The Music Man is a 2003 American television film directed by Jeff Bleckner and starring Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth.
The television production, which was broadcast by ABC on the February 16, 2003 edition of The Wonderful World of Disney, is based on the book of the 1957 stage musical by Meredith Wilson, which was based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. It was adapted for television by Sally Robinson.
The three-hour presentation was watched by 13.1 million viewers, with a 3.8 rating/9 share in adults aged 18–49. It finished second in the first two hours and fourth in the final hour.[1]
Synopsis[]
Professor Harold Hill (Matthew Broderick), a con artist who makes a living by selling instruments and uniforms to aspiring musicians he fails to teach once they are delivered, sets his sights on the naive citizens of River City, Iowa as his latest targets. He is sitting on a train in the first scene, playing cards while listening to the passengers talk about him and his cons ("Rock Island"). Before getting off at River City, an anvil salesman named Charlie Cowell realizes it is him, but fails to catch him when he gets off the train. Charlie yells out the window "I won't forget your face, Hill!" before the train travels on, while he is stepping onto the fresh soil of Iowa.
Harold walks up to two men on a ladder, asking where and if there's a hotel anywhere ("Iowa Stubborn"). He moves on to find it, and meets up with his former sidekick, Marcellus Washburn, who is now living in River City and manages the hotel himself. Harold tells him of his new pitch, being a music professor. Marcellus warns him that he won't be able to sell the stubborn Iowans any instruments, partly because of the town's current music teacher, Marian Paroo (Kristin Chenoweth), who also happens to be the librarian. He tells Marcellus that he plans to get her off-balanced and then tell the town how he was going to save them from terrible trouble. Marcellus tells him that the town isn't in trouble, and he replies that he will "just have to make some". He convinces the residents their only hope of saving their sons from the corruption of the local pool hall is to allow him to create a marching band and help them develop their musical talents ("Ya Got Trouble").
Marian happens to walk by the pool hall while this is going on and Marcellus points her out to Harold. He abruptly leaves and follows her in attempts to flirt with her in order to "throw her off balance". She cuts him short and walks into her house to continue a piano lesson with her student, Amaryllis. Her mother, Mrs. Paroo (Debra Monk), scolds her for being out so late and says that she didn't remember the library being open so late in the summer. Marian tells her about Harold following her, but while she thinks it is horrid, Mrs. Paroo opposes ("If You Don't Mind Me Saying So"). Marian's younger brother, Winthrop (Cameron Monaghan), runs in the house with their dog, Shadow. Amaryllis walks in asking if he would like to come to a party that she is hosting. He declines but refuses to say her name because of his lisp, and it has an "s" in it. Mrs. Paroo makes him do so, causing Amaryllis to giggle and him to get upset and run off. Amaryllis feels bad and confesses her feelings about him to Marian. She just smiles and tells her to play her crosshand piece. She smiles and does so while Marian sings of her unknown love ("Goodnight, My Someone").
The next day in the town hall, Mayor Shinn (Victor Garber) and citizens are attending flag exercises led by his wife, Eulalie (Molly Shannon), when Harold walks in talking about the trouble River City is in front of him ("Ya Got Trouble (Reprise)/Seventy-Six Trombones"). He instantly despises Harold and sends the School Board to get his credentials, which do not exist. He then stands in the entrance gathering five dollars from the boys' mothers who want to sign them up for the band. Then, Tommy, (Clyde Alves) a local bad boy, falls down some stairs trying to get away from Mayor Shinn. He catches him and scolds him for hanging around his daughter, Zaneeta. Harold takes him under his wing and gives him money to take her out for ice cream, unbeknownst to him that she is Mayor Shinn's daughter.
Walking out of the town hall in hopes to flirt with Marian again, Harold is stopped by the four feuding School Board members, who ask for his credentials. He pulls them into the ice cream parlor and has them each sing, turning them into the a barbershop quartet ("Sincere"). With the School Board out of the way, he continues to pursue Marian. He catches up to her and confidentially tells her that he has a degree from the Gary Conservatory of Music, "Class of Aught Five (1905)", which she instantly doubts. She cuts him off abruptly and leaves.
Back at the hotel, Harold confides in Marcellus about his plan to not only buy instruments, but uniforms and instruction booklets as well, which supposedly should take three weeks instead of the planned ten days. Marcellus debates with him that he can't teach the boys to play since he doesn't even know one note from the other. Harold tells him that he created a revolutionary system that you can use to play music, calling it the Think System, where you only need to think of a note to play it. He warns Harold that the Fourth of July Social is in three weeks, and the town will want to hear music. Harold says that once the uniforms arrive, the town will forget about the music, at least long enough for him to skip out of there with the money. Marcellus talks to him about setting him up with his fiancee's sister, but he doesn't want to settle down with someone who "teaches Sunday school" ("The Sadder But Wiser Girl").
