Haunted characters: Harold and Marian: directing The Music Man

It is odd to think of Meredith Willson's valentine to small-town Midwest America, The Music Man, as a haunted house, but in fact, it is one of the best examples of how theatre, and specifically musical theatre, is haunted by the enduring presence of past performances. The ghosts of Robert Preston as the original Harold Hill and, to a lesser degree, Shirley Jones (in the film of The Music Man) and Barbara Cook as Broadway's original Marian the Librarian, haunt every production of the musical since it was first performed.