Thoroughly delightful and entertaining, this is the type of thing I want to see more often on TV. When else do you get a chance to see a real Broadway show, completely live, while relaxing on your sofa in your jammies?! People paid $200 to see this on Broadway, and you're getting it for free, with even better sets. Why quibble?
PROS: The show was packed with real Broadway stars, eachThoroughly delightful and entertaining, this is the type of thing I want to see more often on TV. When else do you get a chance to see a real Broadway show, completely live, while relaxing on your sofa in your jammies?! People paid $200 to see this on Broadway, and you're getting it for free, with even better sets. Why quibble?
PROS: The show was packed with real Broadway stars, each one more talented than the next. I must admit, at first I was skeptical, having been a big fan of the movie, but I recorded it to watch later, just in case. I turned it on at 11:00 pm after getting home from a Christmas party, expecting to watch it for a half-hour before going to bed. But I was enjoying it so much, I couldn't turn it off. Matthew Broderick was just perfect as the narrator (grown-up Ralphie). I figured I'd be disappointed by whoever played the father because no one could ever come close to Darren McGavin's performance in the original movie. But little by little, I found myself being won over by the performance of Chris Diamantopoulos as "The Old Man;" I was especially impressed by how smoothly and good-naturedly he handled a couple of minor flubs in the live production. And those minor flubs actually made the show even more fun to watch! And the same thing goes for the young actor who played little Ralphie. Who could ever compare to Peter Billingsley, I thought. I wound up being extremely impressed by young actor Andy Walken as Ralphie. He was so loveable, you just wanna hug that kid. I hope to see more from this talented young boy in the future. Maya Rudolph as the Mom, a tap-dancing Jane Krakowski as The Teacher, and Ana Gasteyer as Mrs. Schwartz: all marvelous! Oh, and the men, the men! A bunch of great surprises in the cast, expecially David Alan Grier (of "In Living Color" fame) as Mall Santa and Fred Armisen (of SNL/Portlandia) as the grouchy Mall Elf. And Ken Jeong ("The Hangover"), too... all so funny!
CONS: Now I will admit that if I had been sitting in an uncomfortable theatre seat for 2.5 hours, I might have wished that they had ever-so-slightly trimmed some of the group numbers with the kids' group, but maybe that's because it was 2:00 am before I was done watching the show. I still enjoyed every musical number, though. The kids were all great, especially the bully, so this is a minor MINOR point.
For those of us who loved the movie, there is no need to criticize the live production, because you can watch the movie anytime! That's like saying you didn't like the movie because the original book by Jean Shepherd was on PAPER, and the movie wasn't made of PAPER. This is just a DIFFERENT experience, with the same basic storyline – PLUS the addition of some enjoyable singing and dancing. It's all good! And the SETS! DId I mention the astonishing SETS?!? Just wonderful. I am very impressed by how they pulled this off. Kudos to whoever produced and directed this wonderful live event. You pulled off a miracle. Even the commercials were delightful.… Expand
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