Countryside Community Theatre's “The Music Man,” June 25 through July 3

Friday, June 25, through Saturday, July 3

North Scott High School Fine Arts Auditorium, 200 South First Street, Eldridge IA

One of the most enduring and entertaining stage musicals of all time will be the first of two summer shows presented by Eldridge's Countryside Community Theatre, with the company returning to stage performance for the first time in two years in its June 25 through July 3 run of composer Meredith Willson's classic The Music Man.

As fans of this iconic show know, right from the start, there’s trouble in River City. When The Music Man's smooth-talking con artist Harold Hill arrives in a small, tight-knit town in Iowa, he expects to dupe its residents with his elaborate moneymaking scheme: Despite his complete lack of musical literacy, he will convince everyone that he is a brilliant bandleader and recruit all the boys in town to form a band, pocketing the cash for instruments and uniforms. The problem? Some of the town members, especially the stern librarian Marian Paroo, don’t quite buy Harold’s story. As Harold struggles to keep his scheme afloat, he also finds himself increasingly attached to the townspeople, who have all experienced a positive change since Harold came to town. Complicating matters even more, Harold is also falling head-over-heels for Marian. Boasting such show-tune standards as “'Til There Was You,” “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “Gary, Indiana,” “The Wells Fargo Wagon,” and “(Ya Got) Trouble,” The Music Man won five Tony Awards for its 1958 Broadway production, including Best Musical, and its original cast recording won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and spend 245 weeks on the Billboard charts.

Directing The Music Man for Countryside Community Theatre is Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt, an area-theatre veteran whose disparate credits include Quad City Music Guild's Willy Wonka, the Circa '21 Speakeasy's The Rocky Horror Show, and the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's I Take This Man. Harold Hill is played by Kyle DeFauw (Countryside's 2013 Les Misérables), with Marian portrayed by Peyton Reese (St. Ambrose University's Admissions). The rest of the ensemble is completed by Jack Bevans, Bailey Callahan, Valentine Chenus, Keith Glass, Julie Hummel, Peggy Jagusah, Sophia Kilburg, Jen Lineback, Izzy Louck, Janeen Mack, Orion Mack, Mark Meyer, Madeline Murphy, Mary Murphy, Jim O'Connor, Penny O'Connor, Greg O'Neill, Jolene Richardson, Jim Schneider, Caleb Schrader, David Schrader, John Schrader, Rochelle Schrader, Yvonne Siddique, Bill Tubbs, Jaden Vought, and Joe Wren. And with Michael Callahan serving as music director, Emmett Boedeker as technical director, and Lisa Tanner as choreographer, the show also boasts a live orchestra of nearly two dozen gifted local musicians.

Countryside Community Theatre's The Music Man will be staged in Eldridge's North Scott High School Fine Arts Auditorium June 25 through July 3, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $15, more information is available by e-mailing ccteldridge@gmail.com, and tickets are available at CCTEldridge.booktix.com.