Northwest School of the Arts Students Perform The Music Man March 11-13

NORTHWEST SCHOOL OF THE ARTS STUDENTS PERFORM THE MUSIC MAN
March 11-13 – Booth Playhouse at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
Charlotte, NC – Students from Northwest School of the Arts (NWSA) will perform The Music Man March 11-13 in Booth Playhouse at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. Shows are scheduled Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, at 7:30 p.m. and matinees Saturday and Sunday, March 12-13, at 2 p.m.
Tickets for the NWSA production of The Music Man are $15 and can be purchased at BlumenthalCenter.org, 704-372-1000 or from box office in the Belk Theater lobby, 130 N. Tryon St.
A paean to Smalltown, USA, Meredith Wilson’s classic musical follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying band instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band that he vows to organize. The band would protect the youth of River City from the sinful prospect of the town’s new pool hall.  Town librarian and music teacher Marian Paroo rightly suspects that Hill doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef and sets out to expose him.  Hill’s plans to skip town with his ill-gotten gains are foiled when he falls for Marian, who turns him into a respectable citizen by curtain’s fall.
The audience will be treated to beloved songs such as “Till There Was You,” “Wells Fargo Wagon,” “Trouble,” “Goodnight My Someone,” “Gary Indiana” and the rousing “76 Trombones.”  The nostalgic songs, all by Willson, range from sentimental ballads to marches to acapella tunes. 
The production is directed by NWSA musical theatre teacher Corey Mitchell with musical direction by NWSA musical theatre teacher Matt Hinson, the same team who helmed last year’s sensation, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Disney’s AIDA the previous year.  NWSA band director Daniel Nuckolls will conduct the student orchestra.  A talented cast of more than forty students will dance Eddie Mabry’s original choreography in such classics as “Marian the Librarian” and “Shipoopi.”
Northwest School of the Arts is Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s only magnet secondary school where students follow the same academic requirements as other schools, but each student also receives ongoing, in-depth instruction in visual arts, drama, musical theatre, choral and instrumental music, or dance.  A number of NWSA graduates have gone on to professional careers in the arts, including roles in Broadway musicals, including Wicked, The Color Purple, Jersey Boys, La Cage Aux Folles, Sweet Charity, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Music Man, Rent, The Producers and Disney’s Aida.