The Capitol Chordsmen Chorus An Overture Hall headliner!

'The Music Man' is 50 this year Chordsmen to include 'Lida Rose' on April 21 show

"The Music Man" on film

The Capitol Chordsmen and other Barbershop Harmony Society chapters throughout the nation celebrated 2007 as the 50th anniversary year of "The Music Man."

One of the best-loved musicals, Meredith Willson's "The Music Man," opened on Broadway on Dec. 19, 1957. The stage production and the subsequent 1962 film featured one of the Barbershop Harmony Society's most memorable quartets, the Buffalo Bills (photo), and thrust barbershop harmony into a broad spectrum of public light.

Read about a Madison connection to the Buffalo Bills here.

In celebration, the Barbershop Harmony Society has designated "The Music Man" as its theme during 2007, culminating in a Society-wide celebration on Dec. 19. The Capitol Chordsmen Chorus is joining in by including one of the best-loved songs from the production, "Lida Rose," on its annual show program April 21. For show details, click here.

Written by Meredith Willson, The Music Man is set in early 1900 in River City, Iowa, believed to be a fictional representation of the playwright's home town of Mason City, Iowa.

Harold Hill, a salesman and con artist, plots to cheat the unsuspecting people of River City by offering to organize, equip and train a boy's marching band, thus saving the town's youth from moral decay.

Trouble is he has no musical ability and intends to skip town as soon as he collects his fees for instruments and uniforms. Slowly he wins over the confidence of the town's citizens. But when he falls for the town's librarian, Hill's plan backfires, and he's the one who learns the lesson.

The barbershop quartet plays four bickering school board members whose only harmony comes with their ringing chords. The quartet appears throughout the play demanding "Professor" Henry Hill's music credentials.

The Music Man's timeless appeal has resulted in:

• Three Broadway revivals
• A touring performance
• A 1962 motion picture
• A 2003 made-for-television adaptation starring Matthew Broderick as Harold Hill
• Thousands of school and community theater performances
• Many performances of memorable songs, such as "Ya Got Trouble," "Seventy-Six Trombones," "The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl," "Lida Rose," "Marian the Librarian," "Pickalittle," "My White Knight" and "Till There Was You." The latter was covered by The Beatles in 1963

About the Buffalo Bills

• The original founding members in 1947 were Vern Reed, Bill Spangenberg, Hershel Smith (who was replaced by Dick Grapes in 1950) and Al Shea.
• The quartet won the Barbershop Harmony Society Gold Medal in 1950 with what was then the largest point accumulation in Society history.
• Dick Grapes declined the invitation for the quartet's role in The Music Man in 1957 and was replaced by Wayne 'Scotty' Ward. Grapes said, "I could not place my family and my job in jeopardy. The whole thing could flop, and then where would I be?"
• Meredith Willson is quoted as saying, "The Bills could stop the show at any time with their outstanding performance. Barbershop quartet singing does something to people that cannot be done by any other form of music."
• After three years of Broadway performances, a motion picture was made in 1962, also featuring the Buffalo Bills. Following that, Bill Spangenberg became ill and was replaced by Jim Jones.
• The quartet of Reed, Shea, Ward and Jones performed together until their last show in 1967 at the Waldorf-Astoria.
• The Buffalo Bills were the face of barbershop for years, starring in 728 concerts, 216 television shows, 1,510 Broadway appearances, 626 conventions, 675 radio shows, 672 night club and hotel appearances, 137 state fair performances, 15 record albums and a major motion picture. They were regulars on the Arthur Godfrey radio show and traveled to military bases around the world.
• Dick Grapes, the last surviving member of the champion Buffalo Bills, was accorded VIP honors at the Society's international convention in Denver in July 2007.

LISTEN TO THE BUFFALO BILLS! Click here and scroll down the page to make your selection.

See and hear them sing on Perry Como's TV show in 1958 in a 4 1/2-minute YouTube video clip here. In it, Perry takes the lead part in "If You Were the Only Girl (in the World)" until he's "replaced" by the Bills' regular lead.

You can also hear (but not see) them sing in a 1 1/2-minute on a non-barbershop YouTube 2007 video about a McDonald's sign in distress on a Michigan interstate highway. The video is called "Golden Arches are Falling??" and the song they sing is entitled -- well, you'll see.

To order -- uh, see -- the video, click here. ("Would you like some barbershop with that?")

CAPITAL TIMES COLUMNIST DOUG MOE writes about "The Music Man" and the Buffalo Bills' Madison connection in his April 19, 2007, column. Click here to read it.

READ MEREDITH WILLSON'S OWN WORDS about why "The Music Man" HAD to have a barbershop quartet here.

BAFFLED BY SOME OF THE WORDS AND REFERENCES IN 'THE MUSIC MAN'? Check out this handy glossary.