Last night NBC aired a made-for-TV musical of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Starring Kelsey Grammer, Jason Alexander, Jesse L. Martin, Jane Krakowski, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Did you see it? Did you like it?
I only caught a few minutes at a time. I could barely stomach what I watched… not a musical fan. I do love A Christmas Carol so when I saw a group of ghosts haunting Scrooge with Marley and spinning chains around him I had to shut it off. Aside from taht Mr Grammer’s Scrooge was little more than a hobble and squinty eyes. Humbug!
What do I think? I think, Dear God, why?
We watched a little bit of Ice Age, and were thoroughly creeped out by the animation style and bored stiff at the lack of the funny. We switched on Shrek and watched it a bit–far better. And we asked ourselves during the commercial breaks (spammed with previews for the Kelsey Grammer Show), Dear God, why?
However, we didn’t watch it, so I can’t comment on it specifically.
Daniel
Thought it stunk worse than the Albert Finney version, which was pretty awful.
Personally, I thought that the 1984 George C. Scott version was about the best of the modern Christmas Carols. I’ve never seen the (supposedly) canonical 1930’s Alistair Sim version.
I turned it off after 1/2 hour. It’s being pulverized on musical theatre boards.
Thank God somebody finally made a remake of The Christmas Carol.
I watched part of it- it was ennh- forgettable music (though I loved Jesse Martin in RENT and he did what he could with the Ghost of Christmas Present stage show, a showstopper it wasn’t) and the parts I saw were just totally uninspired with nothing to recommend them over the other versions. Albert Finney’s musical version was many times better.
My favorite Christmas Carol retellings remain:
Scrooged (if only for Carol Kane’s insane Christmas Present)
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol- Baldrick recouting his problems with his Klyznoos [his spelling of Christmas] Pageant at the Workhouse are one of the funniest bits ever on TV
As far as straight retellings of the tale, Patrick Stewart’s version was one of the better ones. The worst I’ve seen was probably the western themed Scrooge as gunslinger version with Jack Palance or Cicely Tyson’s equally pointless Ebanita Scrooge
If it hadn’t been a musical, we would have watched. Curious to see if anyone did watch it and what they thought, though.
It was bloody awful, a repulsively cutesy production that squandered the talents of all involved. The absolute nadir was reached with the adorable song and dance of the ahppy specters accompanying the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come, followed by a poarade of children carrying candles and siging some sappy refrain. To quote Dotty Parker, “At this point, Tontstant Weader fwowed up.”
Jesse L. Martin as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Excuse me while I now go scrub my brain out with bleach.
It was revolting, repulsive, and repellent. I kept asking myself why I didn’t turn it off. I’m still not sure–maybe because I kept hoping it would get better. It didn’t.
FTR, I love Albert Finney’s Scrooge, and I enjoy many of the non-musical versions (George S. Scott, Patrick Stewart).
Ooh–and I almost forgot–what was up with the pole dance done by the nearly-naked Ghost of Christmas Past on the bannisters of Scrooge’s bed?
Personally, I loved it. Rather, I imagined that I could have loved it. Had it been played on the stage, with low-tech effects, and half of the songs cut, it would have been fantastic. If I’d seen Jason Alexander deliver the same performance onstage, I would think it was the best thing I’d ever seen. Conceptually, it was solid. And the voices were great. And there were a few songs that blew me away. OK, maybe two.
But it suffered from overproduction, overscoring, and overadorableness. I’m betting that the network had a heavy hand in sucking all the charm out of it and replacing it with schmaltz. They turned a potentially great production into an antiseptic movie of the week.
But I love being reminded that many of our favorite actors probably had their roots in amateur musical theatre, and can really truly sing.
A nearly naked Jane Krakowski will always have a welcome home on my TV screen.
I called my sister halfway through the Ghost of Poledancers Past number to ask “Is it just me, or does this totally suck?”
I’m so happy that the consensus is that it’s not me.
Jason Alexander did his best with the material, and was the one person involved who wasn’t hurt by his appearance, in my opinion. Kelsey Grammer’s makeup was awful - he looked like a terrier. And acted like one too – I like him, and couldn’t figure out why he was so bad when he should have been so good. Utterly unmemorable music - the one song I liked - the Bless Us, Every One, song, was ruined by the end through treacly staging. And the Ghost of X-mas Yet to Come was just …wrong, with the floaty ice-queen outfit. Also, I was frankly shocked that those were the best vocal performances they could get – several of the leads should have been replaced on that score alone - I could hear the singer straining for notes or barely hanging on several times. (Jen Love, I’m looking at you.) Meh.
However, I would happily watch a musical about dancing gravediggers in the future anytime, as long as it was a comedy. Dancing with spades and coffins is funny stuff.
Suffice it to say, this version did nothing to unseat my rankings of best Chrismas Carol adaptations, which are:
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
Scrooged
Patrick Stewart’s from a few years ago would be my pick for a straight adaptation.
It had Jason Alexander in it, so it was a sure bet that it was crap. Not only does he choose lousy projects, but he has a positive talent for making anything he appears in worse.
'Tweren’t bad, but if I were to never see it again, I would not miss it.
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
The best music version.
The best Magoo cartoon.
The best cartoon version.
One of the better TV versions.
I watched about a half hour and turned it. I can’t handle the musical thing. It was a bit much. Ick.
Amen, Brother!
I enjoyed most of it.
The few flaws in my view- the fact that Marley’s song “Link by Link” was KLEZMER (a miser song to Jewish Jazz! Great Henry Ford’s Ghost! ;j ), the overdone other chained ghosts, the changed Scrooge back-story with his father sent to debtor’s prison (part of Dickens’ own experience) rather than Eb himself sent off to boarding school, and the C’mas Present Toy-Soldier Rockettes.
Other than that, I liked the bulk of it. I’m quite happy they included “Ignorance and Want”, the scenes of C’mas cheer in dire places, and I thought the setting of all the Yet to Come scenes in the same cemetary was quite well-done (the Business associates, the Pawn Shop Ghouls, the Cratchit’s mourning, and Scrooge’s appropiately-restrained sight of his gravestone.)
Oh yeah, I thought the Cadaverous C’mas Yet to Come was SO MUCH BETTER than the Black-cloaked Reaper we always see. Also, the black C’mas Present was quite appropriately Jesus-y.
And Poledancer Past- Rrrroawwwr!