Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Lee Morgan" <LMorgan923@t...>
Date:  Wed Feb 19, 2003  2:44 am
Subject:  RE: [vocalist] The Music Man

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









emusic.com