In the month of December, it’s virtually impossible to turn on the TV and NOT see some sort of holiday-themed entertainment. And this year, in addition to sappy Hallmark Channel movies, treacly Lifetime movies and reruns of holiday classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas, FOX tried to add a new holiday viewing tradition to the list… and failed.
On Sunday night, the network aired A Christmas Story Live, the latest in the trend of bringing live theater to TV. This trend has had its successes (The Wiz, Hairspray), it’s also had some dismal failures (The Sound of Music and The Rocky Horror Show). Sunday night’s experiment featured a live staging of A Christmas Story: The Musical, a musical adaptation of the 1983 movie of the same name, which is probably airing or just about to air for the umpteenth time on some basic cable station.
The original musical, whose composer and lyricist, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, went on to Tony glory with Dear Evan Hansen, debuted in 2009 and has a brief Broadway run in 2012 before going on the road. The FOX adaptation starred, among others, Maya Rudolph, Jane Krakowski, Ana Gasteyer and Matthew Broderick. And, despite an all-star cast, the show was met with critical apathy, low ratings and scathing social media reactions.
Reviewers were unimpressed with the show, with USA Today noting, “Although the cast is quite appealing and the show well staged (with hardly a hiccup or blooper), it couldn’t liven up the flat material. A three-hour runtime made it a slog, and the musical was overstuffed with songs….Jokes were too far apart and never seemed to land.” The Washington Post said the show “had a too-gooey center and a phony sense of seasonal exuberance.”
The critic’s comments couldn’t hold a candle to fans’ tweets. In a time when we’re supposed to demonstrate kindness to our fellow man, these people let FOX and the show have it. So much for Christmas spirit.
#ChristmasStoryLive is making me want to shoot my own eye out.
— James Bennett (@JamesEBennett) December 18, 2017
I was looking forward to #ChristmasStoryLive but this horrible opening number has me wanting to change the channel before it even gets started. pic.twitter.com/uZA16SverK
— Jim Watson (@aujimw) December 18, 2017
I can verify Jean Shepherd is rolling in his grave right now. #ChristmasStoryLive
— Tyrus Raymond Cobb (@The_Ty_Cobb) December 18, 2017
The end was the best part, just glad it’s over. It should never be shown again and it should be burned, buried, and the hole filled in with a combination of acid and feces. #ChristmasStoryLive
— Jesterfaze (@Jesterfaze) December 18, 2017
And, to add even more coal to FOX’s stocking, the show’s ratings were pretty dismal, making it the least watched of the TV musicals. It did even worse than The Passion, which is really saying something.
I honestly forgot this was on. After checking out the reviews, it’s not high on my holiday watchlist, but I do love me some Maya Rudolph, Jane Krakowski and Ana Gasteyer (RIP, Suburgatory). I’m also a musical theater nerd, so I may have to check it out (as of this writing, some of the musical numbers are on Hulu). Even though this wasn’t a success, I’m still quite amenable for someone to bring Hamilton Live to the small screen. That’s what I want for Christmas.
Photos: FOX, Getty Images, WENN.com
Well glad I didn’t spend study time watching this. And it makes me happy that this won’t complete the EGOT for Pansek and Paul (who did not deserve the O from last year).
I kept seeing promos for this and was all “No. Nope. Don’t like it. Why are you doing this?? Leave my all-time favorite Christmas movie alone!!” I didn’t even take a peek out of curiosity. I’m just going to pretend it never happened, which seems to be the concensus.
This exactly.
Christmas story plays for 24 hours. Or it did. My family would put it on and leave it there 8pm Christmas eve to 8pm Christmas day. No complaints. No channel arguing. And we rarely even entered the entertainment room.
“No. Nope. Don’t like it. Why are you doing this??“
Heh. When one spends most of the year groaning that to most of Hollywood’s offerings, that’s yet another sign the industry needs major change/mass firings.
RIP Suburgatory, indeed. I loved that show so much. Ana killed every scene she was in – the whole cast was just amazing. I honestly still exclaim “I’m adopted!? I’m ADOPTED!? I’M ADOPTED?” from time to time.
I didn’t watch this – but I had most people on facebook saying it was awful. Except one girl who I’m not a huge fan of who was going on about how it was so amazing and just what she was looking for.
I’m a musical theater nerd too, but I wanted this to just be a live version of the movie, not the musical…I might have liked it, but this was hard to take and I too love Maya and Jane and Matthew.
I love Jane!
I turned this on for 3 minutes, long enough to catch the musical number about the leg lamp and then back to see Matthew Broderick monologuing about why he (grown up Ralphie) had snapped and beat up Scott farkus. Then I couldn’t take anymore. I love the movie but that was awful.
How was The Sound of Music a failure? It was the highest rated one and started the trend of live musicals. I had no interest because the movie is so ingrained in me and it wasn’t a originally a musical. I think that put some people off. Also I don’t think there was much promotion. I didn’t hear about it until a week ago.
I think they call it a failure/didn’t live up to the hype because Carrie Underwood was lacking in her acting skills,albeit still sung very well.
It didn’t become an rerun holiday tradition, either—a sure sign the network relegated it to showings the day after Xmas…or the $5 DVD bin.
Great cast, but I refused to watch on principle. Same with the live-action Grinch. When you mess with perfection, you just end up with abomination.
When I saw the commercials for this, all I could think of was the Christmas show commercials from the movie “Scrooged”. I watched the 1983 movie on demand instead. Broke my own tradition of waiting for the Christmas Eve marathon.
Bwhahaha. “A Bayou Christmas With Robert Goulet.” (Exiting, pursued by a crocodile…)
I’d rather watch the programs advertised in the movie, “Scrooged”. “The Night the Reindeer Died” looks amazing!
Absolutely. And if it starred Idris Elba, all the better…:)
I meant to watch this. I forgot to watch this. I guess I am glad I didn’t watch this.
I’m am the target audience for this. Love musicals, love all the adult members of the cast and I still couldn’t sit throughly this. It was awful!!!
We watched. We loved it. Upbeat fun with excellent performances and staging. The choice of this musical was both nostalgic and not nostalgic, which automatically intrigued me.
A lot of me thinks the critics just wanted to work in “Musical puts its eye out”.
I liked it. It really made a difference if you did not see the musical, I think. I am sure everyone has seen the film and we’re disappointed.
But I will say this, Chris was the weak link for me. No one, even on Broadway was going to compare to McGavin and do well.
Totally off the wall question but why are Jane Krakowski’s legs 8 shades darker than her face, neck, hands and even toes?
I know!! She needs to find a new spray tan place….
Noticed this too
I have a dry sense of humor and this movie kills me every time-I love when the mom breaks the leg lamp and the dad says she broke it because she was jealous 😂Or when the box comes to him in the mail and he reads fragile as “frageelay”
I had no idea this was on. But since I suffered through NBC’s awful Peter Pan a few years back, I figure I’ve more than paid my dues.
I watched it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were a lot of kids in this cast and I thought they all did a great job. I liked the camera work too.
We watched the first hour or so, then had to switch. I thought Maya Rudolph was not suited for the role – not much of a singer for sure. The kids were cute though!
Maya is actually a really strong singer. Her old SNL sketches show that. Sunday night is the most subdued I have ever heard her sing; perhaps she thought that was better for the character.
Tried watching it and it was terrible. Not to sound like a crotchety asshole, but no one sings anymore, they just yell the lyrics — sometimes on key. Ralphie shot my eardrums out!
I didn’t know anything about it and have never seen the movie in it’s entirety, just clips of it. But I did see the stage musical Friday evening and I really enjoyed it!