I’ve often observed that visitors to America from other countries can get a handle on understanding this country by watching the classic version of the Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland — there are so many cultural references in it that apply to the way things work in this country. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” “If I only had a brain.” “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” And who could forget the flying monkeys, or “And your little dog too”?
But if you really want a revealing look at America as it is today, there’s one particular work that stands out: “The Music Man” by Meredith Willson. I was privileged to see the original 1957 run in New York decades ago, have a DVD of the 1962 Movie version, and have seen several high school stagings of the musical. It’s a perennial favorite that has been revived over and over again. (As a trombonist, it’s not something I could ever evade — or want to.)
While it’s a musical comedy/romance, it’s also a really perceptive exercise in sociology, psychology, and marketing. The short version is, a traveling salesman/con man (‘Professor’ Harold Hill) arrives in a small town in Iowa, gins up a controversy that can only be settled by buying his product — a boys band — and who plans to escape the town once he’s gotten their money. He’s a talented huckster with a gift for diverting attention away from his real agenda. Except… he gets trapped by getting caught up in his own fantasies, his own better impulses, and the love of a woman who sees right through him.
It’s an entertaining story set to music, in Iowa in the America of 1912. Willson was an Iowa native, born in 1902 — what he was writing about was what he had seen while growing up.
Karl Marx is supposed to have said “history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Which doesn’t preclude it from being a tragedy the second time around; the farce part is because nobody learned anything the first time.
So what is it when we’ve already seen it in the form of a theatrical production?
In some ways, the fictional town of River City is a mythical vision of American ideals and aspirations — the ‘heartland’ of nostalgia. Looking at it today, in light of decades of Republican propagandizing about “the real America”, “American values”, and “real Americans”, is a good way of understanding how a modern con man, Donald Trump, has been able to flim-flam so many, without a shred of any of the redeeming values that tripped up Professor Harold Hill.
Take the musical number “Iowa Stubborn”. Willson uses it to show us who Iowans are, as they see themselves. Patriotic, independent, reserved — but as good people willing to help out those who are in true need.
Looking at it from today’s vantage of MAGA America, we can also see other things. They’re closed-minded, suspicious of outsiders, judgmental, unsophisticated, and intolerant. They’re also overwhelmingly White and patriarchal; women don’t have the vote yet. (Scroll down this link to see what Sarah Robinson has to say about Authoritarian Followers.) Lyrics here. Watch and see:
Hill (Robert Preston) finds ways to manipulate them via these attributes. He needs to create a local controversy, get people stirred up with a convenient problem that only he can solve. (Buying his “Boy’s Band” merchandise of instruments, uniforms, and music.) Watch and see how he comes up with a serious threat to the children and the midwestern values of the community — the presence of a pool table arriving in River City for the very first time. Watch how he manipulates them by picking up on unease over changes taking place right before their eyes, threats to their children — Ragtime, dime novels, Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, etc. — while appealing to traditional values. (Lyrics here.)
“Ya Got Trouble” in River City:
Now picture the above scenario today — but now the threat isn’t pool tables. It’s trans people, illegals, DEI, burdensome government, fake news, Muslim terrorists, Woke, brown people, China, Taylor Swift, inflation, chemtrails, deadly vaccines, etc. — and America-hating Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Nancy Peolosi, Kamala Harris…
Now picture this 24/7 on TV, talk radio, on social media, til-tok, you name it. Picture it being pushed by a stable of malevolent Harold Hills and Fox News blondes who are relentless and totally without conscience. (And a horde of wealthy A**holes funding it all.)
And what’s the answer to all of this? Donald Trump — only he can fix this.
Having created a problem and convinced a mass of people that it’s real, how does Hill close the deal? By tying it to patriotic imagery, discrediting authority, and drowning out opposition by revving up a mob of the once-sober townsfolk by playing on their fears while offering an easy solution: a boy’s band. Note the appeal to saving the children, and to religion with the reference to the walls of Jericho tumbling down — lyrics here.)
Is it any wonder Trump loves holding rallies?
The people all marching out of the town meeting to the music of a band that is only playing in their heads is a good metaphor for the voters who decided to send Trump back to the White House based on the fantasies they’ve swallowed down. They’re already getting a dose of FAFO and buyer’s remorse, and there’s no way Melania Trump is going to turn out to be Marian Paroo.
Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” ends on a happy note — though I have a hard time imagining it being sustained past the day after the big closing number.
As for us in 2025, there’s another musical which has a number that is unfortunately looking less like satire and more like a documentary. Watch the whole thing.
The crazed, narcissistic Hitler of “The Producers” gets a solo turn in the bridge of this number; it’s all too easy to see Trump doing a comparable turn — in fact he did at Mar-a-Lago just the other day (albeit without music or a big dance number). The lyrics from that section are all too apt:
[Hitler]
I was just a paper hanger
No one more obscurer
Got a phone call from the Reichstag
Told me I was Fuhrer
Germany was blue
Oh what oh what to do
Hitched up my pants
And conquered France
Now Deutschland's smiling through
Oh it ain't no mystery
If it's politics or history
The thing you gotta know is
Everything is show biz
Heil myself
Watch my show
I'm the German Ethel Merman
Dont'cha know
We are crossing borders
The new world order is here
Make a great big smile
Everyone Sieg Hiel
To me, wonderful me
And now it's…
SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER AND GERMANY...
emphasis added
The audience in the theater is at first dumbfounded, then disgusted and offended. And then it all turns around and they sit down and start applauding because it’s become an over the top joke. It’s not serious — it’s become a farce.
Meanwhile, the fiction on stage is playing out in real life among the Trump inner circle and true believers. Hey — we’re going to solve our problems by taking back the Panama Canal, assimilating Canada, and invading Greenland.
And here we are, with front-row seats to it all.
