4 Tony Award winners added to the cast of The Music Man on Broadway

The Hugh Jackman-led revival of The Music Man will begin performances on Broadway on September 9, 2020.

The hugely anticipated Broadway revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man has added four Tony Award winners to its cast, as Jayne Houdyshell, Jefferson Mays, Marie Mullen, and Shuler Hensley join the previously reported leads of Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman (as Professor Harold Hill) and two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster (as Marian Paroo).

Ms. Houdyshell is set to take on the role of Mrs. Shinn. She won her Tony in 2016 for her moving performance in The Humans and also received Tony nominations for A Doll's House, Part 2, Follies, and Well. She was last seen on the Broadway stage in the 2019 revival of King Lear, opposite Glenda Jackson.

Mr. Mays will be starring as Mayor Shinn. He won a Tony in 2004 for I Am My Own Wife and went on to receive two further nominations - for A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder and Oslo.

Ms. Mullen won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in The Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1998 and takes on the role of Mrs. Paroo in the production, whilst Mr. Hensley, a 2002 Tony Award winner for Oklahoma!, will star as Marcellus Washburn. He was last seen on the Broadway stage earlier this year in The Ferryman. 

The Music Man is scheduled to begin previews at a yet-to-be-named Shubert venue on September 9, 2020, ahead of an official opening on October 15, a week earlier than the original date of October 22.

Synopsis: "The Music Man, featuring a book, music & lyrics by Meredith Wilson, follows con man Harold Hill, who poses as a musician and hatches a plot to sell gullible musical instruments and uniforms to townsfolk in the Midwest with the promise to train them and turn them into credible bands. His intentions, however, are to skip town before he gives a single music lesson. Marian, a local librarian and piano teacher, sees right through him and threatens to out him... until the two end up falling in love, of course."

The Music Man marks the first time that Hugh Jackman will star in a Broadway musical since his 2004 Tony Award-winning turn as Peter Allen in the Broadway premiere of The Boy From Oz.

Producer Scott Rudin has assembled the celebrated creative team behind his recent Tony Award-winning Bette Midler-led revival of Hello, Dolly! for what is sure to be a mammoth production on the Great White Way, including four-time Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks and Tony Award-winning choreographer Warren Carlyle, alongside four-time Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto (serving as scenic & costume designer), six-time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz (lighting designer), Tony Award winner Scott Lehrer (sound designer), and David Chase (providing the dance arrangements). The creative team also includes musical director Patrick Vaccariello and Tony Award-winning orchestrator Jonathan Tunick.

The Music Man originally premiered on Broadway in December 1957, becoming an instant hit, and went on to win a total of five Tony Awards in 1958 (including "Best Musical") and established itself as one of the all-time classics of American musical theater, running for 1,375 performances in New York City. In addition, the original cast recording of the musical comedy won the first-ever Grammy Award for "Best Original Cast Album" and hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts. It would remain in the charts for an astonishing 245 weeks.

Additional casting will be announced at a later date.