{"id":35412,"date":"2024-11-14T15:03:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T20:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35412"},"modified":"2024-11-14T15:03:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T20:03:36","slug":"actor-brings-joy-to-the-stage-as-theatre-aurora-prepares-to-open-new-season-with-the-music-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/actor-brings-joy-to-the-stage-as-theatre-aurora-prepares-to-open-new-season-with-the-music-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor brings joy to the stage as Theatre Aurora prepares to open new season with The Music Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Keith O\u2019Connell and Harold Hill go way back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connell may not have spearheaded the development of a boys\u2019 band or patented his own version of \u201cteaching\u201d music through the Think System, but their history goes back 35 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brampton-based actor first played the lead of the travelling salesman intending to hoodwink the good citizens of River City, Iowa, as a young man in 1989. With a little more life experience under his belt, he tackled the role again in 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward another 28 years, he\u2019s getting under Hill\u2019s skin once more as the Theatre Aurora veteran returns to the stage next week as Theatre Aurora opens its 2024-2025 season with Meredith Wilson\u2019s perennially-popular The Music Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a maturity that goes along playing this character, which I think I now have,\u201d says O\u2019Connell about playing the lead for the third time in as many decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Music Man has always been a favourite for O\u2019Connell, who counts actor Robert Preston, who debuted the role on Broadway and made his portrayal immortal in the 1960s film adaptation, as a personal icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe movie version can\u2019t be touched and I think it is one of the best adaptations of a movie musical from a stage musical \u2013 it pays homage while creating its own allure,\u201d he says, of why the musical resonates after some 60 years. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those musicals where you shouldn\u2019t be rooting for Harold, but somehow the way the character is written, how the songs envelop the story, and how the songs move the story along, you can\u2019t help but fall in love with this guy and kind of hope that he gets not his comeuppance, but what he wants in the end \u2013 which is obviously Marian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the uninitiated, The Music Man revolves around Hill\u2019s quest to swindle the small town into enrolling their sons in a fake boys\u2019 band, complete with the purchase of band uniforms and instruments, sure in the intent of taking the money and running. Things get complicated, however, when he finds himself smitten with one of his key marks \u2013 the local librarian, Marian Paroo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With age, O\u2019Connell says he finds himself coming into this particular production with \u201ca bit more of an understanding as to what\u2019s prompting Harold to act the way he is and to come across the way he is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got some life experience, you can understand better how people find themselves in certain situations, maybe in spite of themselves,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s still a swindler, he\u2019s still a snake oil salesman \u2013 there\u2019s no getting around that \u2013 but you can portray the character in a way that makes a little bit more sense and that resonates a little bit more with the audience so they can see how he might find himself in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having directed the last two productions of Music Man in which he found himself in the lead, this production at Theatre Aurora is being helmed by long-time Theatre Aurora director Judi Cragg. It\u2019s a new experience for O\u2019Connell and he says it\u2019s been \u201cfun to explore the character in someone else\u2019s sandbox.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Music Man, to me, is like putting on a pair of comfy pyjamas \u2013 I know these songs, I know there\u2019s a happy ending at the end of the musical and, to me, that\u2019s why this doesn\u2019t go away. It\u2019s like going home again when you\u2019re watching The Music Man.\u201d
For a show he knows so well, O\u2019Connell hopes when audience members leave they will do so not just with a \u201ccollective sigh\u201d but a collective \u201cIt was so nice to go home again \u2013 it was so nice to see something that just had a plain, simple message and a message of community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re looking at Aurora and its theatre, it just has that kind of family feel to it and I think that\u2019s why this musical lends itself to Aurora, the theatre group and the town. I hope they walk out humming or tapping the tunes \u2013 or marching to them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this is my Harold Hill swansong,\u201d he concludes with a laugh. \u201cI love this character, I know this character, and not that I\u2019ve ever cheated people for band instruments and collected money for things that didn\u2019t exist, but I understand why he does what he does and I understand this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith O\u2019Connell and Harold Hill go way back. O\u2019Connell may not have spearheaded the development of a boys\u2019 band or patented his own version of \u201cteaching\u201d music through the Think System, but their history goes back 35 years. The Brampton-based actor first played the lead of the travelling salesman intending to hoodwink the good citizens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9da","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 12:47:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35413,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35412\/revisions\/35413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}