Though "West Side Story" had opened nearly three months earlier, "The Music Man" captured audiences, critics and five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. "The New York Times" theatre critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in his review "If Mark Twain could have collaborated with Vachel Lindsay, they might have devised a rhythmic lark like "The Music Man", which is as American as apple pie and a Fourth of July oration... "The Music Man" is a marvelous show, rooted in wholesome and comic tradition."