Jul 28, 2020
‘The Music Man’
There's an ending to "The Music Man" Meredith WIlson wrote that has never been performed.
At the end of the show, Hill's been found out by the good people of River City and they're about to string the bastard up when the kids show up in marching band regalia and start playing. The townfolk are so moved they forgive Hill, and the show rounds out with a big music number and a happy ending.
It turns out that Wilson conceived this miracle band rescue and parade as fantasies Hill imagined, to escape his horrible reality. In his original ending, the band leads the crowd offstage, and the audience is left looking at Hill's body hanging from the Owl Creek Bridge as the final chords of music slowly fade to silence.
