Disney's Music Man with Matthew Broderick

Cafe Society
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You guys are so cool! I didn’t think anyone cared about this sort of thing except me and my friend RMW.

It’s awfully hard to follow in the footsteps of anyone who made an acting role his or her own, such as Yul Brynner, Rex Harrison, etc. I didn’t have super high hopes for Broderick going in, so wasn’t too disappointed.

As for Robert Preston, the Washington Post interviewed him shortly before his death. Lively, amusing stuff as you might expect. (He was making an HBO movie in Richmond at the time.)

And the headline? "Robert Preston with a ‘P’ and that rhymes with ‘C’ and that stands for “Cool.”

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I only saw 15 minutes before I had to change the channel, but I noticed this too. Personally, I think this is perfectly consistent with the idea that this was no better than a high school production, where you have to scrounge up every available semi-talented person, at whatever expense to historical accuracy.

Of course, that’s a fair standard for High School. What was ABC’s excuse (since it certainly didn’t appear to help this thoroughly anemic production)?

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I played Marion in a production of Music Man, so I was very critical of her in the movie. I didn’t enjoy her voice. I thought her tones sounded too modern.

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The director of the film version made the same mistake, only worse–this is about the only thing in which the Disney version was an improvement. Not only did he intercut shots of the locomotive during Rock Island–in case you didn’t get that the couple with the pitchfork looked like Grant Wood’s American Gothic, he put a picture frame around them. And he intercut real chickens with the ladies’ hats during Pick-a-Little. Whadda hack.

Thanks for the lyrics. I love that number!

You can talk, you can talk, you can bicker you can talk, you can bicker bicker bicker bicker talk talk talk…

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I actually watched the whole thing. Masochist, I guess. Production values seemed good, but entirely, well, Disney. I didn’t mind Chenoweth, and I really like her voice, but comparisons to Shirley Jones are impossible not to make. Jones had maturity and flair (even at age 19) that Chenoweth lacks. I did like the use of My White Knight instead of Being In Love (which was written by Willson especially for Shirley Jones to sing in the film version).

There were some things I liked about Garber’s Mayor Shin, but he’s no Paul Ford. Molly Shannon should have used some of her SNL over-the-top performing skills. In this piece she seemed to be sleep walking.

The kids who played Tommy and Zineeta were just fine. I like the kid that played Winthrop, too. Marion’s mama was okay, but she couldn’t decide whether to use an accent or not.

Marcellus was okay, but not funny. He, too, seemed a little young for the history he was supposed to have had with Harold Hill.

With Eve I was a little bothered by the PC use of blacks as a traveling salesman (the Rock Island number) and friends and neighbors of white Iowans in 1910. It’s sweet, and it fits just fine in 2003, but it isn’t accurate in context. But that’s Disney.

Then there was Harold. From the Trouble Right Here In River City number on I kept getting this vision of a deer in the headlights. Broderick’s baby face might inspire confidence, but the attitude of the seasoned con man, to say nothing of the experienced roué, was completely missing. Bland as eggs without salt and pepper. I kept wishing for the resurrection of Robert Preston.

Overall I would put this film with most remakes. It’s okay if you didn’t see the original, but Eisner and company could have spent the money better on another project…something, you know, original.
If anybody ever remakes Casablanca I won’t give it so much as a glance.

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According to the IMDB, Shirley Jones was 28 when “The Music Man” was released. She was pregnant during the filming of that movie also.

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I stand corrected. No wonder she seemed mature.

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“Rock Island” in the Disney version had lyrics that weren’t in the movie–something about sanitary wrapped crackers replacing the old cracker barrel. What’s the story–was this a restoration of Broadway lyrics that didn’t make the movie?

Re: PC-ness…I think this was the same production company that made “Cinderella” with a black Cinderella (Brandy) and a Filipino Prince. So they’re all about Diversity. Which is fine–historical accuracy isn’t what makes or breaks a musical for me.

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Ye Go-ods. If you can’t make a better movie than the original, don’t do it - and the original is unimprovable in any way. The Marian actress was just as good as Shirley Jones, but no better, and everyone else was worse. I just got the Robert Preston DVD to clear the memory of this lifeless crap from my brain.

It seemed like the entire cast was over-rehearsed, going through too many takes, to have any energy or enthusiasm left over. They all seemed to conscious of getting their steps and words right. Perhaps a movie musical needs to be cast with stage performers, accustomed to getting it done right the first time, not with TV/movie actors.

The inappropriate casting of Matthew Broderick, apparently as a self-indulgent star turn for him, was by the same people who let Glenn Close play Nellie in “South Pacific”, and it worked about as well. I won’t waste time on any more of these.

