matinee of "The Boy From Oz; Sutton Foster at a Broadway Under the Stars Program, probably in Central Park; and Shuler Hensley, definitely in Central Park - with Shana.