Why didn't they use some good barbershop quartet for this? Disney could have easily gotten any award winning SPEBSQSA (sp?) groups. All the ones I know would have loved to fill the shoes of the Buffalo Bills....and The leading chic had WAY too much vibrato. WAY TOO MUCH!!!
I guess I'm a purist and the Robert Preston version so amazing.
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Mike you must be in a pretty shitty quartet! Those guys couldn't blend, they had no dynamics....it was pathetic! They were singing the right notes but that's where it ended. Get a copy of the tape from this years internationals and listen to good groups like Metropolis and Four Voices. That's barbershop!
(and Chenoweth has no control over her vibrato. drove me nuts)
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TxMike, wanted to jump in with my quick 2-cents, which is to agree with you. I was QUITE impressed with Ms. Chenoweth's singing voice. You were right to say she has a controlled voice and is accomplished. It isn't often that you hear that clarity and sweetness in a voice being offered in the mainstream like this was. (By this, I mean, all those warbly, nasaly upstarts that are thrown at the public on the radio and TV these days, the ones who pretend to have controlled acrobatic voices, but who aren't controlled at all.) This performer was a JOY to listen to. And I know something about music, too, having been an honorary music major in college. (I majored in journalism, but was in band, choir and symphony, and practically LIVED at the fine arts building, hanging out with all the music majors and attending all their recitals.) Plus, I'm married to a musician who is terribly picky and critical of singers and musicians who are merely trying and not pulling it off.
It was an interesting evening, to say the least. I have grown up watching "The Music Man" -- every time I catch it on TV, I stop to watch, and have seen it dozens of times, and know the score by heart! My husband, on the other hand, while a musician, has always disliked most musicals, dismissing them as too syrupy, especially Rodgers and Hammerstein, and had never seen the original version of "The Music Man". (After 20 years of being around me, I don't know how he has escaped it!) He actually sat there with me through the whole thing last night, shushing the kids when they got too rambunctious marching around the room, and told me at the end that he had really enjoyed it. So that's a BIG testimonial from my family.
While I'll admit it obviously WASN'T the original, why people feel Disney had to make an exact replica of the original, I don't understand. I wish everyone would stop trashing it here. Take it for what it is -- an enjoyable, family-friendly evening at home in front of the TV (hard to find family-friendly TV fare any more!) and a good updated classic to share with my kids and husband. This version was as good as any stage production would be, and no two stage casts (or movie casts for that matter) ever present something in exactly the same way. --Beth
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Kristin Chenoweth trained as an operatic soprano. If you have ever heard an opera soprano sing, its usually vibrato heavy. I have a very light voice, but my opera training has given me a broad, heavy sound. That's just the way voices work. If you don't enjoy Chenoweth or Broderick in the roles, I would suggest getting a copy of the 2000 Broadway Cast Recording. Craig Beirko is a Preston clone and Rebecca Lukor is a mouse. And as for Kristin Chenoweth's phyical appearance, I think she's one of the most beautiful women around. Everything about her is distinctive. She can also pull of just about any range and style of singing. On her CD "Let Yourself Go", she covers some excellent jazz, opera (listen to her version of "Glitter and Be Gay" on her website), and musical theatre. She's an excellent entertainer and should be more popular that she is. I hope that "Wicked" gives her career a much neede boost and that she appears more regularly in mainstream entertainment.
N
I was wondering who played that quartet, they were uncredited. And yes, far too young to be credible in their assigned roles. I sing in a barbershop quartet and attended the SPEBSQSA international convention in Indianapolis this past year, and while the sound of barbershop has changed over the years, the quartet in this piece were far too modern-sounding.
IMO Broderick was miscast and lacked the necessary charisma. Victor Garber (who is capable of great and nuanced acting) was dreadfully dry in what's supposed to be a broad comic role. Molly Shannon was okay. The whole production was really dry and low-key in comparison to the 1962 version.
I'll step up and say that I find Kristin Chenoweth very attractive, and I'll admit I have a big soft spot for her. To me, she was one of the only bright spots in this remake, which I still thought was better than Disney's watered-down remake of "Annie".
Dave
Agree wholeheartly about the barbershop...they should have gotten a REAL quartet, that could do the real, oldfashioned bshop sound....just about any group from any of the International finals would have been an improvement.
shareMeredith Willson mentions in his book BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW THE TERRITORY how proud he was to have legitimate barbershop singing in "The Music Man". He said he had heard harmony singing that was passed off as "barbershop", but he gave us the real thing.
It's wrong to compare versions (we might argue over whether Oliver, Gibson or Branagh is a better Hamlet but all were legitimate Hamlets). Taking Broderick's performance on it's own (and he's a fine actor I usually like), he wasn't persuasive as Hill, and would not have been convincing as Hill even if Preston hadn't made his movie. Say they'd cast Dick Van Dyke as Hill in the '62 version: even granting that, Broderick would not have made a convincing Hill in 2002. Broderick is a talented young man (well, my age) and has had notable musical-comedy success, like Van Dyke 40 years ago. The mistake probably wasn't noticable until too late. No doubt, it looked good on paper.
But not getting an award-winning barbershop quartet (as they did 40 years back with the Buffalo Bills) was wrong. The quartet itself, in the context of the book, was meant to be a pre-fab group formed spontaneously from upright men of the community who ran the school board, whom Hill finagled together (rather in the way boy singing groups are made today); but the book is fantasy. In the cold reality of production, the four singers have to sound like a real barbershop quartet. Some care must be taken for that this. This bunch sounded like they were using the "think" method of barbershop singing. With Disney's money, the producers might've afforded the real thing. The members of the school board don't have so many spoken lines that they have to act or emote. But they do have to perform barbershop singing.
I'll even mention that I don't care for barbershop singing; and if I saw this bunch (and I don't hold them responsible, but the producers) in a community theatre I'd have enjoyed it. But when I see something on this level (prime time Sunday night, esp. on Disney), I expect to see it done properly.
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