Music Man headlines Hudson Players 80th season, opening this month
by Charles Cassady
For this autumn-winter cycle of performances, the Hudson Players celebrate 2024 as its 80th season.
“This is going to be an exciting year,” said the troupe’s publicist Jennifer Kubinski. “I think we’re one of the oldest theater groups in the area.”
The Hudson Players have extra reason to take a bow. Once again, members made a return visit to OCTAfest in August. Held near Columbus, this is an annual celebration of outstanding achievements on regional stages held by the Newark-based Ohio Community Theater Association. Hudson’s was one of the community stage organizations recognized with an encore, this time a selection from the Players’ 2024 staging of Curtains.
In November, the Hudson Players troupe opens their oak anniversary – yes, that is the customary nomenclature for the 80th – with a revival of The Music Man. Meredith Wilson’s classic piece of musical Americana is about the fast-talking con artist Harold Hill, who in the early 1900s breezes into River City, Iowa, creating a false juvenile delinquency scare to compel residents to buy band instruments and keep their kids out of trouble.
It is little appreciated today, but when The Music Man premiered in 1957, it was a rare trifecta for Wilson, who wrote the script, music and lyrics. And he was a newcomer to the Broadway stage at the age of 55. But the smash hit lasted for 1,375 performances and was successfully redone as a Hollywood musical in 1962, starring its Broadway leading man, Robert Preston.
The Music Man is a favorite that the Players have done before, but not for a generation.
“I want to say over 20 years ago,” Kubinski said. “I believe it was done before we renovated.”
Opening performance of The Music Man by the Hudson Players is 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1. Performances continue 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 23, with special 2 p.m. Sunday matinees on Nov. 10 and Nov. 17.
The second show is a new “small-cast version” of Camelot, the Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe Broadway musical. Based distantly on The Once and Future King by T.H. White, Camelot concerns King Arthur, the Knights of the Round table, and the love triangle between King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot.
Not long ago, Broadway regulars argued about a 21st-century rewrite of “Camelot” done in New York with a heavily modified libretto by big-name movie/TV scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin. It dropped reference to magic and wizardry and insinuated politics in a controversial bid to be modern and “relevant.”
This recent Camelot, revised by David Lee, re-frames the presentation as a group of traveling troubadour-bards – almost as one might have beheld in medieval times. The ensemble renders the tale of King Arthur on skeletal or imaginary sets with cast members taking multiple roles. This is the first time the Hudson Players have performed the material in this way, said Kublinski.
Performances of Camelot are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., from Feb. 7 to March 1, with special 2 p.m. Sunday matinees on Feb. 16 and Feb. 23.
The spring brings the final show of the 80th season. It will be the lighthearted The Iliad, The Odyssey and All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less, in which a pared-down cast of actors binge-play and zoom humorously through the major heroic-epic narratives from Greek myth, from the Trojan Horse to the Cyclops and beyond.
And, yes, if you need an early bedtime, the title is accurate, according Kubinski.
“There is even going to be a clock on stage and it’s going to be set for 99 minutes,” she said.
Performances of The Iliad, The Odyssey and All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., from May 2 through May 17, with one Sunday matinee special at 2 p.m. on May 11.
Stage-enthusiasts of the ultimate kind may want to note that auditions for Camelot will be held on the evenings of November 3 and 4. and auditions for The Iliad, The Odyssey and All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less take place on the evenings of February 23 and 24.
“All of our auditions are fairly informal `open’ auditions,” said Kubinski. “You just show up at 7 o’clock.”
She does recommend that aspiring actors or actresses bring their resumes and “head shot” photo portraits with them.
As far as a major celebration of the troupe’s milestone, she said, “We are going to have the 80th-anniversary party in the spring,” but details have not been finalized yet. For news and updates, including ticket sales and further audition details, Jennifer Kubinski advises all interested theater lover to go online to hudsonplayers.com or phone (330) 655-8522.