"The Music Man" coming to NBC! — Page 3

Jessie Mueller's a beautiful woman and many of my favorite Marians have not been "classically Disney princess pretty". Her lack of a "name" is her obstacle, not her beauty or talent, to be sure.

Really though, anybody but Benanti. She's ice cold onscreen and onstage, to me. Harry Connick and Kelli O'Hara would be lovely!

Updated On: 5/12/14 at 04:00 PM

This would be an ideal pre 4th of July broadcast.

Seth McFarlane as Harold Hill is my honest guess.

Seth would be frankly ideal, but his ongoing contracts with Fox make a partnership with NBC seem unlikely.

Acting and controversy are irrelevant. All that matters is his longtime pact with FOX. He ain't jumping over to NBC. It will not happen. His name should be thrown out completely.

And here's his more gleefully offensive version from the Writer's Guild, in which the danger is not pool but reality television:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjcFTlP9hWs

Seth will not do it. FOX would never let him.

And FOX announced their performance of GREASE.

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I love this musical. As much as I love Robert Preston, it will be fun to see a new production. Maybe this one will wash away the stain of the really awful tv version . Who in their right mind would think that the very untalented Matthew Broderick would be good in a role that calls for poise , charm and charisma.

For what it's worth, NBC had MacFarlane host SNL a couple years ago. I don't know if it's the same contract, but if Fox let him do that, then they might not mind him having a one night gig on a televised musical.

Updated On: 5/13/14 at 11:42 AM

There is a short list of "perfect choices", but none of them are pop stars or movie stars, so they will likely be passed over for bigger names. Seth MacFarlane just might be big enough to be the "perfect choice" who's actually picked. NBC could fill out the cast with some interesting choices to draw an audience, but again, it's hard to gauge the value of who's popular versus who's good. I agree that MacFarland and Benanti would be great, with Josh Gad a possibility as Marcellus, and a few former Newsies in the ensemble (Ryan Steele as Tommy Djilas?). We can have high hopes for a stellar cast, but if the ratings are not spectacular, it makes it less likely that they will do this again. So be prepared for some disappointment.

They will probably go with a "name" rather than a Broadway talent or whatever passes for a "name" on TV anymore (I would never in a hundred years have predicted ahead of time that they would cast Carrie Underwood for Maria in SoM and having seen her work in it...I still would not have cast her). I would love to see Craig Bierko recreate the part and have his version immortalized in some format, but that is unlikely. Some of the names being floated - both here and at Broadway.com - are by no means bad, although a number of them are entirely too young for the part. So long as they don't pull a Disney and have anyone similar to the horrendously miscast Matthew Broderick in full nebbish mode trying to pull off a charismatic con man and romantic lead part, I will be happy.