Theater: Pied Piper of Broadway

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The curtain drops at 11:05. The pit orchestra swings into a blasting reprise of the show's big tune, a walloping march called Seventy-Six Trombones. The audience applauds. Up goes the curtain again. And onstage for the curtain call throng the 67 men, women, boys and girls of the cast—the folks of River City, Iowa ("pop. 2,212"), in the summer of 1912. Marching two by two they go, first to one side, then to the other, and then back again. They pantomime the players of a big brass band —trombones sliding, cornets flashing,...

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