There was once, upon a time, a musical. It was first released in 1957, starring Robert Preston in the lead role of a con men who comes to a small Iowa town and starts to set down roots he may not be able to pull out. There was a film adaptation only 5 years later, in 1962, starring the same man. And then, nearly 40 years after that film adaptation, there was another one. Not exactly as a film, more as a TV movie. Of course, I am talking about......The Music Man. The Music Man is the story of Professor Harold Hill, a con man who swindles his way through towns by schmoozing the people who could call him a fraud, and giving promises he knows he can't keep. When he stops in the small town of River City, Iowa, he finds out that for once, he may have to stay and keep his promises to this town, which comes to life after he shows them the gift of music.I love The Music Man. I first saw The Music Man in 5th grade, when we watched this 2003 version. That inspired me to go out and see the 1962 version, which is very good, and perhaps, I'll do a review on it at some point. A little bit of backstory on the film, it was first released as a 3-hour television film on ABC, and was produced by Disney, without the involvement of any of Willson's family, unlike the original version.First things first, let's talk about the positives. I loved the set design of River City. Unlike the 1962 film, which looked very much like it was on a stage for most of the film, the 2003 version actually looks like it could be a real town. Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth both do very well in their singing roles, Chenoweth especially. Her main solo songs, including "Goodnight, My Someone," "My White Knight," and "Til There Was You," are all very well done. Broderick also does a good job in songs like "Marian the Librarian," and "Gary, Indiana."The songs were all well done, none of them sounded particularly bad or out of place (except for possibly the Gary, Indiana reprise). All of the actors did a good job in their roles, bringing out the best (and in some cases, worst) of their characters.Let's move onto the bad. Broderick is very emotionless and non- moving in some of his songs, which doesn't really help, especially in one of the most famous songs from the film, "Ya Got Trouble." He doesn't really sell that prospect of trouble in River City to me, so how he does it to the townsfolk, I have no idea. Some of the scenes were weird to me, like the dance sequence in "Marian the Librarian." As far as I know, this is the only version that has that sequence in the musical number. Another thing is that it really feels like it was made for TV, with all the commercial breaks coming at a cue, like they would on a TV show.Overall, to be honest, this 2003 remake of The Music Man wasn't awful, like some have said, but it wasn't memorable either. Set design, cinematography and music were all well done, but some of the acting and musical numbers were a bit strange. Overall, it's a enjoyable time if you have nothing to do, but if you're looking for a great adaptation of The Music Man, go for the 1962 version.5/10. Grade: C

Adaptations, remakes and follow-ups do deserve to be judged on their own terms and that is what I made an effort to do with the 2003 version of The Music Man. But there are a few instances where it is difficult to compare when the originals are so good, and like the 1969 vs. 2011 versions of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love 2003's The Music Man is one such film.The 1962 version of The Music Man is from personal opinion one of the best film musicals ever made, with a one-for-the-ages performance from Robert Preston and a case of the story slightly playing second fiddle to everything else being easily forgiven when you're enjoying yourself so much. Which is more than can be said with the 2003 film, it's not the complete and utter disaster that it's been reputed to be but it just came over as lazy and charmless and with no point to it.It is not an irredeemable film, it has moments. That it tries to not deviate too much is laudable, the songs are great, there are moments where the choreography and dancing has spirit especially in the fun Marian the Librarian numbers, there are some nice colours and costumes and while generally the casting was one of the film's downfalls a few performances while not up to the same level as the 1962 film do come over well. Those performances were Debra Monk, Cameron Monaghan and especially Kristin Chenoweth. Monk, despite her accent leaving a lot to be desired, brings a lot of heart and compassion to Mrs Paroo, many of her scenes beautifully acted. Monaghan's attempt at the lisp isn't great but is about equal to Ronny Howard in terms of the amount of pathos there was in his performance. Chenoweth is a luminous Marian, with a big angelic voice that you can't believe comes out from such a small woman.Matthew Broderick just doesn't work, there is no denying he has talent but this is not the right role for him. He sounds reedy here and he is so expressionless and bewildered-looking that he comes over as an uncharismatic robot, apologies if this sounds mean but it just came over that way. Victor Garber disappoints too, he shows no comic timing whatsoever and he comes over as too mean and over-serious, while Molly Shannon underplays just as badly and annoyed rather than delighted. The Shinns and their interactions were one of the 1962 version's highlights but they were almost a non-entity here. David Allen Baker is similarly bland.Visually, there are some nice colours and costumes but the sets were sometimes cramped and the cinematography was washed out, that the film was made for TV really does show. The music is great but cheapened by arrangements sometimes too leaden in tempo, overly-bombastic orchestration, erratic orchestral playing and generally under-par singing with Chenoweth being an exception. The choreography has some spark like in Marian the Librarian, but mostly lacks energy and imagination, a notable example being Seventy-Six Trombones. A show-stopper in the 1962 film, it's more stiff than rousing here. The dialogue is not as witty and felt corny instead and whereas the 1962 film had so much warmth, charm, colour and energy that the story not being as strong as everything else was completely forgivable and unnoticeable but because of the 2003 film lacking in every single one of those areas on the whole it was nowhere near as easy to ignore.Overall, not disastrous but very disappointing. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I agree with the earlier poster that said Broderick's style was better capable of running a con than Preston's style was...but this movie held a massive surprise in the 10-foot-tall vocals of 4-foot-11 Kristin Chenoweth...I was so blown away by that voice, I came here to see her other work and got the biggest shock of my life: There was a reason her last name sounded so familiar, and IMDb filled in the missing clue...she graduated Broken Arrow Senior High School roughly 6 years after I did!!! Her older brother was a junior in my senior year!!! Of course, she went on to play the original Broadway Cast role of Galinda (later "Glinda The Good Witch") in the Broadway musical "Wicked"...and now is Olive in "Pushing Daisies" with fellow Oklahoman Lee Pace and fellow Broadway-belter Ellen Greene.Musically excellent...Major-league cute...Oh, I'm so hoping for more "Daisies"...

Who are these people in the US who are making botched TV versions of excellent musicals that were cinema-perfect the first time? What the hell is teddy bear Matthew Broderick doing in the role of a robust charming con man when his performances are permanently Leo Bloom from THE PRODUCERS...?... and he was absolutely awful in the movie version of that musical too. Remakes of ANNIE and GYPSY and SOUTH PACIFIC that nobody asked for, groanworthy miscasting... I just find myself exasperated as an audience member that these 'TV greeting card' versions of tough and quite humanist musicals are rendered impotent because of the misconcieved reasons for remaking them. Broderick as The Music Man Prof Harold Hill is ridiculous. He pussyfoots his way, looking befuddled, like, well, Leo Bloom, again. There is some nice production values and some precision dancing from what looks like Disney theme park performers... but the main and basically only problem is overweight bug eyed shuffling Ferris Bueller in his teen school production as seen in this boring musical remake. . I await, with gritted teeth the Paris Hilton remake of Dirty Dancing.....