Contrary to most, I must say I did like this movie. At first I thought I wouldn't as it seemed just a documentary, but after a while it became engrossing. Maybe because I started out in show biz myself and in these regional type of productions too, so it all came back as realistic to me. I wouldn't have thought Jeff Goldblum could pull it off as a song and dance man, after seeing him in The Fly and Jurassic Park, but he did rather well, I thought. Maybe a bit too much mugging off stage as well as on, but on the whole, viewable and he worked very hard on this. I wondered what is it with the gum chewing all the way through? The movie gave a true sense of theater life on the amateur, regional level, and I suppose, other than Jeff and Ed Begley, none were Union and so were not paid, certainly not the children. I noticed the choreographer, who also acted a bit, is uncredited, yet every child no matter how insignificant is sure to be named. That's Civic Theater for you! Oh, he is listed on the movie credits at end of film but not on this site, but they often don't give the choreographer credit and if they do it's listed even below the location driver! Not fair at all! I well remember the film of Music Man with Robert Preston but could never figure out how 76 trombones would fit on any stage! But with a bit of stagecraft they did. I saw Music Man back during the 70s in the London West End with Van Johnson (sadly now (December 2008) gone at age 92) in the lead role.
