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  • Clay Gulley, center, performs in one of the opening musical numbers in Floyd Central's production of "The Music Man" during a dress rehearsal on Thursday. The show opens Friday night. Staff photo by Jerod Clapp

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November 2, 2012

Let the music play: Floyd Central production opens tonight

By JEROD CLAPP jerod.clapp@newsandtribune.com

FLOYDS KNOBS — The story of a shyster trying to win over townsfolk isn’t an election headline in this case, but part of a classic tale about to be told on the stage of Floyd Central High School.

The theater department’s production of “The Music Man” opens tonight. The family-friendly show tells how self-proclaimed professor Harold Hill makes his way across the country only to fall in love in one of the towns he’s trying to dupe.

Robbie Steiner, theater director, said with about 50 elementary and middle school students in the cast, the show allows his students to reach them as well as the audience.

“We wanted something that would allow us to reach out to the younger students and give our kids an opportunity to perform a musical that everyone knows and loves,” Steiner said.

He said students from Highland Hills Middle School, as well as several from elementary schools in the district, are going to play important parts in the show.

But Clay Gulley, a junior, takes the stage as Hill. He said though many theater-goers have already seen one production or another of “The Music Man,” he feels like Floyd Central’s version offers something different.

“We have just such a great team of people working on it,” Gulley said. “We have a great director and great choreographers, tech crew and cast. Just the mixture of all that makes an explosion of a show.”

Kathryn Pryor, a senior who plays the mayor’s wife, Eulalie Shinn, said audiences will immediately recognize the show, though.

“It’s a classic and they’re expecting to come in and see the same things with “The Music Man” they’ve always seen,” Pryor said. “Everyone does have a set character and theirs can be different than any of the other “Music Man” casts they’ve seen. We have our own twist on the chars and the set. It’s not different, but it has a little bit of spice in it.”

Steiner said his students have worked hard on making the production the best they can, especially in the choreography.

“They’ve been having a lot of fun with it,” Steiner said.  “It’s been a lot of hard work, especially for the dancers. There’s a lot of dance in this one and our kids have come a long way. But all the kids really seem to enjoy it.”

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