oznickolaus

A fan of the original 1995 Madison Square Garden production of this musical. I was disgusted by the horrible TV production I watched of it last night. If it weren't for the surprise of several of my favorite musical theatre performers showing up in the "lump of coal", I would have turned it off!

Lynn Ahrens, the lyricist of the show, should be ashamed of the way she has bastardized this teleplay of her own musical, not to mention Dickens's original novel. The TV movie moves so fast through the wonderful score, that one hardly has a clue of what they just saw and heard!

Kelsey Grammar is awful as Scrooge. I didn't believe his character for one second. The man should stick to sitcoms, and leave the acting to people who know what they are doing. And for someone who has a musical theatre background, can someone explain what he chose to speak the majority of his songs, rather that actually SING them???? Awful, simply awful!

If it weren't for the likes of Claire Moore (Sarah Brightman's far superior replacement in the original London "Phantom of the Opera") as Mrs. Fezziwig, Ruthie Henshall (From the London cast of "Chicago", "Crazy For You" and "Miss Saigon") as Scrooge's ill-fated mother, Linzi Hateley (the actress who has the unfortunate honor of playing the title character in the worse Broadway musical ever made, "Carrie: the Musical) as Mrs. Cratchit, and "Ally Mcbeal's" Jane Krakowski as The Ghost of Christmas Past (although her stripper routine on Scrooge's bed was more that unnecessary!) I would have turned this film off after the first number. Even the likes of Jason Alexander, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jesse L. Martin and Geraldine Chaplin have no clue as to what they are doing in this film. It's such a shame.

Please don't judge this musical on the TV film. I really recommend buying the Original Broadway cast album and discovering what this musical should REALLY be like!!!!