Movies Like Meredith Willson: America's Music Man

If you liked Meredith Willson: America's Music Man (2023), a movie directed by Tyler Brinegar, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
★ 7/10
A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.
2
The Music Man (1962)
★ 7.1/10
Traveling con artist Harold Hill targets the naïve residents of a small town in 1910s Iowa by posing as a boys' bandleader to raise money before he can skip town.
3
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
★ 7/10
A film of the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohan.
4
Rocketman (2019)
★ 7.3/10
The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.
5
Staying Alive (1983)
★ 5.8/10
Five years later, Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever still burns. Now he's struts toward his biggest challenger yet - making it as a dancer on the Broadway stage.
6
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
★ 6.7/10
The story follows General George Armstrong Custer's adventures from his West Point days to his death. He defies orders during the Civil War, trains the 7th Cavalry, appeases Chief Crazy Horse and later engages in…
7
Once (2007)
★ 7.4/10
A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring…
8
Feel the Beat (2020)
★ 7.5/10
After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.
9
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
★ 6.3/10
At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, sideshow barker Florenz Ziegfeld turns the tables on his more-successful neighbor Billings, and also steals his girlfriend. This pattern repeats throughout their lives, as Ziegfeld…
10
John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
★ 7.9/10
Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.
11
Some Came Running (1958)
★ 6.9/10
A former novelist returns to his small Midwest town after serving in the Army during WWII, to the chagrin of his social-climbing brother, and becomes close with an easy-going professional gambler and torn between two…
12
One from the Heart (1982)
★ 5.9/10
In a dazzling, dreamlike Las Vegas, longtime couple Hank and Frannie break up on their fifth anniversary and each pursue the fantasy of new love over one neon-soaked night—he with a free-spirited acrobat, she with a…
13
French Girl (2024)
★ 6.2/10
Sweet Gordon, an affable English teacher in Brooklyn, has beaten the odds; a French Girl has fallen in love with him and he’s fallen even harder back. But their future is thrown into limbo when she interviews for an…
14
A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018)
★ 6.5/10
In a life full of triumph and failure, "National Lampoon" co-founder Doug Kenney built a comedy empire, molding pop culture in the 1970s.
15
Quartet (2012)
★ 6.5/10
Cissy, Reggie, and Wilf are in a home for retired musicians. Every year, there is a concert to celebrate Composer Giuseppe Verdi's birthday and they take part. Jean, who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the…
16
The Hoax (2006)
★ 6.3/10
In what would cause a fantastic media frenzy, Clifford Irving sells his bogus biography of Howard Hughes to a premiere publishing house in the early 1970s.
17
Winter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
★ 7.3/10
Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
18
The World of Henry Orient (1964)
★ 5.9/10
A mischievous, adventuresome fourteen-year-old girl and her best friend begin following an eccentric concert pianist around New York City after she develops a crush on him.
19
For the Love of Spock (2016)
★ 7.4/10
The life of Mr. Spock, as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played him for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son: Adam.
20
Playing for Time (1980)
★ 6.9/10
When a Jewish songstress is plucked from the stage and sent to Auschwitz, she and other musicians find themselves assigned to a terrible task—using their talents to soothe fellow prisoners who are sentenced to die in…