STAGE TO SCREENS: Storyline's Zadan and Meron Discuss TV 'Music Man'

By Michael Buckley
29 Sep 2002

While few might consider the 1960's to be a Golden Age of Movie Musicals, four adaptations of Broadway shows won a Best Picture Academy Award during that decade: "West Side Story" (1961), "My Fair Lady" (1964), "The Sound of Music" (1965), and "Oliver!" (1968) — and four others were Oscar nominees: "Fanny" (1961), which eliminated songs but used the show's music in the background; "The Music Man" (1962); "Funny Girl" (1968); and "Hello, Dolly!" (1969). Over the years, movie musicals have struck an unresponsive chord with audiences (albeit not the genre's avid fans), and the path between Broadway and Hollywood became a yellowed brick road.

Matthew Broderick in the Storyline production of The Music Man airing Feb. 2003

Photo by ABC/Rafy

Waiting in the wings, however, was television, where everything came up roses for Bette Midler's turn as Mama Rose (in 1993's "Gypsy") and, bet your bottom dollar, there was a bright tomorrow for "Annie" (1999). Both former Broadway babies were fathered by Storyline Entertainment, which next sires "The Music Man" (ABC's "Wonderful World of Disney," Feb. 23, 2003), starring Matthew Broderick as Harold Hill.

This month's column features Storyline's founders — Craig Zadan and Neil Meron — and choreographer-director Kathleen Marshall, who designed "The Music Man" dances, as well as those for "Kiss Me, Kate" (to be shown early next year on PBS-TV's "Great Performances" with Brent Barrett, Rachel York, Michael Berresse and Nancy Anderson).

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"We've been incredibly, incredibly lucky," says Craig Zadan, "and we don't take it for granted. It's expensive to produce musicals on television. We've only been able to make them because of the home-video component. The show loses money, and the home video [market] makes back the money that you lose. Up until 'Cinderella' [their 1997 remake of the Rodgers & Hammerstein made-for-TV musical], home videos of musicals never sold. 'Cinderella' sold one million units the first week it was out. Thank God, 'Annie' did the same."

In addition to their new versions of Broadway musicals and "Cinderella" (which, claims Zadan, "We treated as a Broadway musical"), Storyline's productions include the acclaimed "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," "The Three Stooges," "What Makes a Family" and "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story."

Coming up, they have "Martin and Lewis" (Nov. 24 on CBS), starring Jeremy Northam as Dean Martin and Sean Hayes as Jerry Lewis; the Christmas release of the feature film of Kander & Ebb's "Chicago," for which Zadan and Meron are executive producers; an ABC action-adventure series, "Veritas" ("like an Indiana Jones," explains Zadan), starting in January; and February's "The Music Man." (Somehow, March seems the perfect month for that.)

"Gypsy" came about, Meron recalls, "as a kind of fluke. I knew Shirley Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein's sister, who represented Arthur Laurents. She said, 'Have you guys ever thought of doing "Gypsy" for television? The authors would all approve you.' I spoke to Craig and we discussed Bette Midler [as the star]." Zadan continues, "We called the head of CBS and said, 'We know how network television feels about musicals. Would you even consider doing "Gypsy"?' He said, 'If I did say yes, you'd have to have a big movie star who does not do TV.' I told him that, in our fantasy world, we'd like Bette Midler. He said, 'Get Bette Midler, and you have an on-the-air commitment.' It took a long time to get Bette to commit, but we wore her down."

A prejudice existed, says Zadan, "that once you did a [theatrical] movie of a Broadway show, you never did another. We argued that there were many reasons to do a remake." I mention that "Annie," when directed by John Huston, didn't work. "That's an example of every reason in the world to do another version," insists Zadan. "A lot of people feel that 'Music Man' is a good movie musical. We found there are values in the movie that had not been fully explored. We decided to do 'Music Man' again — with a whole new concept.

"As we did with 'Annie,' we scooped out all of the cartoon elements and made it much more realistic. In a lot of productions of 'Music Man,' the townspeople are depicted as buffoons — but not in ours. And with Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth [as Marian], the love story comes front and center. Matthew and Kristin make you cry."

"If people come to 'Music Man' expecting Matthew to be a Robert Preston clone, that's not going to happen," states Meron (in a voice suggesting that would be dirty pool). "It's a whole new Harold Hill. He's sly, charming, a real pied-piper." Notes Zadan, "People thought we were cracked when we wanted Judy Davis to play Judy Garland. Judy Davis thought we were crazy."

Meron explains, "We had worked with her previously [in 'Serving in Silence']. We knew the depth and passion that she brings to her acting, and she loves music. That's what we needed for Judy Garland." Zadan interjects, "And [Davis] has a vulnerability and a wicked sense of humor — like Judy Garland. We cut a five-minute trailer that was sent out to the press. It had a big chunk of Carnegie Hall [Garland's triumphant 1961 concert] in it. Lorna takes the trailer to New York and shows it to Liza. Liza says, 'Oh, this is great! They used footage of Mama from Carnegie Hall.' Lorna says, 'There is no footage of Mama at Carnegie Hall. That is Judy Davis!'"

Davis won an Emmy, as did Tammy Blanchard for portraying the young Judy. An enthusiastic Zadan says, "Next year on Broadway, Tammy is playing Gypsy [starring Bernadette Peters as Rose]. They might as well give her the Tony Award right now."

"We use a lot of Broadway talent," says Meron. "When you make musicals, you turn to the best, and that means Broadway. Victor Garber is kind of our touchstone. He's done 'Cinderella' [as King Maximillian], 'Annie' [Daddy Warbucks], the Judy Garland movie [Sid Luft] and 'Music Man' [Mayor Shinn]."

Born in Brooklyn, Meron claims that he knew "in the womb" that he wanted to be in show business. "I was reading 'Variety,' as I was coming out." Zadan was born in Miami, but moved to Brooklyn (with his family) when he was two, "as soon as I was cognizant of the world."

Young Craig often traveled to Manhattan to see Saturday matinees: "Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, Sammy Davis in Golden Boy, Steve Lawrence in What Makes Sammy Run...." A slightly older Zadan wrote the book, "Sondheim & Co." He later revised it. "I'm very proud of that book, and I'll revise it again — at some point."

In 1973, Zadan co-produced Broadway's first Stephen Sondheim tribute, a one-night event that featured Sondheim-show stars, including Angela Lansbury, Alexis Smith and Glynis Johns. "At the last moment," Zadan recalls, "Ethel Merman pulled out. She was going to do 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' and 'I'm Still Here.' She got into a big fight with us — I don't remember about what — and walked. Steve said, 'I'm sure my friend, Nancy Walker, would come in to do ["I'm Still Here"].' She flew in [from California], and stole the evening. She was absolutely brilliant!"

The execs chose their company name from William Goldman's book, "Adventures in the Screen Trade." Quotes Meron: "'The most important element to the success of a film is its storyline.'" Among future musicals planned by Storyline are "Mame" (probably with Cher), "Fiddler on the Roof" (probably sans Cher) and a live-action version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Continued...

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