As a five-year-old, watching the 2000 classic “How the Grinch stole Christmas” for the first time was a scary experience for me, obviously because of all the creepy make-up, slinking about like a burglar, and grimacey facial expressions that Jim Carrey pulled. As a twenty-year-old, watching this new live-action musical adaptation by NBC is still a scary experience, albeit due to entirely different and all the wrong reasons.
“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical” (2020) was filmed entirely onstage in London during the pandemic, and then broadcast as a TV special. It follows the Grinch, the Whos of Whoville, and a talking version of the Grinch’s dog Max. Or rather two versions of Max—one as a young puppy, and the other as a full grown dog, with the full grown Max acting as the narrator.
Despite some minor changes to the original source, the writing of this adaptation sadly felt lacking in depth. The additional scenes act as filler, and most of the creative liberties taken here are unnecessary; it would have honestly been better if the writers had stayed true to the source material, since none of these creative liberties—not even giving grandma and grandpa Who more screen-time—hardly add anything to the plot. It just makes the whole adaptation feel tedious, and I felt like I was languishing in the seventh circle of Hell by the end of it. There’s just too much yet too little going on here.
With regards to the acting, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think poor Matthew Morrison deserves all the online hate he received for this, because after all, like any actor he was just doing his take on the Grinch. But unfortunately, yes indeed, his take on the Grinch feels too all over the place for my liking. It’s partly thanks to that atrocious writing that I mentioned earlier.
Amelie Minto, Booboo Stewart, and Matthew Morrison in “Dr. Suess’ Grinch the Musical (David Cotter/NBC).
Jim Carrey’s beloved take on the Grinch made me realize that despite how grouchy, depressed, and anti-social he was, ultimately he is very endearing and just trying to fit into society; and as Christine Baranski’s Martha May put it—he’s even hella charming!
Morrison’s Grinch made me realize that I was just looking at an extremely green, unfunny, furry version of a serial killer. This Grinch is overtly sexual in the worst possible way in the first half, and it made my skin crawl every time he addressed the audience directly. It felt less Grinch and more, ahem, Shane Dawson! I stopped having nightmares about Jim Carrey’s Grinch after getting accustomed to watching the movie each time it aired on Cable TV during Christmas, and what I’ve seen of the animated versions do not keep me up at all. But I feel like Morrison’s Grinch will keep me up till I’m old and withered. Every time his Grinch lurked about like a possible sex offender, the thoughts in my head ranged from, “I’m gonna call the cops on this guy!” to “Keep it in your pants, Mr. Grinch, yikes!” to “You’re a horny and seriously depraved one, Mr. Grinch” (ok, I’ll stop now).
In the second half, Morrison even does a try-hard, but unlikeable impression of the Jim Carrey version, and I felt that this role was just not a good fit for him. The writing, also, only enables him to explore the mean side of the Grinch; and after a while, all his complaining and being mad at poor Max for no reason got on my nerves. There’s really no character growth to this Mr. Grinch.
Also knowing that Matthew Morrison took inspiration from Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker makes his take even more unnerving to sit through. Yes, you heard that right… The ever maniacal Joker. I know the Grinch and the Joker both don’t have a way with people, but I think that’s the only common thread I could find between them, so I’ve no clue what Morrison was going on about!
A still from the set of “Dr Suess’ the Grinch Musical” (David Cotter/NBC).
The actors playing the Whos act like they’re still at rehearsal and the characters themselves are all just copies of each other—and they’re all annoying too, so I guess I now know why the Grinch hates on them! I wish they had more personality to them like The Whos from the 2000 adaptation who were less threadbare and more likable. I liked getting to know all of them—from Cindy Lou’s caring parents to the despicable mayor of Whoville to even the scintillating Martha May Whovier.
What won me over further in the 2000 classic was the Grinch and Cindy Lou’s cute camaraderie—which was enough to make one’s heart grow three sizes unexpectedly. Knowing that Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen got along extremely well on-set might have added to their chemistry on-screen, which is missing in this onstage version. Even the emotional moments here are bereft of all the feels.
What I found even more frustrating to sit through was the fact that the song and dance sequences drag on for far too long—and again, they act only as migraine-inducing filler rather than adding anything to the already exhausting proceedings. They also feature the most repetitive, shallow lyrics that are reminiscent of all of Justin Bieber’s songs. We have a whole introductory opening number on simply how the Whos really really love Christmas which could have been shortened. There’s also two whole numbers on why the Grinch hates Christmas, when just the one was more than enough and two just makes the Grinch seem like a total Karen.
The sets could have been the saving grace, but sadly, due to either Covid restrictions or budgetary constraints or a mix of both, the sets are pretty to look at but pretty generic at the same time, and I just didn’t feel the Christmas spirit surging through me.
Francesca Mills, Dennis O’Hare, and Joe Allen in the “Grinch” production (David Cotter/NBC).
The humour is low brow and amateur at best. I’d have preferred if they’d instead opted for some dry wit since it suits the Grinch much better, but I liked grown-up Max’s occasional sarcasm (Dennis O’Hare also seems to have given this role his all). I don’t know why the fart joke was even included. Don’t get me wrong, I like toilet humour. This one’s just forcefully squeezed in and makes for quite a turd of a scene. This Grinch is an arse even without a bad fart and poop joke, so they could have done without that.
I did like Morrison’s singing voice in this, and he and Dennis O’Hare do a great job with the hastily written lyrics that they’re given. Also, Amelia Minto is just as cute as a button. She sings very well and I can’t really be mad at a little girl for giving it her all in this hack job.
The beauty of the 2000 film that I grew up on (or even the old animated movies which I’ve seen clips of) was in how timeless they are and how they appealed to the young and the old demographic alike…to people who enjoyed cute moments as well as to those who were into it for the darker moments with some comedy peppered instead of lame fart jokes that don’t land.
To this day, the Grinch remains to me just a misunderstood anti-social who kept to himself, but also wanted to fit in and thus resorted to unsavoury means; but thanks to this adaptation, I feel that image of him has been tarnished. This musical with all its one-sided characters and overstuffed plot-lines feels like yet another lame attempt by NBC to stay relevant but sadly no amount of sexy Mr. Shue (I used to have a crush on Morrison in “Glee,” don’t judge me) decked in green Marilyn Manson lipstick, mediocre make-up, a cheap Grinch costume can fix this dud.
To sum it up in Dr. Seuss-esque fashion: ‘I love the Grinch with all my anti-social heart, hi-teedly-hee…
But this interpretation of the Grinch just isn’t my cup of tea!’
