Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical!’ On NBC, Where Matthew Morrison Plays The Christmas-Hating Green Guy

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! is just what the title describes: a musical version of Dr. Seuss’ classic book How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Matthew Morrison plays the Christmas-hating green dude with the heart three sizes too small, who is determined to ruin the Christmas of everyone in Whoville because he just can’t stand to see people happy.

DR. SEUSS’ THE GRINCH MUSICAL!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Instead of being live, as NBC has been doing in the past few years, The Grinch Musical was recorded at the Troubador Theatre in London, obviously under strict COVID protocols. The book and lyrics were written by Tim Mason with music by Mel Marvin. A number of additional songs were created for this new musical version, with dance numbers, self-referential dialogue and more.

Our narrator is an older version of Max (Denis O’Hare), the Grinch’s loyal but questioning dog; the young version of Max is played by Booboo Stewart, who tries his best to keep his boss from hatching his plan to steal every bit of Christmas cheer from Whoville. We see Max with the Whos, from little Cindy Lou (Amelia Minto) to Mama and Papa Who (Amy Ellen Richardson, Ako Mitchell) and Grandma and Grandpa Who (Claire Machin, Gary Wilmot), as the Grinch scouts out a Whoville department store, disguised in a huge green cowboy hat. And there are also other scenes of the Whos getting ready for their most festive day.

But the Grinch goes through with his plan (to to the tune of “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” of course), despite being caught in the act by Cindy Lou. But when he hears the Whos celebrating the holiday even though everything’s been stolen, his heart grows three sizes that day.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Aside from all the other versions of The Grinch, of course, it’s reminiscent of NBC’s other musical specials over the past few years, like The Sound Of Music, Peter Pan, Hairspray and The Wiz.

Performance Worth Watching: O’Hare as Old Max has the most credible performance, one of the few that isn’t hammy or kitschy. But Morrison as the Grinch is also worth watching, if only because the Glee star managed to sex up the furry green grump in a way that made us more than a little uncomfortable.

Memorable Dialogue: In one of a number of fourth-wall-breaking interludes, the Grinch ends one of his numbers by taking lots of bows, interrupting Max’s narration. When some Whos finally drag him off, he goes, “This is my Emmy nomination!”

Sex and Skin: Morrison’s gyrations count here, though we looked away from a lot of them.

Our Take: It would be easy for us to lay waste to Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical!; it’s just not a very good show. But before we go into what exactly went wrong here, let’s take a moment to laud everyone involved for mounting this production under such restrictive and trying circumstances and giving audiences a new holiday special to talk about on Twitter, even if it’s mostly tweets joking that their Christmases are ruined.

Of the various iterations of The Grinch, the original Chuck Jones-directed animated special from 1966 works the best, because it tells the story in a concise 30 minutes, music included. Jones captured Seuss’ artistic style perfectly. And the added songs enhanced what Seuss wrote in his original book. After a live-action film with Jim Carrey and an animated film with Benedict Cumberbatch, what more was there to add to the story? Nothing, which is why the musical numbers that padded the special out two two hours (about 85 minutes after the voluminous commercials) were neither memorable nor very sensical. They certainly weren’t Seussical.

One long section had Old Max talk about his life and how he came to be owned by The Grinch. Others had that bit where the Grinch, putting on a southern accent to pretend to be from “Whouston, Who S A”, and the Whos singing about missing everything the Grinch stole. None of it added to the show’s story and actually slowed it down. The staging of those larger musical numbers was a tad clumsy, as was the camera blocking, which was strange since the special wasn’t live.

But Morrison’s choices as The Grinch made us wonder what he and director Max Webster were going for. The gyrating, the makeup that made the Grinch look too handsome and too strange at the same time, the growls, the line readings that sounded like he was in a musical called “The Grinch Goes To Moulin Rouge”… All of it added to a forced campiness that just didn’t work. Carrey and Cumberbatch proved that the Grinch can go beyond Seuss’ words, but whenever Morrison (or any of the other cast, for that matter) went into lazy couplets that were supposed to sound like Seuss, they felt like they were entering a different, less interesting show.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Queue up the original 1966 Grinch special, or even one of the two movies before even considering Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! You’ll never see the Grinch the same way after watching this mess.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical! On NBC.com