Compare & Contrast: The Music Man vs Guys And Dolls

“Americana” means different things to different people.

There’s the Disney / Hallmark version that skews heavily to white middle class rural protestant preferences circa 1880-1920, and there’s the more contemporary style, which is inclusive of folk and country and blues.

But the America that Americana derives from is far more complex and richer and deeper than that, and to ignore the fact large urban populations are as much a part of America as small town rurals is to deny much of what has always made America America.

So let’s focus on two classic examples of Americana:
The rural middle class experience of The Music Man and the urban underclass experience of Guys And Dolls.

. . . 

The Music Man is the brainchild of Meredith Willson, a writer / composer from the Midwest who certainly captured a widely held romanticized view of that part of the country in the early 20th century while at the same time skewering the bias and prejudices of that era.

By bias and prejudices I’m not referring to racial issues (though by inference that’s lurking in the background) but rather the commonplace Babbittry of the time and place.  The Music Man won the 1957 Tony award for best musical, beating out another now classic bit of Americana:  West Side Story.

To be fair, for West Side Story to lose to The Music Man is a credible alternative.  West Side Story on Broadway was popular but not a smash hit, it took the movie version to make it a blockbuster classic, and the lion’s share of the film’s success rests on the shoulders of Rita Moreno with able assists by Russ Tamblyn and Marni Nixon dubbing Natalie Wood.

We need to note that while The Music Man looked back fondly, West Side Story looked grimly at racial prejudice in the here and now and forward to the implications for America’s future.

We’ll revisit one of West Side Story’s best songs in a bit, but right now we’ll focus on The Music Man.

. . .

It follows the standard tropes of Broadway musicals and ignores some pretty huge moral issues it churns up.

Case in point:  
The plot.  

Harold Hill persuades small towns to invest heavily in a marching band for school kids with the promise he’ll train and lead the band.

But Hill is a con man -- he can’t play music!  He sells towns band equipment and uniforms then splits just before the material arrives.

Of course, in this type of Broadway musical comedy True Love Prevails in the form of Hill falling head over heels in love with Marion the librarian, so he stays in River City where -- by some miracle -- the kids learn to make noises on their instruments that their doting parents interpret as music, and we end with a rousing finale reprise of “76 Trombones”.

Here's the moral / ethical quandary:  All the other towns Hill cheated stay cheated.

While River City gets its money’s worth, there’s literally over a hundred communities still short changed by Hill, and at no point does any one ask what Hill is going to do about it.

Mind you, this kind of is Willson’s point, his send up of small town hypocrisy that makes River City susceptible to Hill in the first place.

But it also demonstrates a tendency among self-proclaimed moralists -- especially small town conservatives -- to think “I got mine so screw you.”

River City in The Music Man presents a selfish, mean-spirited (in both senses of the word), small minded community.  It richly deserves a Harold Hill to prey on it and it escapes its just deserts only by Hill’s hormones acting up.

It’s not a point Willson avoids making but it is a point most audiences -- particularly those who aspire to be like River City Iowans -- typically fail to grasp.

. . .

By counterpoint, there are no victims in Guys And Dolls.

It’s a story of lowlifes and dancers and hustlers of all sorts but there are no victims -- everybody in that world is there because they want to be and they participate in the shenanigans out of their own free will.

They are also, by and large, mostly tolerant and non-judgmental, the complete opposite of River City’s inhabitants.  Adelaide, the most judgmental of all the characters, focuses her judgment on her fiancé of 14 years, Nathan Detroit.

The closest anybody comes to victimization is when Sky Masterson foolishly accepts a bet by Nathan that he cannot get the reform minded Miss Sarah Brown to go with him to Havana.

Sky recognizes he set himself up for this bet, thus accepting responsibility for his words and deeds, but most crucially refuses to claim victory when he realizes doing so would hurt Sarah.

It’s another example of the old Broadway trope, to be sure, but it’s freshened by Sky’s willing self-sacrifice.

Hill saves River City to get Marian for himself, Sky gives up Sarah so she will not feel used.

That’s a big moral leap and one that’s miles above the motives of the cast of The Music Man.

. . . 

Another key difference:
The inhabitants of Guys And Dolls‘ Manhattan are wary but not suspicious of their fellow human beings; they’re careful not to get their pockets picked but they’ll make a deal or place a bet if the proposition is good.  The Music Man’s River City denizens are suspicious but not wary; they assume the worst of out-of-towners yet fall for the first one who reassures their prejudices.

The best example of this difference can be found in two signature songs from each story:  The Music Man’s ”Ya Got Trouble” and Guys And Dolls’ title song.

Everything mentioned in “Ya Got Trouble” can be found in Guys And Dolls, only the sins and canards Hill preaches to small minded provincial rubes are the foundation of Guys And Dolls’ morals and ethics.

Yeah, they’re gamblers and horse racers but they never pretend they aren’t and in the contest of their own milieu they possess a code of honor unmatched by the pious mouthings of River City.

This is demonstrated in their song “Guys And Dolls” where the singers describe a wide variety of guys along all points of the legal / moral / ethical spectrum without passing judgment on same!

If anything “Guys And Dolls” celebrates the commonality of humanity (well, at least “guys”) instead of stoking outrage at others who take their pleasure in a different form than Iowans.

. . .

It’s foolish to assume either musical is a 100% accurate depiction of the societies and cultures they present (though I’m coming to the conclusion that Guys And Dolls may be the most ethical and moral American musical), but there’s something ringing true about both of them, and a big hunk of that truth is that those capable of live and let live with their fellow humans are always the better neighbors.

Which brings us back to West Side Story and what for me is its signature song: ”America”.

It’s as if River City and Manhattan held a sing off, only both sides of the argument are equally represented by the male and female singers.

“America” counterpoints ideals with reality.  The reality of the Puerto Rican gangs are the prejudices foisted on them by small minds such as those found in The Music Man yet at the same time the ideals are pretty much the same ideals that River City would embrace.

The irony is that those ideals are also embraced by the Manhattan of Guys And Dolls while the reality of oppression is never supported by any of that show’s cast nor is it possible to imagine them doing so.  The Manhattan of Guys And Dolls is egalitarian, and no one is dismissed or held back by accident of birth, only by who they are and how they present themselves to the world.

This is why the multi-ethnic high school or little theatre stagings of The Music Man always feel quaint while those same venues staging Guys And Dolls feel so vibrant.

© Buzz Dixon