The Music Man [Blu-ray]

The Music Man [Blu-ray] Review

It seems that no other Broadway musical was ever transferred so intact to the screen with every facet of its production gleaming and gloriously theatrical in its staging. River City, Iowa, of course, looks no more realistic than the Land of Oz, but that's how it should be. It's satire, and thankfully director Morton DaCosta keeps it all in tip-top shape, preserved to play exactly as it did on stage, even with respect to the opening number aboard a train where all the salesmen are singing about a certain scoundrel posing as a professor of music.

Meredith Willson's music never sounded as good and is given expert singing and dancing from ROBERT PRESTON, SHIRLEY JONES, PAUL FORD and HERMIONE GINGOLD in the leads, all of whom are aided and abetted by some of the best singing and dancing you could ask for in a musical of this kind. Gingold is outrageously funny and Paul Ford as her husband, the Mayor of River City, is equally boisterous in a comic role. But it's Preston's show from start to finish with co-star Shirley Jones in fine vocal form as the skeptical librarian.

One of the most cleverly staged numbers is the "Marian, The Librarian" number that takes place in the town library where sliding poles and balconies become part of the intricately staged dance routine. All of the musical numbers are performed with professional charm by a talented group of actors/singers/dancers who are part of the River City citizenry.

Little Ron Howard, the boy with the lisp, who later went on to directorial fame, is a standout as Jones' little brother.

Summing up: Outstanding old-fashioned musical with its heart in the right place--Americana in the best tradition of the word.

Summing up: It has more charm than the law allows.

The Music Man [Blu-ray] Overview

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/02/2010 Run time: 177 minutes Rating: G

The Music Man [Blu-ray] Specifications

The Music Man was one of the last great movie musicals from any studio, and it proved to be that rarest of events: a Broadway show that was measurably improved by its transition to the screen. Robert Preston made his musical debut--both live and on film--as "Professor" Harold Hill, the upbeat charlatan who promises to teach a small-town boys band by the "think system." But it's the part Preston was born to play and the one for which he will always be best remembered. Composer Meredith Willson based The Music Man on his own small-town Midwestern boyhood, circa 1912, a quasi-mythical place where the old-maid librarian looks and sings like Shirley Jones. The boy himself is an adorable Ron Howard, lisp-singing "Gary, Indiana." Willson's entire score, featuring a combination of what are now standards, such as "Goodnight My Someone" and "Till There Was You" and show-specific numbers ("Trouble," "76 Trombones"), is never less than infectious. This dazzling special edition is also as bright and sunny as any 4th of July in Iowa could ever hope to be. --Robert Windeler

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