FOX's "A Christmas Story: Live!"
After FOX's live televised production of Grease, I simply assumed that their production of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's musical version of A Christmas Story would be fantastic. Boy, was I wrong! I was so excited to watch this program from the comfort of my own home, but FOX's A Christmas Story: Live! was perhaps one of the most boring, uninspired things that I have watched all year. I had such high hopes for this Christmas special and it was highly disappointing. Compared to the rest of the musicals that have been broadcasted live, especially Grease and Hairspray, A Christmas Story: Live! was so lifeless and dull.
My first issue with the show came as soon as it began. When it started, I went to the bathroom thinking it was a commercial for Old Navy, Target, or one of those stores. It wasn't until I returned from the bathroom and saw the opening credits rolling, that I realized that the very commercial like song, "Count on Christmas", was the opening number. In addition to be a bad, generic pop song (sung by Bebe Rexha), it didn't fit in with the rest of the show, which is supposed to take place in the 1940s. The opening number for FOX's Grease: Live! was great because it was fun and captured the spirit of the show and the type of production it was, in addition to fitting the show's time period. "Count on Christmas" did none of those things and is not on it's way to becoming a classic Christmas song.
After that commercial of a song, the real show actually began. During the opening number, "It All Comes Down to Christmas", I was not sure whether I liked the show or not. The very first thing that I noticed was the camerawork. Throughout the entire broadcast, the camera was moving so much that I thought I was going to get motion sickness. When we hit the first commercial break, I really wasn't sure I felt about the show thus far. But, as it went on I certainly developed a negative opinion and I spent a lot of the telecast contemplating changing the channel to The Sound of Music on ABC.
I am the type of person who doesn't mind remakes (although this isn't considered to be a remake) and I can respect any changes made from adaptation to adaptation. However, when adapting such well known material, you have to be sure to nail the more iconic parts of the story. That being said, this version of A Christmas Story did not do any of the iconic parts well. The leg lamp, "Oh, Fudge", and the famous "tongue on the pole" scenes all felt glossed over and were missing something. There was no spark of hilarity or charm to these moments. I laughed maybe three times throughout the three hour event, which was supposed to be a musical comedy. Some people are upset about the changes that were made to the final restaurant scene. I however, am not upset about that change because it is 2017 and I would rather not offend people by making fun of their accents, even if it does make us laugh. Although it was funny in 1983 and yes, it is still funny now. No, you aren't a terrible person for laughing at it in the original movie but it shouldn't be a controversial change, considering the times we live in. In fact, I expected a similar change going into this live event. Also, none of the show was funny so why were we expecting that scene to be funny?
Overall, the teleplay (by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins) was the show's biggest weakness. The script is a lot of the reason that the event was so uninteresting and it didn't do any favors to Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's mediocre music. None of the songs were memorable and the script failed to capture any of the original movie. It's not even that the written material was HORRIBLE, what made it so excruciating is how uninteresting the entire thing was. I love musical theatre, but there was no reason for A Christmas Story to be turned into a musical. The jokes and scenes flow better without songs and the story is much better off without them. However, I would like to see it done onstage to see if my feelings about that change.
The cast was alright. Nobody in the cast was without talent, but everybody just did a serviceable job. The cast was very diverse which was wonderful to see. I didn't care much for Matthew Broderick as the older version of Ralphie. There was no energy behind any of his line readings and although he was on screen for pretty much the entire show, he had no presence and at times was just creepy. The only member of the cast I truly enjoyed was Jane Krakowski as Ralphie's teacher Miss Sheilds. Krakowski was the best part of the entire show and the show picked up whenever she was on screen. In fact, Krakowski should have been cast as Ralphie's mother, rather than Maya Rudolph. Rudolph was fine as the mother of the Parker family, but Krakowski did better in her very small role than most of the cast did the entire thing. Newcomer, Andy Walken, was cute as Ralphie, and fit the part very well. I also liked Ana Gasteyer as the mother of Schwartz, who is one of Ralphie's friends. Gasteyer's big moment was a musical number about Hanukah.
When the ratings for this broadcast came out, it had the lowest ratings of all of the televised musicals from both NBC and FOX combined. I (and I am sure FOX felt this as well), thought that the title alone would draw people in. But, one of the biggest missteps is that there was nothing exciting about the production. Although, the cast did have it's fair share of celebrities, I just can't imagine that it was enough to keep people engaged in this snoozer of an event. I just keep imagining the people at home channel surfing and keeping this on for ten minutes until they decide they could find something more interesting on another channel. It also didn't help that there was Sunday night football and the aforementioned movie version of The Sound of Music playing at the same time.
When put up against the other televised musicals, A Christmas Story truly falls flat. It lacked the spectacle of Grease: Live, the energy of Hairspray: Live! & The Wiz: Live, and the charm of The Sound of Music: Live (I know, I'm the only one who liked it). I have higher hopes for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar: Live and FOX's Rent: Live. Right now, I think it's best that we just try forget A Christmas Story: Live. It really did try, but it did not succeed. I really did have high hopes for this broadcast, which made it all the more disappointing. If you missed the original broadcast, I would say only watch it if you are really that interested in it. If you aren't, then just wait until TBS shows the original movie on a loop for 24 hours on December 24 & 25.
