Theater Reviews : A ‘Music Man’ Who’s Too Nice : Main character Harold Hill, who ought to be benevolently sleazy, is too noble for the play’s own good. Otherwise, the Huntington Beach Playhouse staging sings.

There’s a trick to making any production of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” work like gangbusters, and it’s the one important detail that’s overlooked in an otherwise top-notch staging at the Huntington Beach Playhouse.

Willson’s story (created with Franklin Lacey) is set in 1912. That was the approximate period of popular tales about “Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford,” and “Peck’s Bad Boy,” both reluctant heroes whose misdeeds were monumental, but who were redeemed at the finish.

They were just two of the brash, destructive icons--like George M. Cohan heroes, the villain with a good heart--that epitomized to turn-of-the-century Americans the brawling, ambitious spirit that made America what it was. Willson’s Prof. Harold Hill is authentically of that most politically incorrect period.

Both director Kysa Cohen and her Harold Hill, Steven Biggs, gloss over the benevolent sleaze that’s a part of Hill’s personality.

Hill is out to take the town for every penny he can get, seduce the local librarian, and abscond on the last train before his scam is discovered. His buoyant enthusiasm is part of the scam.

Biggs’ Hill is so noble, however, that his actions seem out of character, as though both director and actor want so badly for Hill to be liked that they’ve taken away the charm of the con man at his crummiest. Consequently, there’s really not that much to redeem, or forgive, at the end.

Biggs is otherwise an ingratiating Hill vocally and romantically, and a good match for Terri Gandy’s feisty Marian the librarian, with her attractive, burnished soprano and her expert sense of timing. Roberta Sawyer is warm and charming as Mrs. Paroo, and her Irish accent sounds real, not the Hollywood stereotype variety.

*

If Dennis Ure’s Mayor Shinn is played way above the level it should be, if Tim White’s correctly nasty anvil salesman Charlie Cowell isn’t far behind Ure, these overstatements are made up for by the bright, charming performance of Nick Mousetis as young Winthrop, whose lisp is held in check, and whose strong, clear voice makes a delight of “Gary, Indiana.”

Overall the production is light and airy, as it should be, and Cohen’s choreography, which doesn’t give the dancers more than they are able to handle, fills the stage with attractive, inventive and energetic movement.

Production numbers and solos are well performed, costumes by Cohen and Andrew Otero are period right and attractive, and Tim Nelson’s musical direction has the right enthusiastic drive.

* “The Music Man,” Huntington Beach Playhouse, Huntington Beach Library and Cultural Center, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 17. $8-$10. (714) 375-0696. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Steven Biggs Harold Hill

Terri Gandy: Marian Paroo

Roberta Sawyer: Mrs. Paroo

Nick Mousetis: Winthrop Paroo

Dennis Ure: Mayor Shinn

Tim White: Charlie Cowell

A Huntington Beach Playhouse production of Meredith Willson’s musical comedy, co-produced by Harold Gooder and Nancy Krueger. Directed and choreographed by Kysa Cohen. Musical direction-sound design: Tim Nelson. Scenic-lighting design: Martin G. Eckmann. Costumes: Cohen, Andrew Otero. Assistant director-stage manager: Mary Eckmann.