Two charming musicals are being performed by the Santa Clarita Regional Theatre (SCRT) and the Canyon Theatre Guild that will take you back in time to an older America: The Music Man and Always…Patsy Cline.

The Music Man will be performed Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. on July 23, 30 and August 6, 13.  Sunday matinees will be at 2:00 p.m. on July 24, 30 and August 7, 14.  Tickets range from $12 to $29 and are on sale at the SCRT box office: 661-799-2702.   The performances will be at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road, Santa Clarita.

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Always…Patsy Cline will be performed on Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:00 p.m., July 30 through August 28.  Ticket prices are $12-$15 for seniors and juniors and $15-$17 for adults.  Call the box office for reservations: 661-799-2702. The CTG is at 24242 Main Street, Newhall.

The Music Man brings a taste of Small Town, USA, to life on the stage of the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons.  Presented by the Santa Clarita Regional Theatre, this is a musical for the whole family.  Young and old will enjoy this affectionate tribute to the small towns of America in a bygone era.

Meredith Willson’s The Music Man follows a fast-talking traveling salesman as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a kids’ band, which he promises to organize despite the fact that he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef.

His plans to skip town with the cash take a dramatic turn when he falls for Marian the Librarian.  Along the way, she transforms him into a respectable citizen.  The Music Man has become an all-American institution thanks to the quirky characters and a one-of-a-kind, nostalgic score of rousing marches, barbershop quartets and sentimental ballads, which have become popular standards.

Meredith Willson who wrote the book, music and lyrics for The Music Man, was inspired by his boyhood in Mason City, Iowa, and when his inspiration finally made it to Broadway in 1958, it won seven Tony Awards.  The 2000 revival, took eight Tony Awards, and it endures as one of the most popular Broadway musicals.

Always…Patsy Cline is the internationally acclaimed musical based on the true story of Patsy Cline’s friendship with a fan – a Houston housewife named Louise Seger. Louise first heard Patsy Cline on the “Arthur Godfrey Show” in 1957.  She became an immediate and avid fan of Patsy’s and constantly hounded her local disc jockey to play Patsy Cline’s records on the radio.

When Patsy traveled to Houston for a show in 1961, Louise and her buddies arrived about an hour-and-a-half early and, by coincidence, the two women met and struck up a friendship that was to culminate in Cline spending the night at Louise’s house.  The friendship lasted until Patsy’s untimely death in a plane crash in 1963.

Their friendship evolved into a relationship of mutual respect.  It was the kind of relationship that many fans dream of having with their heroes. Over a pot of strong coffee, the two women chatted about their common concerns, and when Patsy left to travel to her next job, they had exchanged addresses and telephone numbers.  Their pen-pal relationship provides much of the plot of the show.

The play focuses on the fateful evening at Houston’s Esquire Ballroom when Louise hears of Patsy Cline’s death in a plane crash.  Louise Seger provides the narrative while Cline floats in and out of the set singing tunes that made her famous including “Anytime,“ “I Fall To Pieces,” “She’s Got You,“ “Sweet Dreams,” and “Crazy.”  The show combines humor, sadness and reality.  It offers fans who remember Patsy Cline a chance to look back, while giving new fans an idea of what seeing her was like and what she meant to her original fans.

In addition to touring all over the United States, Always…Patsy Cline had a very successful run Off-Broadway in 1997 and it continues to be one of the most popular and often produced shows throughout America.