This production certainly poured its heart into bringing the cultural phenomenon to life with a stellar turn from Vanessa Hudgens as Maureen and the always fantastic Brandon Victor Dixon offering his Broadway chops as Collins, but, for most of the cast, it felt slightly underplayed - whether that was because it was a dress rehearsal or their acting choices remains unclear. Rent is a musical that doesn't lend itself easily to network television - the raw, visceral edges and more provocative storytelling require sanding down to air on primetime. It seems almost unfair to rank a production that was forced to throw its playbook out the window and primarily air recorded footage from the dress rehearsal due to an actor injury and no understudy.
A year where we could all use a little more joy, The Grinch lands squarely in the middle of the live musical pack purely because it made our hearts grow a few sizes that day. The sets, which evoked the black-and-white illustrations of Seuss' tale, were charming and quaint - and it's an enduring classic for a reason. If Morrison was tonally off in places, the Whos and Max (particularly the older version played by Denis O'Hare, who also narrated) were pure, engrossing whimsy. Matthew Morrison's take on the green meanie was odd, a huge swing that didn't always land. With a score drawn from a 2016 Broadway adaptation, this Grinch didn't offer anything particularly new in the storytelling, and its best songs remain the original tunes from the 1960s cartoon. But when COVID-19 shut down theaters for months on end, it was a true gift to see even a green glimmer of live theatrical production. For a time, it even seemed the networks were done with the live musical format.
At the time, it had been over a year since we last got a live TV musical when NBC brought us this holiday present - an adaptation of Dr.
0 kommentar(er)
