Last night we attended the University of Central Florida Theater production of "The Music Man." Not the same as the 1957 Broadway version or the enormously popular 1962 movie staring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.........but the UCF production was good.
I think most folks my age love "The Music Man." Most know the music. Next time you see me ask me to do "Ya Got Trouble" for you. I can.
The young cast last night was excellent but nobody does or did Professor Harold Hill like Robert Preston. Likewise, the litte boy who played Winthrop last night, Jason Zavitz, was good, but the lisping Winthrop Pardoo always has, and forever will be, eight year old Ronnie Howard. By the way, Ron Howard turned 60 years old today!
I'll leave you with these cautionary words about what the presence of a pool hall can do to your city:
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon,
Then beer from a bottle.
An' the next thing ya know,
Your son is playin' for money
In a pinch-back suit.
And list'nin to some big out-a-town Jasper
Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin'.
Not a wholesome trot tin' race, no!
But a race where they set down right on the horse!
Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy
Sittin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil?
Well I should say.
Friends, lemme tell you what I mean.
Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
Pockets that mark the difference
Between a gentleman and a bum,
With a capital "B,"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for POOL!
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