Let me start this off by saying that Music Man is probably my favorite musical. I've been in it and conducted it and know the show backward and forward, so I may be oversensitive to some of the things they did. That said...
I thought parts of it were quite good, and I do think that Matthew Broderick can carry the role vocally. But he just comes across as too darn nice. Someone made the comment in an earlier e-mail that they didn't understand Marion being interested in Robert Preston's Harold Hill, but could understand it with Matthew Broderick. I got that, too. However, I thought he was completely, totally unconvincing as a con man, which is where Preston shone. "Trouble" just didn't work, although "76 Trombones" was better. On the other hand, I think he's exceptionally talented and would watch him do almost anything, and overall, I thought he did a pretty good job.
I also thought Kristen Chenoweth was quite good. My only quibble is that they dropped the pitch on "My White Knight" and I think it was so that she could come closer to a belt at the end of it. I thought that was wrong for the character at that point. "Till There Was You" is her big emotional moment - I don't think you should top it that early in the show.
I thought the choreography was only so-so (and WHY did they add so much music to the dance break in "76 Trombones? I thought it would NEVER end), and the editing was abysmal. It was way too influenced by MTV editing and the camera never stayed on anything long enough. Very jumpy.
The thing that I thought was the worst was that they completely missed the point with Mayor and Mrs. Shinn. I read a couple of interviews with the producers and one of the things they said is that they have never liked how "cartoony" the characters are usually played and wanted to be more real. They went way too far in that direction with both characters. Both the Shinns are supposed to be small-town, big fish in a tiny, tiny pond, bombastic, full of themselves, comic relief. I like both Victor Garber and Molly Shannon a lot, but Garber just came across as mean and although Shannon got it right a couple of times, both of them missed most of the humor in their roles. And they can be such great roles.
So, IMHO, it was about half and half. But a half-good Music Man is better than a really good almost anything else, so on the whole I enjoyed it.
I'm off to London this week (mostly business, but some fun) and have tickets to Chicago and The Lion King, so I'm looking forward to a dose of big-time live musical theatre. That will be a nice change of pace. I hope. :-)
Lee Morgan Mezzo-soprano
-----Original Message----- From: symphonia@a... [mailto:symphonia@a...] Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 8:21 PM To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [vocalist] The Music Man
Hello everyone,
I saw it too last Sunday night and I got the feeling that the sound was dubbed in from a sound track that was not well synchronized with the singers. Matt Broderick does not have the right voice for that role. I thought his acting was good, though. But I thought his voice was too light, and too high pitched. But that is just my opinion. Kristin Chenowith does have a bit of operatic vocal quality. I, too, miss the original with Robert Preston. Some things just cannot be duplicated.
Janice Rosen Washington, DC
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