KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
An eclectic cast of children and adults will bring “The Music Man” to the Kodiak stage starting this Saturday. The musical is about Harold Hill, the bamboozling, lovable fraud who enters a small town in Iowa promising a revolutionary boy’s band. And it’s about all the people he impacts.
Mark Anderson, who plays Harold, says the Music Man is a timeless story.
“Here it is taking place a 100 years ago approximately, and the concerns and the worries of the parents and the people in the town then are not really any different than they are today. The parents are concerned about what their kids are doing after school, they’re concerned about their morals, they’re concerned about what’s gonna happen with their kids. And so I’ve kinda thought a little bit about that, that things don’t really change that much.”
Anderson says, when he auditioned, he harbored hopes of getting the lead role. He explained he had a bad start.
“I actually missed the first day of try-outs because I didn’t know – I thought it was Saturday at a certain time, and I missed it, and I went back to Veronica and I said – and Veronica’s our director – and I said ‘I really wanted to try out, but I missed it,’ and she said, ‘Bring your stuff and come, and we’ll take a look.’”
Meanwhile, Harold’s leading lady is the local librarian and piano teacher, Marian. The actress who plays the role, Alex Silva, explains she is also Harold’s central object of manipulation.
“Since he’s come to the town trying to sell band instruments and sell a band, basically, a boy’s band, I am his number one target in order to fool or coerce or intrigue in order to make it not so obvious that he doesn’t really know anything about music at all.”
You can find out how that relationship develops by seeing and hearing the full Music Man story this weekend, starting at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium. You can see the full information about times and ticket prices on the Kodiak Arts Council website.
