Poor Hugh Jackman! Back on Broadway and cold-shouldered by The New York Times. But to judge by recent ovations at the Jerry Zaks revival of The Music Man, word of mouth has all but nullified Jesse Green’s poison pan. Yes, with his lean and hungry look Jackman’s “Professor” Harold Hill isn’t exactly what old timers might expect; rather than cannonball into a rabble-rouser like “Trouble” or “Seventy-Six Trombones,” he lets the excitement sneak up on you—and handily proceeds to stop the show, many times over. As Marian the Librarian, Sutton Foster breaks the mold, too. Her spinster-in-waiting has a bitter edge. At first she’s sadder than your average disappointed romantic, maybe, but not wiser—which makes her blossoming, when it happens, all the happier. Between veterans like Jefferson Mays and Jayne Houdyshell as River City’s first couple and Benjamin Pajak as Marian’s broken little brother with the lisp, the huge ensemble brings storybook Iowa to life in novelistic detail. Watching Warren Carlyle’s epic dance breaks, you may have trouble deciding what amazes you most: the pizzazz, the elegance, and the unflagging dynamism moment to moment, or the magisterial, even symphonic, grand design? Tickets cost a fortune—current four-figure quotes on StubHub top those for Hamilton by a grand. Still peanuts, though, compared with a window seat on Blue Origin. And if Jackman and Sutton’s tap routine doesn’t propel you to Cloud Nine, nothing will. —Matthew Gurewitsch