The Music Man: stage vs screen

Morton DaCosta's 1962 film of The Music Man stars Robert Preston as con man Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as Marian the librarian. It came second. The stage musical opened on Broadway in 1957, with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Because DaCosta also directed the Broadway show, the film is a close copy, so the differences are about details. Here they are.

Stage

Broadway musical (1957)

Screen

The Music Man (1962), directed by Morton DaCosta

1. The film stays unusually close to the stage show

Morton DaCosta directed the Broadway production and then produced and directed the film, which is a big reason it stays so faithful. The story is the same: Harold Hill arrives in River City, Iowa, in 1912, stirs up panic over a new pool table, sells band instruments he never means to teach, and is saved from the angry town when the boys play. Nearly all of Willson's songs are kept in full.

2. Preston and other stage veterans came along

Robert Preston originated Harold Hill on Broadway and repeated the role on screen. He was not Warner Bros.' first choice: James Cagney, Bing Crosby, and Cary Grant all turned the part down, but Willson used his casting approval to insist on Preston. Pert Kelton returned as Mrs. Paroo, and the Buffalo Bills, the barbershop quartet who play the school board, also repeated their stage roles.

3. Several leads were recast

Barbara Cook created Marian on Broadway, but Shirley Jones played her in the film. Ron Howard, then billed as Ronny Howard, took over Winthrop from Eddie Hodges, and Buddy Hackett played Marcellus Washburn in place of Iggie Wolfington. Paul Ford played Mayor Shinn on screen and Hermione Gingold played his wife, Eulalie. Ford had been a replacement in the stage run, while David Burns originated the mayor.

4. "My White Knight" is replaced by "Being in Love"

The one song the film truly rewrote is Marian's ballad "My White Knight." The film keeps the middle verse and replaces the rest with a new Willson song, "Being in Love." If you hear "Being in Love" in a production, it comes from the movie, not the original Broadway score.

5. A trimmed opener and a shorter "It's You"

"Rock Island," the opening number in which traveling salesmen argue on a train, was slightly altered and edited for the film, which moves the salesmen's starting point from Rock Island to Brighton, Illinois. "It's You," an Act Two number on stage, is first heard as background music and later sung by the school board in an abbreviated form at the fairground. It is not on the soundtrack album.

6. Some local slang was softened

The film's writers changed a few phrases they thought were too Midwestern for a national audience. Tommy Djilas, the town's troublemaking teenager, says "Great honk!" on screen instead of the stage catchphrase "Jeely kly!" The nonsense dance song "Shipoopi" was left exactly as Willson wrote it.

7. "Gary, Indiana" moves to Harold

On Broadway, "Gary, Indiana" is Winthrop's song: Marian's shy little brother sings it in Act Two with Mrs. Paroo and Marian. The film hands it to Harold first, earlier in the story, with Mrs. Paroo joining in, and saves Winthrop for a reprise. On the soundtrack, Robert Preston and Pert Kelton sing the main version, and Ronny Howard, Kelton, and Shirley Jones sing the reprise.

8. The 2003 TV film brings the stage song back

ABC aired a new version of The Music Man on February 16, 2003, with Matthew Broderick as Hill and Kristin Chenoweth as Marian. Jeff Bleckner directed it, and it reinstated "My White Knight" in place of the 1962 film's "Being in Love." Clyde Alves and Cameron Adams repeated their Broadway revival roles as Tommy and Zaneeta. Reviews were mixed, and most critics preferred Preston's film.

The Music Man movie vs musical: FAQs