Thanks to Scott Williams Capturing the Light Photography

Expect a big Iowa welcome if you’re headed to River City this weekend.

The Community Players have pulled out all the stops on another spectacular production of The Music Man, opening tonight and running through Sunday at the Trinity Theatre, a.k.a. the New Hamburg Arena.

The troupe’s third go-around with Meredith Wilson’s Tony Award-winning 1958 musical is a faithful retelling of the endearing classic. The production value is astounding. Costume designer Connie Zehr’s rich and colourful costumes couldn’t be better in recreating the fashion of the small mid-west American town in 1912. And set designer Brent Roth produces impressive depth with his storefront set pieces that look better the further you’re sitting from the stage — great incentive to grab some of the remaining seats for this weekend’s shows.

The story follows con-man “Professor” Harold Hill’s arrival in a small Iowa town. He’s there to dupe the townspeople into forking over down payments for instruments and uniforms for a marching band, promise the kids will learn how to play and then leave with their money. Setting the stage for the con, Hill preys on the townspeople’s fear the local billiard hall is a hot bed of trouble waiting to happen.

What the “professor” doesn’t bank on is town librarian Marian Paroo, who suspects his deceit the minute he introduces himself.

Leads Joseph Reany, as a lively Harold Hill, and Erinka Wood, as an enlightened but reserved, Marian Paroo are charming to watch as she rebuffs his repeated attempts to bring her under his spell. But the real star of the show is the ensemble.

The full-cast performances, from the harmonies to the choreography, on showstoppers like Iowa Stubborn and Seventy-Six Trombones are worth the price of admission.

You know you’re in for a treat when the actors nail the opening number — the up-tempo rap Rock Island, performed by half a dozen salesmen to the clickety-clack rhythm of a train.

Tickets for evening and matinee performances of The Music Man are still available through TCP’s website, or by calling 1-800-TCP-7524.

Watch as The Community Players prepare for their run of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man May 10-13th at the Trinity Theatre in the New Hamburg Arena. Great seats still remain for several performances.

Video Credit: Aaron Balzer

Music Man Marches into New Hamburg

NEW HAMBURG — The New Hamburg Community Players is a feisty little theatrical company that, when it gazes into a mirror, sees the Stratford Shakespeare Festival staring back.

Self-confident? You bet. A bit ambitious? Perhaps. Yet after 28 years of bringing large-scale theatrical productions to this small town west of Kitchener, the amateur group has earned the right to feel proud. And on May 10, they will do it again when the curtain rises on The Music Man.

“We love it, the audiences love it,” said the company’s artistic director Brent Roth. “We wanted something that would be a draw. Music Man is a very fun show. It’s something audiences can relate to. The cast loves it because there’s lots for them to do.”

Indeed with more than 60 cast members, an orchestra of 18 plus another 20 or so doing everything from costume design to set building, The Music Man is a community effort with sons and fathers, aunts, uncles and grandparents all pitching in.

Despite the amateur status of the Community Players, The Music Man, indeed all the annual shows the company has performed in the past couple of decades, have been produced at a level often unexpected by audiences.

“Every year we get better … it’s an evolution,” said Roth, who has been with the company for 22 years, including 12 as its artistic director. “People that haven’t seen any of our shows, they’re pretty impressed.”

The Music Man follows last year’s production of Tim Rice’s Aida in scope and crowd appeal, with music familiar to most everyone. Two tunes in particular make for terrific ear worms: Ya Got Trouble and 76 Trombones. You just can’t get any more high spirited than that.

Community Players, which donates some of its proceeds to charity, has performed The Music Man twice in its history but Roth said the company has grown and improved since then and will bring an entirely new feel and look to the production. And he promises that leaving at the end of the night you will be “humming a tune, tapping your toes, almost marching out of the theatre.”

The Music Man follows the story of Harold Hill, a travelling salesman and con artist who dubs himself a professor after descending on River City, Iowa, a small town he immediately identifies as ripe for a swindle. Professor Hill devises a cunning plan: convince the locals that their boys need a wholesome activity such as a marching band to keep them from the evils of the new pool table in town and he’s just the man to do it, even though he’s musically inept.

Step two of the plan involves collecting the funds raised for uniforms and instruments then skedaddling on the first train out of town, pockets stuffed with cash.

Of course love interferes and Hill’s plans go awry.

The Music Man first entered the public’s perception in 1957 as a Broadway musical, garnering five Tony awards before being made into a Hollywood hit in 1961, starring Robert Preston. Though the musical’s characters seem larger than life, Roth said it is important not to reduce them to the level of caricatures. He is certain this particularly production “will showcase what we do best.”

The Community Players launched in 1984 as a youth group at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, moved to the community centre at the New Hamburg Arena and after outgrowing that space, moved onto the hockey rink surface. With each musical production, that old rink is transformed into Trinity Theatre, a sort of Brigadoon that appears seemingly out of nowhere and just as quickly disappears.

How very theatrical, just like the Community Players.

vhill@therecord.com

The Community Players presents

The Music Man

May 10 – 13, 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday

Trinity Theatre (New Hamburg Arena), 251 Jacob St., New Hamburg

Tickets $28 adults, $18 children, $26 students and seniors

1-800-827-7524 or visit thecommunityplayers.com

Our host is Zyg Janecki and guests will include:

Erinka Wood – Marian Paroo
Maddie Sekulin – Zaneeta Shinn
Kalina Seifried – Production Manager
Nicole Cotie-Wagler – Props and Ensemble
Gary Goeree – Leadership Team member and TCP Alumni

The show will air live from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and will feature discussion with the guests and all the music from the 1957 (Grammy Award Winning) Cast Album.

Always a highlight of the TCP season – tune in to CKWR 98.5 fm. You can also catch the show online by visiting the CKWR website.

As we count the hours till the curtain rises, we are please to offer a glimpse into the building of TCP’s The Music Man, from painting and construction, to rehearsals with the cast and orchestra, to building the Trinity Theatre literally from the ground up, and finally  performance time. The Music Man opens on May 10 At the Trinity Theatre in the New Hamburg Arena. Great Seats remain, order yours today at thecommunityplayers.com. Don’t Miss It!

Set Construction, Props & Painting

Rehearsals

Getting Ready

Photo Credit: Scott Williams, Capturing the Light Photography

This week marks 100 years since the loss of what was at the time the largest ship in the world, and is probably still the most famous. The Royal Mail Steamer Titanic was widely viewed as unsinkable and as a symbol of the modern world.

The real-life Titanic was a technological marvel, viewed as evidence of man’s triumph over nature. On the night of April 14, 1912, that arrogant view was shattered, along with the lives of everyone onboard.

History would forever be changed.

No survivors remain now from the greatest marine disaster of our time, but a new generation continues to marvel, and reflect and remember all that was, and is, Titanic.

Titanic will always hold a special place in the hearts of everyone associated with The Community Players of New Hamburg. On the centenary of her loss, we take a moment to remember…

Sail on, sail on, great ship Titanic. Cross the open sea. Pray the journey’s sound till your port be found. Fortune’s winds sing Godspeed to thee…

From Titanic: The Musical

Read The Community Player: Titanic Edition

View pictures from TCP’s production of Titanic: The Musical

Titanic: The Musical Poster

TCP Titanic 95th Anniversary Ad

Thank you to all participants who entered the draw online, on facebook and in person at local businesses in the community.

The Music Man is on stage at the Trinity Theatre in the New Hamburg Arena from May 10-13. Great tickets are still available for all performances.

TCP is giving away three pairs of tickets for the opening-night performance: Thursday, May 10th, at 8 p.m. Enter the contest today!

Three Ways to Enter

TCP will be awarding a pair of tickets to a winner from each of the following:

• On our Website – Visit thecommunityplayers.com and enter your name and email address in the ticket draw form.
• At select locations around Wilmot Township – Enter a live ballot at Riverside Flowers, Sobeys or EJ’S at Baden.
• On Facebook – “Like us” and post a “like” or a “comment” on the post about the opening night ticket draw.

This contest is open to all entrants, and closes Friday, March 23rd, at 4 p.m.Entrants may vote once in each of the 3 draw areas.

The live draw will take place on March 24th at 8:45 a.m. at the New Hamburg Community Centre, 15 minutes before the start of regular ticket sales. The winners will be notified by email on March 24th.

Enter the Contest by filling in your information below.

Earlier this year TCP was awarded “Best Community Theatre Production” for the 2011 staging of Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA from BroadwayWorld.com