A traveling salesman is about to work his charms on River City, Iowa, right inside Clemson University's Brooks Center for the Performing Arts. The touring production of The Music Man takes the stage this Tuesday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m., bringing Meredith Willson's Tony-winning musical to the 979-seat venue at 141 Jersey Lane with tickets priced between $45 and $70.
The Clemson stop is part of a 100-city national tour, as Greenville Journal reports, produced by Big League Productions and directed by Matt Lenz, with choreography from Tony Award nominee Joshua Bergasse. Elliott Andrews stars as con man Harold Hill opposite Elizabeth D'Aiuto as town librarian Marian Paroo, according to Mayo Performing Arts Center. Tuesday's performance is locally sponsored by Joe and Cathy Turner, per the Clemson University Events Calendar.
The story follows Hill as he rolls into River City and persuades the townspeople to buy instruments and uniforms for a boys' marching band, promising to teach the youngsters how to play — despite not knowing how to play an instrument himself, the Greenville outlet's reporting notes. Along the way, the swindler falls for Paroo, who is skeptical of his promises from the start. The show's score includes Seventy-Six Trombones, Ya Got Trouble, Lida Rose, Sincere, and Till There Was You, a ballad that later became a hit for The Beatles when the band covered it on their 1963 album With the Beatles, one of the few Broadway showtunes in their catalog.
A Composer Forged in Marching Bands
Willson's affinity for brass and woodwinds wasn't incidental. He was a virtuoso flutist and piccolo player who performed in John Philip Sousa's band from 1921 to 1924 and later in the New York Philharmonic under Arturo Toscanini from 1924 to 1929, according to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. That formal musical pedigree fed directly into the marching band themes that anchor The Music Man.
Getting the show to the stage took persistence. Per the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Willson spent six years developing the musical and completed 38 script rewrites before it premiered on Broadway in 1957. The effort paid off: the show won the 1958 Tony Award for Best Musical, beating out Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, and took home five other Tony Awards that year, per Greenville Journal's reporting. It went on to run more than three years on Broadway.
The original 1957 Broadway cast recording also made history, winning the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album in 1958 and spending 245 weeks on the Billboard charts, according to the Recording Academy. At its core, Greenville Journal describes the musical as a story about the possibility of being changed and what can happen when a community finds something to believe in.
A Venue Built for Touring Productions
Clemson's Brooks Center is well-suited to host a show of this scale. The 87,000-square-foot facility opened in 1994 and features the 979-seat proscenium auditorium where Tuesday's performance will take place, according to Clemson University. The venue was named one of the 20 best college theaters in the United States by College Rank in February 2024, per Clemson News.
The Music Man is featured as part of the Brooks Center's 31st season lineup, which spans professional theater, dance, and music presentations throughout the 2025–2026 academic year, Clemson News reported in May 2025. The booking follows another major performing arts presentation at the venue this month, when Hoodline reported on a free Lincoln Center concert that also brought national talent to Clemson's stage. Those seeking tickets or more information on Tuesday's performance can call 864-656-7787.