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Oh, one more thing: They needlessly continued the polite fiction that Winthrop is Marian’s much-younger kid brother, when we all really know (don’t we?) that he’s really her love child by Miser Madison. How else would Marian truly be “sadder but wiser”?

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I’m not going to defend Matthew Broderick (I thought he was pretty lifeless), but I do have to point out that he IS a stage actor, coming off successful runs in The Producers and a revival of How to Succeed in Business…. Even though we may all think of him as Ferris Bueller.

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She’s not.

Or have I been wooshed?

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I’m suggesting that Meredith Willson “cleaned up” the story a bit for Fifties sensibilities. Harold’s true attraction to Marian, unlike all the other spinster music teachers he had dealt with, never made sense to me, especially in light of his song about liking his women experienced. But if Marian met the bill in that regard, being really sadder but wiser, it also makes more sense than the huge age difference vs. her “brother”.

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Also, Winthrop’s grief over his father’s death two years back fits in well with the timing of Mr. Madison’s death.

Don’t bother telling me I need a life. I already know.

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Elvis - I gotta agree with you about Winthrop.

jsc - it’s not that we think of Broderick as Ferris, it’s the baby face that does it. He looks more like he’s 23 than he looks like 40.

I thought the Disney production was pretty good, but Broderick didn’t have a prayer of being Harold Hill. He doesn’t have the voice for the songs that require some power and brassiness in the voice (“Trouble”, “76 Trombones”), and apparently body doubles did his dancing. If you can’t sing and you can’t dance, then this just isn’t your part.

I grew up on the Robert Preston version, but it’s been decades since I’ve seen it. I think it’s time to see if the library’s got a copy.

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Just FYI…

Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Robert Preston/Shirley Jones version on Monday, March 3rd at 8/7c, as part of their annual 31 Days of Oscar programming (every single movie they show in March was at least nominated for an Oscar in some category).

Plus they’ll have Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Tuesday, and North by Northwest on Wednesday, and Bells of St. Mary’s on Thursday, and Sergeant York on Friday, and…

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  1. I was and am disappointed with the casting of Shirley Jones as Marian. Barbara Cook is Marian. Who the heck decided she wasn’t film-worthy? No one sings like Barbara Cook.

  2. Craig Bierko was excellent on Broadway. I have a crush on Robert Preston, but I thought Bierko was great. Why didn’t they just film the cast of the Broadway production? Bierko has tons of soap opera fans who probably would have watched it.

  3. I didn’t watch this production–Matthew Broderick just seemed like bad casting to me. He’s likeable and all, but too lightweight for this role. From what you’ve all said, I’m not sorry I missed it.

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But the question is “WHY”?! When they do some film, and get it down great, fantastic, and wonderful- WHY try again? I have heard they are going to re-do “Guys & Dolls”. Sinatra was great, and the whole cast- there is simply no way to make it better.

Now- there are quite a few Damon Rinyon stories that didn’t get any treatment on the big screen- or a poorr treatment-. Do one of those instead.

Isn’t there a shred of original thought anywhere in Hollywood?

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**
:: Fenris’s head explodes ::

Sure there is: Make a movie of “Guys and Dolls”, as opposed to the “Let’s toss out tons o’ stuff from the Broadway play 'cause it’s too hard and let’s butcher the songs to give Frankie more to sing” version from the movie.

Um…IMO, Sinatra sucked. He’s got a great voice and he’s wonderful in a number of other roles (he was killer good in “On the Town”) , but he’s so incredibly inappropriate for Nathan that it’s not funny. In addition, he was shoehorned into a bunch of songs that he didn’t belong in, (Why in the world is he participating in “Guys and Dolls” which is about Benny and Nicely commenting on Nathan’s cluelessness. Or in “The Oldest Established” which is also about other people talking about Nathan.)

Sinatra also isn’t nearly able to pull of the Jewishness of the role that Nathan’s character demands. It’s clear that in “Sue Me”, Sinatra has no idea that he’s supposed to be saying the Yiddish word “Nu” (meaning “So what?”) rather than the word “New” (Meaning not much in this context). You don’t have to be a Zero Mostel to play Nathan, but a hint…just a little one…of some clue would be appropriate.

Brando, for all that he couldn’t sing, was able to pull of Sky by sheer coolness.

In any event, beyond the butchery of Loesser’s brilliant score to give Sinatra more to sing, they left out four or five songs in the movie.

An actual movie of the musical is a fantastic idea.

Fenris

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Argh!

When I was a wee one, my mom used to sing “Bushel and a Peck” to me all the time. I love you/A bushel and a peck/A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck/Hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap… So when I finally got a chance to see the movie, I was all excited to see that number…

“What? Why are the singing this dumb song, this alphabet thing? Where’s Bushel and a Peck?”

“They must not have thought it ‘worked’ on screen.”

“Phooey on them.”