Synopsis

Confidence man Harold Hill arrives at staid River City intending to cheat the community with his standard scam of offering to equip and train a boy's marching band, then skip town with the money since he has no music skill anyway. Things go awry when he falls for a librarian he tries to divert from exposing him while he inadvertently enriches the town with a love of music.

Classic of flag-waving, feel-good, musical comedic Americana, based on a hit Broadway show, with a refreshingly jaundiced subtext: Footloose con man sets out to fleece a repressed Midwestern community during the early days of the twentieth century, but instead learns a lesson in moral responsibility from the town's comely librarian.

Posted January 29, 2010