- University of Sheffield researcher has discovered never-before-seen drafts of one of the most popular musicals in Broadway history
- Drafts show how The Music Man - set to return to Broadway this Christmas starring Hollywood superstar Hugh Jackman - was originally about a young boy in a wheelchair driven out of towns across Midwest America because of his disability
- Original scripts show how the musical’s writer - Meredith Willson - faced a three year battle to write the show about the discrimination faced by the boy and his family
- Findings show how the original plot was seen as too provocative for Broadway with Willson forced to abandon his idea for the musical just 10 months before it opened in 1957
One of the most popular musicals in Broadway history was originally planned to be a story about a young boy in a wheelchair, according to newly-uncovered drafts of the show discovered by a researcher at the University of Sheffield.
As Broadway prepares to welcome a revival of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man starring Hollywood superstar Hugh Jackman later this month, newly discovered drafts have revealed that Willson faced a three year struggle to write the show about Jim Paroo, a young boy in a wheelchair who was driven out of several towns in Midwest America, cruelly taunted because of his inability to speak or walk.
Until just 10 months before the musical opened on Broadway for the first time in 1957, the cornerstone of the plot was going to portray how the titular music man, Harold Hill, challenged the community’s bigotry and integrated Jim into a newly-formed boy’s band.
However, the plot was seen as too provocative for Broadway in the 1950s, a genre that promoted athletic bodies performing complex dance moves, as both friends and people involved in the show’s production put pressure on Willson to drop the idea, even though they acknowledged it was worthy.
Eight newly-uncovered drafts of The Music Man have been discovered by Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh, Professor of Musicology at the University of Sheffield. The drafts, dating from February 1954 to January 1957 were discovered at the Great American Songbook Foundation in Indiana.
Professor Broomfield-McHugh from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Music said: “Willson strongly believed that the stigmatisation of young people with disabilities was a major problem in society that needed to be challenged, and he saw this as something he could do through the medium of the Broadway musical.
“His idea to put a young disabled boy as the main character in The Music Man was provocative. Broadway writers of the mid-twentieth century had tried to turn their attention to important social themes of the day, but ableism had not been tackled like this before.
“What I’ve discovered from the drafts as well as materials from Willson’s life is that this was just too much for Broadway in the 1950s. Broadway’s emphasis on spectacle and normativity meant that Willson was pressured into changing the show’s plot into what we know of it today - erasing what could have been a much-loved, famous disabled Broadway character.”
With its colourful costumes, lively dances and rousing marches, Meredith Willson’s The Music Man remains one of the most popular musicals in Broadway history.
Opening in 1957, its cheerful and romantic mood helped its original production to run 1,375 performances, beating West Side Story -- another classic which opened three months earlier -- to most of the major awards that year.
The study into the history of The Music Man, conducted by Professor Broomfield-McHugh, has also revealed new insights into Meredith Willson’s life and career. Findings from the research have uncovered the stories behind Willson’s other musicals, his rise to fame through the New York Philharmonic, Sousa’s marching band, and as the composer of Charlie Chapin’s controversial film The Great Dictator
Professor Broomfield-McHugh added: “Willson’s work on The Music Man, and indeed his eclectic career through symphony orchestras, Hollywood, and radio, indicates that he was much more innovative and engaged than one might think.
“Willson was genuinely committed to the disability rights movement, the roots of which can be traced to when Willson was writing The Music Man: he went on a concert tour when preparing for his next musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and gave the proceeds to a disabled children’s charity.
“Many people see Willson as being politically conservative, and disengaged from socialist issues, but my research shows that wasn’t the case.”
The newly discovered drafts for The Music Man as well as new insights into Willson’s life and career uncovered by Professor Broomfield-McHugh are published in a new book by Oxford University Press - The Big Parade: Meredith Willson’s Musicals from ‘The Music Man’ to ‘1491. The book is available in the US and UK.
