"A Christmas Story: LIVE!" What happened?

[mikey2573]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 2:20pm

"A Christmas Story LIVE" was possibly the least successful of the live musicals as far as ratings go.  It also did not get very good reviews from critics. 

Problem 1:  I think that fans of the movie were negative almost as soon as this title was announced.  I can recall TONS of negative posts on various FB pages, primarily from people who were incensed that someone might try to touch their beloved classic film.  Most of them were completely unaware that this was going to be a musical, which resulted in....

Problem 2:  Fox did not call this "A Christmas Story: The MUSICAL LIVE" and most of the ads for the show did not indicate that his was going to be a musical.  Those who grudgingly turned in to see Fox massacre their favorite movie were outraged to discover that this was going to be a MUSICAL version!  This just caused the hate to really pile on. 

As far as the ratings go, the show was up against a football game and a repeat of one of the most beloved movies of all time.  I can't recall if any of the other LIVE musicals were up against other popular "event" style shows. 

I thought that, once we got past the HIDEOUS opening number (WHY??) it was very much a straight-forward televised production of the Broadway musical.   Most of the musical numbers were there and were done very nicely.  My biggest issue with the broadcast was the length.  It really should have all been done in two hours, but something tells me that "Two Hours" does not read as "EVENT TV".  The Gasteyer number was fun, but really did not add anything substantial to the story; it just made the show longer.  Cutting the opening pop song and Gasteyer's number would have trimmed some of the length and the length was very problematic.  I thought the cast (even Matthew Broderick) were all very good.  Were they as good as the original creators of those roles on Broadway? NOPE! (If you don't believe me I encourage you to head on over to TOFT at Lincoln Center and watch their beautiful, broadcast quality video of the Broadway production. If only they could have just shown us THAT!).  But overall, it certainly wasn't the DEBACLE that "Peter Pan LIVE!" turned out to be (I actually stopped watching that one).  

Interested in hearing what others who delve into the world of theater thought of the broadcast.  Was it really sub-par in quality?  If so, what aspects of the show needed to be improved? 

[natashalost]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 2:24pm

I honestly have never seen the movie so I can't make any comparison in that area.

That being said, I got really bored throughout the show and basically forced myself to watch it. It felt lackluster and didn't wow me. 

I loved Jane Krakowski's performance. I watched for her and was thoroughly impressed! 

Overall, it was fine. I wouldn't watch it again though, IMO.

[chernjam]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 2:45pm

For me - the film is an all-time classic (I remember seeing it when it first came out in the theater) and is a part of my annual Christmas-season experience... so I'll say upfront, when they decided to make it a musical, I never was even remotely interested in it (and had never heard any of the songs or clips online).  The cast for this kind of got me curious - I like Jane and Gasteyer... so I dvr'd it.  So I went in skeptical but at least trying to be open minded.  Within 30 minutes I was done.  To me it was almost every worst cliché of musical theater being born out (I was thinking of "The Simpsons" musical spoof of "A streetcar named desire"  

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 4:44pm

The only standout of the entire telecast was Krakowski’s fantastic “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out” musical dance number. So much so, I still watch it on occasion:

https://youtu.be/plnzNgtvvJo

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 5:14pm

And if you search, there's an entire thread from the days it aired.

[bk]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 5:17pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "The only standout of the entire telecast was Krakowski’s fantastic “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out” musical dance number. So much so, I still watch it on occasion:

https://youtu.be/plnzNgtvvJo"

 

You mean the one "inspired" by this?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrsyp0FBBnI

 

[smallvillefan16]

Posted: 1/15/18 at 7:53pm

I love the film as well as the OBC recording.  I was very excited to hear that the musical version would be coming to Fox as I thought it was a fantastic combination.  The biggest problem was that they decided to make this a 3 hour program.  They should have figured out a way to condense the show down to 2 hours as the constant commercial breaks felt like they came every five minutes.  I loved the scene/song about Hanukah but it easily could have not been included. As people have mentioned, many had no idea this was a musical version of the movie.  They had 0 big name stars -- they had well-known actors, but none of them are as big as Carrie Underwood or Ariana Grande [Peter Pan suffered the same fate - horrendous casting.] The show also cast Maya, who cannot carry a tune and decided to weirdly speak-sing the role.  She would have been great as someone that doesn't sing.  Also, the technical issues were noticeable throughout the entire show.  I thought all of the kids were standouts, and I loved Ralphie but couldn't stop wondering what he always staring at off camera and what was the orange reflection in his glasses? Not to mention, the show started with an out-of-place lip-synced music video. I'm sure that alone made people switch the channel.  It just never came together the way it should have.  The sets, costumes, staging, camera work, etc all worked but it was the acting the extended book. 

[Fan123]

Posted: 1/16/18 at 2:18am

Just offering up a speculation here rather than any kind of authoritative answer, as I can only speak to my kneejerk reaction from watching a few of the song video clips. Maybe others also tuned briefly into and out of the broadcast because they felt the same way. My sense from those clips was that the production was too 'Broadway' for its own good. That might have been what chernjam meant above as well.

I enjoyed the original film and the musical's cast recording, but didn't find that the live musical clips I saw matched the characters I knew from the film very well. I had heard that 'You'll Shoot Your Eye Out' (not included on the cast recording) was a great number, but in the film Ralphie imagines his teacher as a wicked witch when she uses that line to dismiss his school writing assignment. A carbon copy of the film's moment isn't essential, but I can't see Ralphie imagining his teacher as a sexy tapdancer at that moment. It felt as though they prioritised getting some 'Broadway' glitz into the number, over being true to Ralphie's character. Similarly, the song 'A Major Award' is fun on the cast album, but in my head!production I'd imagined the neighbours dancing around with increasing gusto to celebrate the father's award, in accordance with the character's modest dreams. But again, who cares about the character when you can add another flashy 'Broadway' scene-and-costume change instead. Maybe I'm too tied to the original conception of the characters, but surely people who enjoyed the original film were a key part of the target audience for the musical.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/16/18 at 9:54am

My gripes with it were:

1. The whole show felt under-rehearsed. Lines were dropped, the dancing felt like it was marked, and the singing voices were all weak. Half the time, it sounded like they put backup vocal tracks under the live voices.

2. The songs, as usual with Pasek and Paul, are all fantastic, and some of their best work is in this show, but the songs felt awkwardly placed into the story. It always felt like the story stopped dead for the songs, and it never really felt like that in the stage version.

 

On the positive side:

1. I loved Ana Gasteyer's performance, and the song. "In the Market for A Miracle" deserves an Emmy nom.

2. I liked Matthew Broderick being in the scene as he narrated. It gave this beautiful nostalgia to the whole thing as he watched his memories unfold. His last monologue in the show (the one about how the gun was the best gift he'd ever gotten) always makes me choke up.

 

It's not the worst TV musical ever. Rocky Horror would be tough to beat for that spot. But this is probably one of the best source materials with one of the worst executions.

[bdn223]

Posted: 1/16/18 at 1:51pm

I think in terms of viewership that can be blamed on the lack of any "A-list" must watch talent attached. I love Jane, Ana, and Maya, but none of them are true stars, but are instead working character actors.

Jane who arguably was the shows biggest star's biggest role for mainstream audiences was Elaine on Ally McBeal that ended in 2002. Yes, her roles on 30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt are both critically lauded, but neither is show is a water-cooler top 10 sitcom The Office, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Modern Family. If anything 30 Rock can be marked as the beginning of the end of the cultural relevancy of the Emmy Awards. Neither Ana nor Maya have been able to do find much success outside of SNL. Yes they have continued to work steadily, but neither is a household name like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler or Will Ferrell.

Matthew Broderick the productions biggest draw hasn't had mainstream relevancy since the early 2000s when the Producers premiered. Now a days to most of the American public sees him as a "Where Are they Now" for Ferris Beuller or Mr. Sarah Jessica Parker. 

Add to that unlike the NBC Christmas Musicals there national media campaign build up, that starts with the Thanksgiving Day Parade and then has several nationally broadcast Today show performances. 

Then finally A Christmas Story has always been a cult hit, and not a mainstream success. Let alone the musical adaptation had only premiered 5 years prior, and yes had toured the country, but played on Broadway for less then 3 months. Its was never a ziegiest musical like Wicked, Phantom, Les Mis, Rent, Grease, The Book or Mormon, Or Hamilton, a long running bridge and tunnel musical like Hairspray, Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages, Mamma Mia, or Avenue Q, nor a classic that has been done to death in regional and high school theaters like Into the Woods, Suessical, Ragtime, La Cage, Evita, The Wiz, or Peter Pan. 

Overall, Fox, grossly overestimated the audience value of every piece of the production from the cast to the A Christmas Story itself. As such they didn't think they needed to put as much effort into the marketing and the production didn't find an audience. 

 

In terms of the production itself, as others have said it felt under rehearsed. You could tell that everyone kept dropping lines or didn't know which camera to look at. This wasn't in the oh "Its live, anything can happen" good way. It was more along the lines of "There's something off, but I can't put my finger on exactly what it is?" So it wasn't laughably bad alla Peter Pan, which is a lot better then just Ok. This was very apparent because the A Christmas Story relies heavily on sight gags, and eye rolls....and the timing on these was just off. One that stood out to me Randy's eating like a pig. This also seemed prevalent in the dance numbers especially with the kids, who would seem to be all looking at camera one, but it was camera 2 that was actually filming them.

Then there was the fact I think this is the first adaptation of a 2.5 hour plus musical that decided the characters and plot needed to be further fleshed out.... Normally when musicals are adapted into another medium they need to be condensed to the songs and scenes that are essential to the plot to maintain pacing. A character driven song, no matter how great it, even if its a showstopper in the original stage version, if it slows down the plot too much it will be cut. Examples include Mamma I'm A Big Girl Now, from Hairspray, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd, Happy New Year or Goodbye Love from Rent, Dog Eats Dog from Les Miz. For some reason the minds who be decided to flesh out a musical whose score is almost all character driven songs since the movie its adapted from is essentially just a series of vignettes during one Christmas season.  

I know everyone is praising the kids, but I honestly think most of them fell flat, as were just going through the motions. You can get away with "look at me I'm cute" on stage, but during a 3 hour television production it just got old fast, especially when they were looking into the wrong camera. I remember I kept thinking while watching this, "This doesn't bode well for Annie Live!" , which we all know is coming. 

 

Overall though I think Fox picked musical that had been perfectly adapted for the stage, and that was why it didn't work. There are certain musicals that are truly theatrically written musicals and cannot be successfully adapted to a different medium without radical reinterpretation. This mostly applies to smaller musicals that originated off Broadway with an inventive staging like Next to Normal, Fun Home, Hair (If you think the Hair Movie worked....there is an issue), The Great Comet, but this production made me add A Christmas Story into that category. 

 

 

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/16/18 at 2:20pm

The dull as dishwater Matthew Broderick was cast in the show, for starters. 

Obviously he wasn't the only problem, but he's a big part of it.  He's developed into such a boring actor since The Producers.

[Observation]

Posted: 1/27/18 at 11:01pm

Hi! Forgive me for reviving this thread, but I had read Maya Rudolph had some significant flubs during the live broadcast. I tuned out about halfway through, can someone explain what happened and when in the show? It appears most reviews of the show mention the moment.

Thanks!

 

 

Updated On: 1/27/18 at 11:01 PM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/27/18 at 11:17pm

It felt a lot like most of the principal characters dropped a line at one point or another. Maya Rudolph just felt like she was marking. Her voice was incredibly low energy, and it sounded like she was just muddling through the material.

 

Not really related to anything like all, but one of my favorite pop culture factoids is that Maya Rudolph is married to Paul Thomas Anderson. One of the greatest living directors is married to the woman who chooses projects like Grown Ups, The Emoji Movie, and Christmas Story Live.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/28/18 at 1:56pm

And she’s the daughter of the legendary recording artist Minnie Ripperton.

[Observation]

Posted: 1/28/18 at 2:02pm

I guess the reviews I read noted one particular instance where Chris Diamantopoulos had to cover for her?

Any insight? I am a geek when it comes to stage mishaps/bloopers so I want to find it, but I don't want to watch the whole broadcast.  

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/28/18 at 2:38pm

I guess the reviews I read noted one particular instance where Chris Diamantopoulos had to cover for her?

She missed an entrance cue so he put on the prop apron and sang the entire first verse of her number before the camera switched over to her with her hair disheveled and her mic showing and she singing mid-sentence. 

[Observation]

Posted: 1/28/18 at 3:28pm

Oh wow! What song was that. I definitely want to watch!