Quibble: 76/Goodnight isn’t a quodlibet since it’s the same tune. The words and tempo is different, but except for (sorry, I don’t speak musical notation, so I"m gonna do this in baby-talk ) a bunch of quarter-notes ascending a scale in one where the other jumps that same…interval? gap? they’re note-for-note the same song.
Seventy-six (up the scale) trombones (jump)
Goodnight (jump) my someone (scale)
Etc. Try singing Seventy-six on top of Goodnight and you’ll see.
Irving Berlin was the god of quodlibets. (You’re Just In Love/I Hear Music is my favorite)
Also, Frank Loesser was a buddy of Wilsons and apparently punched up a song or two for him. I’d heard that My White Knight wasn’t in the movie 'cause of rights issues with Loesser’s help.
Finally, I’ve read that Wilson wrote like 30-40 songs(!!!) for Music Man. I’d kill to hear some of the songs that didn’t make it in. Of all Wilson’s other musicals, not one was 1000th as good as MM.
That pales in comparison with Preston’s role as Dr. Feingarten in S.O.B.. And he was pretty damn good in The Last Starfighter, even if that was Harold Hill in Outer Space.
I’d agree with “Shipoopi.” I played Marcellus and had to sing it, and if any song could be cut, that was it. But “Sadder but Wiser Girl” is essential to the plot – it helps explain why Hill becomes interested in Marion for more than just a scam.
Disagree for similar reasons as Chuck, Anyrose-“Sadder But Wiser Girl” defines what Hill is looking for, and betrays that he is, in fact, what Marion is looking for.
She sings (in My White Knight) "
*And if occasionally he’d ponder
what make Shakespeare and Beethoven great,
Him I could love till I die. Him I could love till I die. *
In “Sadder But Wiser Girl”, he drops a bunch of literary allusions
*For no Diana do I play faun.
I can tell you that right now.
I snarl, I hiss: How can ignorance be compared to bliss?
I hope, and I pray, for a Hester to win just one more “A”
*
Clearly someone who would ponder Beethoven and Shakespeare
Also, it sets up Hill as being ripe for misinformation in “Pick-A-Little/Talk-A-Little”
*Professor, her kind of woman doesn’t belong on any committee.
Of course, I shouldn’t tell you this but she advocates dirty books.
Dirty books!
Chaucer!
Rabelais!
Balzac!
And the worst thing
Of course, I shouldn’t tell you this but-
I’ll tell.
The man lived on my street, let me tell.
Stop! I’ll tell.
She made brazen overtures to a man who never had a friend
In this town till she came here.*
Heh–my folks loved this album and it’s one of the first things I remember hearing as a kid. I remember thinking that the “raisin overtures” she made for him were a type of cookie or cinnamon bun that she was making for him–it was obviously bribery by food.
That’s Baaaalzac. I love the way Hermione Gingold always dragged out the first syllable.
And the next verse in “Pick-A-Little/Talk-A-Little”:
Oh, yes she made brazen overtures
With a gilt-edged guarantee
She had a golden glint in her eye
And a silver voice with a counterfeit ring.
But melt her down and you’ll reveal
A lump of lead as cold as steel
Here! Where a woman’s heart should be
Now that I think of it, my folks had the album too, and I used to play it a lot. In fact, I seem to remember trying to “perform” “Trouble” but I couldn’t always keep up with it.
The other thread is irrelevant. The Music Man made all other musicals, before and after, live and filmed, irrelevant. There is a point in any artform that tells the aware that there is no point in trying; perfection has been reached. Trying to gild the lily is pointless, though not necessarily unprofitable: note the musicals that followed but, despite their decrepitude, still made money.
And Iowa remains as it was described 50 years ago, and as it was observed 100 years ago. The gay marriage thing was just a recognition that the Iowa Stubborn life included those who might not fit in elsewhere, but fit in fine here, dammit. Don’t ask; don’t tell; and pretend their partners are just friends who live with them.
Oh, goodness, yes. The Music Man is far and away my favorite musical. I picked it up from my dad, really; we watched it regularly on VHS when I was growing up, and my dad played the soundtrack in the car all the time. I know every single song by heart, down to the very last vocal twitch of every actor – it’s impossible for me to read even one line without the full ensemble starting up in my head in an instant. Considering the extent to which it has infected my mind, it’s frankly amazing that I still love it – a testament to Meredith Willson’s musical genius, I suppose.
Dear Og, don’t even remind me of Broderick’s “rendition” of Harold Hill (and I use that term with great reticence). I died a little inside when he issued his weasely, sing-song “tam-ta-dah!” I don’t think it would have even been possible to find an actor less suited to taking on the role of Harold Hill.
Y’know who might have pulled it off? The guy who played “George” on Seinfeld. Don’t laugh, he was better (kills me to admit it, but facts is facts) than Dick Van Dyke when he did “Put on a Happy Face” in his TV version of Bye Bye Birdie. I’m not saying he was better than Van Dyke overall, but for that one song–he WAS better and he was perfectly credible elsewhere.
Brodrick was also atrocious as J. Pierpont Finch in “How To Succeed” (which is my favorite musical–not the best, but totally my fav). He was too wimpy to be Finch and if you’re wimpy in that role, the really…um…atrocious things Finch does come across as, well, atrocious. It only works if you’ve got a completly innocent looking, but highly charismatic performer like Morse. Frankly I don’t know who else could pull it off.
James Marsden would have made a good Finch - but discussing How To Succeed needs a whole other thread
eta Jason Alexander was surprisingly good in Birdie - Who know the guy could dance like that?
Continuing the minor hijack, I liked the Jason Alexander version of “Bye Bye Birdie” too.
Speaking of Dick Van Dyke, he appeared in a revival of “The Music Man” which IIRC only ran for 21 performances. I’m trying to picture him as Harold Hill, but can’t quite do it. Does anyone know anything about it?
The was no TV version of “The Music Man” with Matthew Broderick. It was a horrible nightmare I hasd one night after eating a bad batch of chili.
I remember hearing of a production of The Music Man whose cast was made up entirely of SPEBs and Sweet Adelines - and someone had re-arranged the songs (specifically Iowa Stubborn & Wells Fargo) into barbershop harmony - but I could not fins any links
I want to thank everyone in this thread you inspired me to dust off my copy of The Music Man. In fact with all of the musical threads I’d doing a marathon today.
I’m up to Wellsfargo Wagon. I haven’t stopped singing along yet. Up next is Singing in the Rain.
Even allowing for the poor quality of the recording, I must say I was not impressed with Dick Van Dyke’s performance in that, and I’m a big fan of his.
I just wanted to add that The Music Man has always been a favorite musical for me. I am old enough (hah!) to remember (vaguely . . .) when it first came out on Broadway. Seventy Six Trombones must have been one of my Dad’s favorite tunes that year, because he would play it on the piano and my brothers and I would march around the living room playing band.
) a bunch of quarter-notes ascending a scale in one where the other jumps that same…interval? gap? they’re note-for-note the same song.