A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MUSICAL
(2004 -
TV) (Hungary -
U.S.)With Kelsey Grammer, Jason Alexander, Jane Krakowski, Jesse L. Martin, Geraldine Chaplin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Steven Miller, Edward Gower, Julian Ovenden
Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman
Reviewed by JB
A Christmas operetta that had its origins on the stage, this Hallmark
television production may not top the more famous musical version of
1970 starring Albert Finney, but it is a cordial, family-friendly bit
of Christmas cheer that does reasonable justice to the Dickens classic.
With its mix of movie
stars, stage
stars and TV favorites, A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MUSICAL is
certainly interestingly cast. Actor, singer and hoofer Jesse
L.
Martin (Law and Order)
is the
best of the
three spirits as a Ghost of Christmas Present, while Geraldine Chaplin
plays an
eerie "Snow Queen" variation of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to
Be.
Jane Krakowski is perhaps too pretty and revealingly clad to be
completely believable as the Ghost of Christmas Past, not a problem for
the equally picturesque Jennifer Love
Hewitt (Party of Five,
The Ghost
Whisperer), who is just "love"-ly in the always thankless
role
of Scrooge's lost
love (here known as Emily). The strangest casting of all is
Jason
Alexander (Seinfeld)
playing an offbeat Jacob Marley, looking for all the world like Danny
DeVito's Penguin from BATMAN RETURNS, in a Tim Burtonesque visitation
scene in which several other shackled ghosts make themselves at home at
the Scrooge manor. (The Ghost of Christmas Past scenes also
owe
more than a nod and a wink to Burton's distinctive visual
style.)
Kelsey Grammer does an adequate job as Ebenezer Scrooge, although, with his distinct comic mannerisms, honed from 20 years of playing the same classic character on two different television series, it takes almost an hour to shake the feeling that he is playing Dr. Crane in a very special episode of Frazier. The inherent problem in the role is a rough one to solve: how to play the meanest man in the world and later the nicest, and still make it feel like the same person. Of my favorite versions, Alistair Sim and Albert Finney manage this problem the best, while Reginald Owen does better as the mean Scrooge. Grammer, on the other hand, is merely a decent "miserly" Scrooge but a near-wonderful redeemed Scrooge, starting out nearly as giddy as Sim before toning it down to a more Reginald Owenish state of bliss.
The music, by Disney
and Broadway veteran
Alan Menkin, is pleasant enough, although much of it is in that curious
style
of recent musicals where the melodies and lyrics seem to have been
auto-composed by a computer programmed to produce extremely pleasing
and
inoffensive sounds that evaporate a moment after they are
heard.
Of the many songs presented here, only "Link by Link", "Mr. Fezziwig's
Annual Christmas Ball" and "God Bless Us, Everyone" really stand out,
although the best purely musical moment may the the three-part harmony
provided by Grammer, Hewitt and Steven Miller (as young Scrooge) in the
Disneyesque piece of fluff titled "There's a Place Called Home".
A CHRISTMAS
CAROL: THE MUSICAL
premiered on television in 2004. It may take many years for
it to
come into its own, as so many other Christmas films have before
it. But enjoy it now for what it is - yet another version of
one
of the most-often retold tales, starring a bunch of talented people you
probably already really like from other films and television
shows. That doesn't sound like a bad way to spend a couple of
hours during the Christmas season, does it? - 
½ - JB
http://thestuffyougottawatch.com
Copyright © 2008 John V. Brennan, John Larrabee