Harold walks by the hat shop where Eulalie and a gang of other women are gathered trying on hats. They pull him inside, asking his opinion on their hats and gossiping. In attempts to distract Eulalie, he asks her to be the head of their dance committee. They begin to gossip about Marian once he brings her up ("Pick-a-Little Talk-a-Little/Goodnight Ladies"). They tell him how they shun her due to her relationship with the man who left the library to the town but all its contents to her ("Old Miser Madison").
Suspicious of Harold's claim that he has a degree from the Gary Conservatory of Music, "Class of Aught Five", Marian begins to investigate him. She is interrupted when he walks in and tries to woo her again ("Marian the Librarian").
Harold attempts to get Winthrop to join the band while talking to Mrs. Paroo at their home. He successfully cons her into buying an instrument. Winthrop is eavesdropping in his treehouse through the window, and falls. Harold gets him down from the tree, making Mrs. Paroo only admire him more. He tells Winthrop about how great his uniform will look, but fearing more laughs from his lisp, he just runs off. Mrs. Paroo tells Harold that he doesn't speak more than three words a day to anyone, so he shouldn't feel upset. They walk inside and Mrs. Paroo asks where Harold is from ("Gary, Indiana"). Marian walks in to find him and immediately gets upset because she still doesn't trust him.
Production[]
Although Variety reported Sarah Jessica Parker was being considered for the role of Marian, it ultimately went to Kristin Chenoweth.[2]
The film was shot in Millbrook, Milton, Uxbridge, and Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
Cast[]
- Matthew Broderick as Professor Harold Hill
- Kristin Chenoweth as Marian Paroo
- Debra Monk as Mrs. Paroo
- Cameron Monaghan as Winthrop Paroo
- Clyde Alves as Tommy Djilas
- Cameron Adams as Zaneeta Shinn
- Megan Moniz as Amaryllis
- Linda Kash as Alma
- Victor Garber as Mayor Shinn
- Molly Shannon as Eulalie Shinn
- David Aaron Baker as Marcellus Washburn
- Patrick McKenna as Charlie Cowell
Song list[]
- "Rock Island"
- "Iowa Stubborn"
- "Ya Got Trouble"
- "Piano Lesson"
- "Goodnight, My Someone"
- "Seventy-Six Trombones"
- "Sincere"
- "The Sadder But Wiser Girl"
- "Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little/Goodnight Ladies"
- "Marian the Librarian"
- "Gary, Indiana"
- "My White Knight"
- "Wells Fargo Wagon"
- "It's You"
- "Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You"
- "Shipoopi"
- "Till There Was You"
"My White Knight", which had been replaced by "Being in Love" in the 1962 film, was reinstated for the television production.
Critical reception[]
Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "passable entertainment" with "strong production values, excellent costumes and art direction, and a rich color palette that conjures cozy notions of small-town America in the early 20th century," but he felt it "never matches the 1962 film with its classic performance by the late Robert Preston. It was Preston...who galvanized the film with his vibrant, masculine authority...Broderick, by comparison, is cute, wide-eyed, a bit squishy and about as dynamic and intimidating as Winnie the Pooh. His singing is adequate, his dancing heavy and forced...Meron and Zadan, who also produced the successful TV version of Annie in 1999 and the excellent Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows in 2001, have developed a winning formula for quality television movies with bigger-than-usual budgets. The Music Man, handsome but misbegotten, doesn't match their usual standard." [3]
Writing for the New York Times, Michele Willens noted, "In The Music Man, Ms. Chenoweth finally gets a television part worthy of her talent," and she called the dances choreographed by Kathleen Marshall "inventive." [4]
Awards and nominations[]
The film was nominated for five Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Choreography and Music Direction and Outstanding Art Direction, Costumes, and Single Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie.
Jeff Bleckner was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Television Film but lost to Mike Nichols for Angels in America.
DVD release[]
Walt Disney Home Entertainment released the film in anamorphic widescreen format on Region 1 DVD on November 11, 2003. Bonus features include interviews with members of the cast and creative team.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Kristen Chenoweth and Victor Garber had earlier appeared in Annie, another Disney telefilm adaptation of a stage musical.
References[]
External links[]
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page The Music Man. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |