Meridith Willson's "The Music Man" has a cheesy story. But, when the right ensemble performs it, "Music Man" is a positively charming, warm, funny ensemble show. Disney's previous track record with Broadway musical adaptations ("Annie", "Cinderella" to a smaller extent) showed that they were capable of doing this. However, through bad casting choices, this "Music Man" proved to be a huge FLOP!!
To bore you with plot details (possible spoilers here for the uninitiated), "Music Man" is a story about Harold Hill, a con man who poses as a traveling salesman/band director who sells musical instruments and lessons to gullible small-town folk. Charlie Cowell, a dedicated anvil salesman, wants to stop Harold, because "he don't know one note from another," and his con is giving salesmen everywhere a bad name. Also standing in Harold's way is Marian Paroo, the librarian of the small town of River City, Iowa, who promises to help the town's blustery Mayor Shinn bring down the con artist. However, in the process, she falls in love with Harold, whose promise of a River City boys' band brings a new sense of hope and unity to the "Iowa stubborn" town.
Let's start with Mr. Hill himself, the most crucial element of "Music Man." Matthew Broderick can be wonderful in musicals. (Seeing him live in "The Producers" was a rare treat!!!) However, he seems simply incapable of providing the boisterous, showy charm needed to be a convincing Harold Hill. Harold is described as a "spellbinder", meaning that he absolutely needs to engage the town, and the audience, and completely sell his product by overwhelming them. Broderick's Harold seemed to be using mousey Leo Bloom-like, wide eyed innocence to sell the band, which made his performance of "Sadder but Wiser Girl" extremely unconvincing.
Other than Mr. Broderick, the cast seemed to range from "eh" to "ew". Kristen Chenowith's Marian was not bad, although not too terribly impressive, and the rest of the Paroo family was charming, so I was not disappointed to see their slightly extended role in this movie. Victor Garber and Molly Shannon as Mayor and Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn could have been much funnier. Those characters are supposed to be the comic highlights of the whole story because of their pretentious, self-important attitudes. Unfortunately, Garber tried to play it fairly straight, and Shannon's comic timing was not her best. Most of the rest of the cast did not particularly stand out, so the many colorful characters of River City (Barbershop Quartet, Del Sartre ladies) began to blend into the background.
Paired with the somewhat slow pacing of the movie overall (too many commercial breaks in the TV broadcast!), poor casting choices were the downfall of Disney's interpretation of "The Music Man." It is truly sad that such an energetic, charming musical was turned into something truly mediocre and lacklaster.
To bore you with plot details (possible spoilers here for the uninitiated), "Music Man" is a story about Harold Hill, a con man who poses as a traveling salesman/band director who sells musical instruments and lessons to gullible small-town folk. Charlie Cowell, a dedicated anvil salesman, wants to stop Harold, because "he don't know one note from another," and his con is giving salesmen everywhere a bad name. Also standing in Harold's way is Marian Paroo, the librarian of the small town of River City, Iowa, who promises to help the town's blustery Mayor Shinn bring down the con artist. However, in the process, she falls in love with Harold, whose promise of a River City boys' band brings a new sense of hope and unity to the "Iowa stubborn" town.
Let's start with Mr. Hill himself, the most crucial element of "Music Man." Matthew Broderick can be wonderful in musicals. (Seeing him live in "The Producers" was a rare treat!!!) However, he seems simply incapable of providing the boisterous, showy charm needed to be a convincing Harold Hill. Harold is described as a "spellbinder", meaning that he absolutely needs to engage the town, and the audience, and completely sell his product by overwhelming them. Broderick's Harold seemed to be using mousey Leo Bloom-like, wide eyed innocence to sell the band, which made his performance of "Sadder but Wiser Girl" extremely unconvincing.
Other than Mr. Broderick, the cast seemed to range from "eh" to "ew". Kristen Chenowith's Marian was not bad, although not too terribly impressive, and the rest of the Paroo family was charming, so I was not disappointed to see their slightly extended role in this movie. Victor Garber and Molly Shannon as Mayor and Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn could have been much funnier. Those characters are supposed to be the comic highlights of the whole story because of their pretentious, self-important attitudes. Unfortunately, Garber tried to play it fairly straight, and Shannon's comic timing was not her best. Most of the rest of the cast did not particularly stand out, so the many colorful characters of River City (Barbershop Quartet, Del Sartre ladies) began to blend into the background.
Paired with the somewhat slow pacing of the movie overall (too many commercial breaks in the TV broadcast!), poor casting choices were the downfall of Disney's interpretation of "The Music Man." It is truly sad that such an energetic, charming musical was turned into something truly mediocre and lacklaster.