A Christmas Story goes LIVE... — Page 4

Maya Rudolf was miscast. She had the prettiest songs in the show, but couldn't sing them.

The kid playing Ralphie was mediocre and most of his songs were out of his vocal range (at the low end). He softened seemed visually focused on someone or something offstage...? (as were quite a few actors)

Adding the Hanukkah elements was really forced and stereotyped. And the sterotyping was inconsistently handled in the show.

Worst example of the weird handling of stereotyping: They removed the "Fa-rah-rah-rah-rah-rah"s sung by the Chinese waiters (present in the movie), added lines to make a deliberate joke of it, (The Old Man: This is not what I expected. Chinese waiter (angrily): What were you expecting?) but a minute or two later, placed the Schwartz family at the restaurant, representing the stereotype of how Jews celebrate Christmas (Mrs. Schwartz: We come every Christmas! We're going to the movies after!) And why did Ralphie's family have a menorah on their fireplace mantle? I wonder if the changes regarding the Chinese waiters was at the insistence of Ken Jeong?

The pre-recorded vocals were far too obvious, and the choreography was pretty bland throughout. Camerawork was HORRIBLE! Also WAAAAAAAAAY too many commercials, although some of them were more entertaining than the show.

This certainly was a racially diverse cast. I found that bothersome, as it also seemed forced.

Technical mistakes everywhere including the horrible camerawork mentioned above, reflections of green, rectangular objects (prompters, perhaps?) in Ralphie's glasses, that REALLY bad costume change/transition in "Major Award", views of the backstage area while a wall in the schoolroom was moved (in frame), mic cutouts, technical direction bleeding through a mic, yadda, yadda, yadda.



The whole show seemed like a bad tech rehearsal. Props falling (Chris D. covered twice for those. First when that thing fell off the kitchen/basement door, and then when the Bumpus hounds didn't pull the tablecloth off the kitchen table). He also covered well when Maya Rudolf flubbed her line. I think the poor guy had just had enough, though when his glasses fell out of his overcoat pocket. They just laid there on the living room floor.

Updated On: 12/17/17 at 11:32 PM

MikeInTheDistrict said: "^I personally liked the revision of the Chinese caroler joke. I thought the Schwartz family being at the restaurant was fine. I mean, there’s nothing inherently demeaning or insulting about going to a Chinese restaurant and the movies on Christmas, whereas making fun of a person’s accent because the phonemes are interchangeable in their native language is insulting."

I completely agree with you, and I chuckled at the scene (I thought it was a clever, inside joke for those familiar with the movie), but then it was immediately followed by a stereotype of Jews. (The notion that Jews celebrate Christmas by going out for Chinese, and then to a movie is a common stereotype).

And that line in the new song for Mrs. Schwartz: "Jesus was a Jew!" ....it's kind of a button-pusher for some folks.

Why show sensitivity for only one example of stereotyping? That's why I wonder if Dr. Ken influenced that scene. Does anyone know if that change appeared in the Broadway version?

Updated On: 12/17/17 at 11:51 PM

(The notion that Jews celebrate Christmas by going out for Chinese, and then to a movie is a common stereotype).

But it's true.

Random thoughts:

Chris D gets an award for best covering of oops moments. He is quite the quick thinker. He also was a terrific performance. Which, unfortunately, highlighted the lesser performances from his "family".

I think the kid playing Ralphie was tired. I also think he was "thinking" too much. He was given a lot to do and I don't know how the last few rehearsals went, but seemed like he was struggling to remember blocking - which camera to look at - and lines - and so, Ralphie's character just didn't come all the way through.. The scene where he "beats up" Farkus was poorly staged and shot. It rang all too false.

Ana Gasteyer was a bright light - but, yes, the number was shoehorned in.

Maya Rudolph - a nice try.

Jane Krakowski - the other bright light. She was into her role.

Ken Jeong - he was a delight.

It seemed like they gave the kids ensemble a lot more to do - and they responded.

Matthew Broderick. Sigh. I don't know what's happened to him. But, to me, he couldn't convey the proper reflective tone. He only came alive at the very end for the very nicely sung part. But, for the rest of the show, he added little.

Camerawork - poor

Technical preparation - poor - which explains the poor camerawork. Not even close to Grease or The Sound of Music

Sets - really well done.

Ralphie to the Rescue - Ok, I understand why they didn't want to show a 9 year old running around with a gun threatening people - but the number made very little sense without the gun. And, after all, the show is all about the gun. If Fox was going to have qualms about gun violence, then they should just not have done A Christmas Story.

It wasn't the worst of the "live" musicals. I never was able to watch all of Peter Pan. A Christmas Story had its moments - but it's hard to believe that one of the best live musicals still is Cinderella from the 1950s.

A single Chinese waiter sings "Deck the Halls" in the stage version and it was done on Broadway.

