It helps if you know the play or the film "The Music Man" to appreciate this film and how terribly miscast Jeff Goldblum is in the lead role. Trying to shoehorn his personality (or "acting choices") into the part of Professor Harold Hill gives this movie its wonderful comedy edge.
Given Jeff Goldblum's persona as an actor, he isn't the ideal candidate to star in "The Music Man", but he is a professional actor so you figure that he can pull off the role. Unfortunately (or fortunately), he can't which makes for a very funny film.
This "behind the scenes/pseudo-documentary/improvisational" film places loose with some of the facts which helps it to achieve its off-the-wall humor. Ed Begley Jr. gives a terrific, naturalistic performance which would fit easily into any of Robert Altman's best films. His spoofing of his environmentally-concerned self is a brilliant piece of comedy. Also, very good is Richard Sabellico who is directing "The Music Man." (Part of the credit should go to the filmmakers for getting just the right moments and shots of Richard as he "suffers" working with Jeff on the actual play production.) The whole film moves quickly and is a brief eight-four minutes, but the DVD has many deleted scenes which are also enjoyable. Maybe we'll see an extended Director's Cut someday. (Probably not--those extended director's cut films are usually made for the bloated blockbusters.)