A CHRISTMAS STORY: LIVE! was directed by Scott Ellis and Alex Rudinzki and aired on December 17 on FOX. The cast consisted of:
Adult Ralphie/Narrator- MATTHEW BRODERICK
Ralphie Parker- ANDY WALKEN
Mother- MAYA RUDOLPH
The Old Man- CHRIS DIMANTOPOULOUS
Randy Parker- TYLER WLADIS
Miss Sheilds- JANE KRAKOWSKI
Schwartz- SAMMY RAMIREZ
Flick- JJ BATTEAST
Scut Farkus- JJ BATTEAST
Mrs. Schwartz- ANA GASTEYER
Tree Salesman/Restaurant Owner- KEN JEONG
Mall Santa- DAVID ALAN GREIR
Mall Elf- FRED ARMISEN
My first issue with the show came as soon as it began. When it started, I went to the bathroom thinking it was a commercial for Old Navy, Target, or one of those stores. It wasn't until I returned from the bathroom and saw the opening credits rolling, that I realized that the very commercial like song, "Count on Christmas", was the opening number. In addition to be a bad, generic pop song (sung by Bebe Rexha), it didn't fit in with the rest of the show, which is supposed to take place in the 1940s. The opening number for FOX's Grease: Live! was great because it was fun and captured the spirit of the show and the type of production it was, in addition to fitting the show's time period. "Count on Christmas" did none of those things and is not on it's way to becoming a classic Christmas song.
After that commercial of a song, the real show actually began. During the opening number, "It All Comes Down to Christmas", I was not sure whether I liked the show or not. The very first thing that I noticed was the camerawork. Throughout the entire broadcast, the camera was moving so much that I thought I was going to get motion sickness. When we hit the first commercial break, I really wasn't sure I felt about the show thus far. But, as it went on I certainly developed a negative opinion and I spent a lot of the telecast contemplating changing the channel to The Sound of Music on ABC.
I am the type of person who doesn't mind remakes (although this isn't considered to be a remake) and I can respect any changes made from adaptation to adaptation. However, when adapting such well known material, you have to be sure to nail the more iconic parts of the story. That being said, this version of A Christmas Story did not do any of the iconic parts well. The leg lamp, "Oh, Fudge", and the famous "tongue on the pole" scenes all felt glossed over and were missing something. There was no spark of hilarity or charm to these moments. I laughed maybe three times throughout the three hour event, which was supposed to be a musical comedy. Some people are upset about the changes that were made to the final restaurant scene. I however, am not upset about that change because it is 2017 and I would rather not offend people by making fun of their accents, even if it does make us laugh. Although it was funny in 1983 and yes, it is still funny now. No, you aren't a terrible person for laughing at it in the original movie but it shouldn't be a controversial change, considering the times we live in. In fact, I expected a similar change going into this live event. Also, none of the show was funny so why were we expecting that scene to be funny?
Overall, the teleplay (by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins) was the show's biggest weakness. The script is a lot of the reason that the event was so uninteresting and it didn't do any favors to Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's mediocre music. None of the songs were memorable and the script failed to capture any of the original movie. It's not even that the written material was HORRIBLE, what made it so excruciating is how uninteresting the entire thing was. I love musical theatre, but there was no reason for A Christmas Story to be turned into a musical. The jokes and scenes flow better without songs and the story is much better off without them. However, I would like to see it done onstage to see if my feelings about that change.
The cast was alright. Nobody in the cast was without talent, but everybody just did a serviceable job. The cast was very diverse which was wonderful to see. I didn't care much for Matthew Broderick as the older version of Ralphie. There was no energy behind any of his line readings and although he was on screen for pretty much the entire show, he had no presence and at times was just creepy. The only member of the cast I truly enjoyed was Jane Krakowski as Ralphie's teacher Miss Sheilds. Krakowski was the best part of the entire show and the show picked up whenever she was on screen. In fact, Krakowski should have been cast as Ralphie's mother, rather than Maya Rudolph. Rudolph was fine as the mother of the Parker family, but Krakowski did better in her very small role than most of the cast did the entire thing. Newcomer, Andy Walken, was cute as Ralphie, and fit the part very well. I also liked Ana Gasteyer as the mother of Schwartz, who is one of Ralphie's friends. Gasteyer's big moment was a musical number about Hanukah.
When the ratings for this broadcast came out, it had the lowest ratings of all of the televised musicals from both NBC and FOX combined. I (and I am sure FOX felt this as well), thought that the title alone would draw people in. But, one of the biggest missteps is that there was nothing exciting about the production. Although, the cast did have it's fair share of celebrities, I just can't imagine that it was enough to keep people engaged in this snoozer of an event. I just keep imagining the people at home channel surfing and keeping this on for ten minutes until they decide they could find something more interesting on another channel. It also didn't help that there was Sunday night football and the aforementioned movie version of The Sound of Music playing at the same time.
When put up against the other televised musicals, A Christmas Story truly falls flat. It lacked the spectacle of Grease: Live, the energy of Hairspray: Live! & The Wiz: Live, and the charm of The Sound of Music: Live (I know, I'm the only one who liked it). I have higher hopes for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar: Live and FOX's Rent: Live. Right now, I think it's best that we just try forget A Christmas Story: Live. It really did try, but it did not succeed. I really did have high hopes for this broadcast, which made it all the more disappointing. If you missed the original broadcast, I would say only watch it if you are really that interested in it. If you aren't, then just wait until TBS shows the original movie on a loop for 24 hours on December 24 & 25.
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A CHRISTMAS STORY: LIVE! was directed by Scott Ellis and Alex Rudinzki and aired on December 17 on FOX. The cast consisted of:
Adult Ralphie/Narrator- MATTHEW BRODERICK
Ralphie Parker- ANDY WALKEN
Mother- MAYA RUDOLPH
The Old Man- CHRIS DIMANTOPOULOUS
Randy Parker- TYLER WLADIS
Miss Sheilds- JANE KRAKOWSKI
Schwartz- SAMMY RAMIREZ
Flick- JJ BATTEAST
Scut Farkus- JJ BATTEAST
Mrs. Schwartz- ANA GASTEYER
Tree Salesman/Restaurant Owner- KEN JEONG
Mall Santa- DAVID ALAN GREIR
Mall Elf- FRED ARMISEN
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