Interesting story about that. When A CHRISTMAS STORY first premiered at Kansas City Rep. it had a score by Scott Davenport Richards. There are clips of this on YouTube. Apparently, Richards did not like the Chinese waiter singing "Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra" and insisted that it be taken out. The creators refused. So, RIchards left the show and took his music with him.

In came Pasek and Paul ......

ggersten said: "Random thoughts:

Chris D gets an award for best covering of oops moments. He is quite the quick thinker. He also was a terrific performance. Which, unfortunately, highlighted the lesser performances from his "family".

I think the kid playing Ralphie was tired. I also think he was "thinking" too much. He was given a lot to do and I don't know how the last few rehearsals went, but seemed like he was struggling to remember blocking - which camera to look at - and lines - and so, Ralphie's character just didn't come all the way through.. The scene where he "beats up" Farkus was poorly staged and shot. It rang all too false.

Ana Gasteyer was a bright light - but, yes, the number was shoehorned in.

Maya Rudolph - a nice try.

Jane Krakowski - the other bright light. She was into her role.

Ken Jeong - he was a delight.

It seemed like they gave the kids ensemble a lot more to do - and they responded.

Matthew Broderick. Sigh. I don't know what's happened to him. But, to me, he couldn't convey the proper reflective tone. He only came alive at the very end for the very nicely sung part. But, for the rest of the show, he added little.

Camerawork - poor

Technical preparation - poor - which explains the poor camerawork. Not even close to Grease or The Sound of Music

Sets - really well done.

Ralphie to the Rescue - Ok, I understand why they didn't want to show a 9 year old running around with a gun threatening people - but the number made very little sense without the gun. And, after all, the show is all about the gun. If Fox was going to have qualms about gun violence, then they should just not have done A Christmas Story.

It wasn't the worst of the "live" musicals. I never was able to watch all of Peter Pan. A Christmas Story had its moments - but it's hard to believe that one of the best live musicals still is Cinderella from the 1950s."



I don't think anyone was confused by the blocking - they have literally been rehearsing five to six days a week since October - I believe ten to twelve weeks of constant rehearsal.

I watched two scenes - the opening number (well, most of it), and the buying of the tree scene. I thought that the tree scene was painfully unfunny (and it looked as though everyone was lip syncing their lines), but I admit that I've been bored with Jeong's monotonous schtick since halfway through The Hangover. The scene played as if the writers thought "This scene is so great in the movie! Let's make it three times as long and add a bunch of jokes old enough to collect Social Security!"

Left the opening number before completion because the entire affair felt forced, fake, bovinely sluggish, and ham-handed (but returned for the tree scene to see if a second chance would yield rewards. It didn't.)

Updated On: 12/18/17 at 09:19 AM

MikeInTheDistrict said: "^I personally liked the revision of the Chinese caroler joke. I thought the Schwartz family being at the restaurant was fine. I mean, there’s nothing inherently demeaning or insulting about going to a Chinese restaurant and the movies on Christmas, whereas making fun of a person’s accent because the phonemes are interchangeable in their native language is insulting."

I agree with this. I'm Jewish and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. I'm not even remotely offended by the jokes about Jews going out for Chinese food and to movies on Christmas Eve. We often do and why shouldn't we (and nothing else is open). Though I think the joke is so overused, I'm not offended. Wasn't offended by SNL's "Christmas for the Jews" cartoon - I thought it was hilarious.

Making fun of an Asian person's accent or speech pattern, though, is far more offensive - like skin color, that is not within their control. It isn't a choice. I think therein lies the difference.

My take on the production overall, sadly, was meh. I was so hoping for better. I had never seen the Broadway production and had not listened to the score. While I realize they were so young when they wrote it and were also constrained by the subject matter (needed to be more family friendly music) I was hoping for better songs from P&P because I adore the DEH score. Maybe it's just me, but I could actually hear a different maturity level in the Hanukkah song that was written for Ana (melodically etc) - either way, they've come very far. Almost heard the beginnings of "So big, so small" in Maya's song about moments (haven't bothered to google the title).

Tag said: "(The notion that Jews celebrate Christmas by going out for Chinese, and then to a movie is a common stereotype).

But it's true."

It's true, and not the least bit offensive. Jews and Chinese food should be a part of Grease's "We Go Together" -- especially at Christmas time. However: it's not how Jewish people CELEBRATE Christmas - as we don't celebrate it all. It's called getting out of the house.

CHRIS D is soooo hot ... he should do more BROADWAY!

IdinaBellFoster said: "I can't imagine being bothered by a racially diverse cast. Disgusting."

Agreed. I think it's strange that people use "politically correct" as a critique, as if removing racially insensitive jokes and casting an array of people who actually represent what America looks like is politically motivated and not, simply, the right thing to do.

Unnecessary.... I'd never though I'd say this but it made realize how very good the original film is even though I'm not sure I could watch it again. The songs were terrible and trite. Can't blame the cast for this.