Buddy Hackett, Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, Shirley Jones, Pert Kelton, and Robert Preston in The Music Man (1962)

Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, and Alicia Morton in Annie (1999)

Jonathan Jackson and Alexis Bledel in Tuck Everlasting (2002)

Maureen Bailey, Sondra Lee, Kent Fletcher, Edmund Gaynes, Luke Halpin, Benedict Herrman, David Komoroff, Mary Martin, Jacqueline Mayro, Cyril Ritchard, Norman Shelly, Bill Snowden, Joey Trent, and Carson Woods in Peter Pan (1960)

Oliver Reed, Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, and Jack Wild in Oliver! (1968)

Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964)

Harry Connick Jr., Taraji P. Henson, and Celina Smith in Annie Live! (2021)

Bette Midler, Cheech Marin, Roscoe Lee Browne, Billy Joel, Joey Lawrence, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Richard Mulligan in Oliver & Company (1988)

Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper in Treasure Island (1934)

You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays.

Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo) and Debra Monk (Mrs. Paroo) in the Paroo's kitchen

Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo) & Molly Shannon (Mrs. Shinn) in the candy store - The Music Man (2002)

Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo) and Molly Shannon (Mrs. Shinn)

David Aaron Baker (Marcellus Washburn) & Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo)

Cameron Monaghan taking a break in a director's chair

Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo) & Kristin Chenoweth (Marion Paroo)

Victor Garber (Mayor Shinn), Debra Monk (Mrs.Paroo) and Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo) - The Music Man (2002)

Matthew Broderick (Harold Hill) on the set with Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo)

Matthew Broderick (Harold Hill), Kristin Chenoweth (Marion Paroo), Cameron Monaghan (Winthrop Paroo) & The Quartet

Matthew Broderick

Kristin Chenoweth

Victor Garber

Meredith Willson

Franklin Lacey

Sally Robinson

A masterful con artist tries to bilk a staid Midwestern community, with unexpected results, in this contemporary rethinking of the legendary Broadway musical and lively 1962 film, updated to reflect several early-21st-century sens...

Jeff Bleckner

Meredith Willson&apos;s the Music Man

You just can&apos;t beat the original....

No one does it like Robert Preston. That&apos;s the main think this movie proved. This was the second of two classic musicals that Disney has tried to remake into TV movies in the past few years. They did the same thing with this as they did with Annie, and the result was the same as well. Both movies seem just a little too... for lack of a better word, unnatural.

Of course, this movie had to compare to an original that has been considered a classic for a long time. It&apos;s the story of &quot;professor&quot; Harold Hill, a traveling salesman who&apos;s latest trick is to find trouble in a town and then use it to make the townspeople believe they need a boys band to reform their youth. He sells them all the instruments, music, and uniforms they need, then heads out of town before he can teach them a thing. Hill&apos;s latest target is River City, Iowa. Everything seems to be going fine, but he just might have met his match in the town librarian, one of the few who won&apos;t buy his story.

Yes, the story is classic, but it wasn&apos;t quite enough to save this rather unnerving remake. Disney pulled together quite a cast: Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber, and Molly Shannon. However, that didn&apos;t save this film either, though the performance of one of the leads certainly is a large part of the reason this film has the rating it has. It&apos;s hard to say exactly why this film fails to satisfy, but it sadly does just that. First of all, it just doesn&apos;t seem to work quite as well as the original. The extended dance sequences seem out of place and weird, even though they are splendidly done. Probably, the largest reason of all that this film just isn&apos;t great is because no matter how much you deny it, you are comparing it to the original. It just doesn&apos;t compare. However, there is one thing that makes it worth while.

Kristin Chenoweth shines as Marian Paroo, the town librarian. With this film, she proves that she can easily take on a leading film role. Ms. Chenoweth really steals the show with her unmatchable voice and superb acting. I really think she out-did the original woman in the role. It&apos;s near the end that you realize that she truly is a lead. Unfortunately, I can&apos;t say the same for Matthew Broderick. One has to give him credit for being brave enough to take on such a set-in-mind role, but that is actually his downfall. He just isn&apos;t Robert Preston- no one ever will be again. Mr. Preston gave one of the better performances of our time, and Mr. Broderick simply can&apos;t beat that. At times, he even borders on what looks like insanity. Poor, Matthew. This won&apos;t shine as a fine moment in his career at all. The only other really good performances in the show were Debra Monk and David Aaron Baker as Mrs. Paroo and Hill&apos;s friend Marcellus, respectively.

Really, the only problem with this is it&apos;s not the original. Unfortunately, there won&apos;t be a remake that can ever equal the original. As I said before, no one does it like Robert Preston. This film proves that. 5/10 stars.

Jay Addison

No one does it like Robert Preston. That's the main think this movie proved. This was the second of two classic musicals that Disney has tried to remake into TV movies in the past few years. They did the same thing with this as they did with Annie, and the result was the same as well. Both movies seem just a little too... for lack of a better word, unnatural.

Of course, this movie had to compare to an original that has been considered a classic for a long time. It's the story of "professor" Harold Hill, a traveling salesman who's latest trick is to find trouble in a town and then use it to make the townspeople believe they need a boys band to reform their youth. He sells them all the instruments, music, and uniforms they need, then heads out of town before he can teach them a thing. Hill's latest target is River City, Iowa. Everything seems to be going fine, but he just might have met his match in the town librarian, one of the few who won't buy his story.

Yes, the story is classic, but it wasn't quite enough to save this rather unnerving remake. Disney pulled together quite a cast: Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber, and Molly Shannon. However, that didn't save this film either, though the performance of one of the leads certainly is a large part of the reason this film has the rating it has. It's hard to say exactly why this film fails to satisfy, but it sadly does just that. First of all, it just doesn't seem to work quite as well as the original. The extended dance sequences seem out of place and weird, even though they are splendidly done. Probably, the largest reason of all that this film just isn't great is because no matter how much you deny it, you are comparing it to the original. It just doesn't compare. However, there is one thing that makes it worth while.

Kristin Chenoweth shines as Marian Paroo, the town librarian. With this film, she proves that she can easily take on a leading film role. Ms. Chenoweth really steals the show with her unmatchable voice and superb acting. I really think she out-did the original woman in the role. It's near the end that you realize that she truly is a lead. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Matthew Broderick. One has to give him credit for being brave enough to take on such a set-in-mind role, but that is actually his downfall. He just isn't Robert Preston- no one ever will be again. Mr. Preston gave one of the better performances of our time, and Mr. Broderick simply can't beat that. At times, he even borders on what looks like insanity. Poor, Matthew. This won't shine as a fine moment in his career at all. The only other really good performances in the show were Debra Monk and David Aaron Baker as Mrs. Paroo and Hill's friend Marcellus, respectively.

Really, the only problem with this is it's not the original. Unfortunately, there won't be a remake that can ever equal the original. As I said before, no one does it like Robert Preston. This film proves that. 5/10 stars.

Jay Addison

A masterful con artist tries to bilk a staid Midwestern community, with unexpected results, in this contemporary rethinking of the legendary Broadway musical and lively 1962 film, updated to reflect several early-21st-century sensibilities.

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Meredith Willson's the Music Man

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