By Alaina McCarvill – Staff Reporter

“The Grinch Musical!” offered holiday entertainment thanks to NBC’s 2020 adaptation of the 2007 stage production. Starring Tony Award nominee Matthew Morrison as the lead, “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical” aired Wednesday, December 9, at 8 p.m. Joining Morrison on stage were Tony Award-winner Denis O’Hare playing Old Max, the Grinch’s loving canine companion, as well as Booboo Stewart (“Descendants 3”) as Young Max. Newcomer Amelia Minto (soon to be seen in “The Lost Girls”) played Whoville’s favorite child, Cindy-Lou Who, and the musical featured popular songs like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and “Welcome Christmas.” Julia Knowles directed the event, working off staging by Max Webster, while Simon Nye adapted the script and Peter Bingemann served as set designer. 

Staged at the Troubadour Theater in London, the presentation was playful, colorful and visually inventive, from the storybook backgrounds to having Morrison’s Grinch break the fourth wall early on, demonstrating his cruelty by insulting the home audience’s ugly couches. The songs have been described as unmemorable, other than the few cribbed from the original animated classic. And even with a whole lot of commercials padding out the two hours, the show felt bloated and flat, with a scant sense of the magic in all the fluff employed to flesh out the Grinch’s journey. It felt that the plot was expected to be assumed without context by viewers. The classic story was taken and just expanded with extra songs. 

The show, of course, felt aimed heavily at the younger part of a family audience, with the hope that parents would be happy to share a theatrical-style experience with them, especially now.

Morrison clearly threw his all into vamping things up, but the performance seemed a bit forced and veered too far from the live action movie. Amelia Minto, the tyke cast as Cindy-Lou Who, also exhibited a fine voice.

Although the show was not well received, the cast was very talented and the costumes were perfect for the show. In any sense this performance could have still entertained a younger audience and possibly convince young people to be further immersed into the arts. It is difficult to recreate a classic and it was not a complete flop, but the portrayal was disappointing for fans of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars