BWW Blog: The Grinch is My New Sleep Paralysis Demon

Growing up, I was a proud Gleek. I used to buy all the season box set DVDs at Best Buy on Black Friday, I owned board games like Glee Scene It and Cranium: Glee Edition, Cory Monteith was my first love and I missed a week of school after his tragic passing due to my broken heart. At some point in my life, I possessed a mind that could hear a song and robotically recall which characters sung the Glee covers and during which season and episode. When the TikTok memes about Glee and especially Matthew Morrison's Will Schuester started going viral, I had war flashbacks of days where I argued that Glee's "Don't Stop Believin'" was far superior to the original and wished I had a teacher like Mr. Schue one day. Just like the role that gave him a name in Hollywood, NBC's "Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical," which premiered on December 9th, is not very good despite my earlier reluctant hopes.

I've been so desperate for any new theatrical development, and while nothing will beat Jim Carrey's take on the famous Christmas character in my eyes, I wanted to try and enjoy myself. It's a Broadway show filmed at the Troubadour Theatre in London! Denis O'Hare ("Big Little Lies"), who plays an older version of Max the dog, is a national treasure! Booboo Stewart (Disney's "Descendants") is lovable and brings energy to everything he does! NBC is trying to be original and throw Broadway a bone! Even after the scary teaser trailer where Morrison's Grinch breaks the fourth wall and insults my couch, I thought maybe it'd still be fun to hate-watch with the family, therefore supporting theatre! Right?

By drawing out a seemingly one-act musical for two hours, "The Grinch Musical" was arguably the worst thing you can make a Dr. Seuss property: boring. In fact, it was deemed so dull by the general public that it never even trended on Twitter! Ratings weren't high either at around 2.5 million total viewers, much worse than other NBC musical specials. At least the jarring teaser trailer had people talking initially. I too was afraid for my life after that teaser. In an adaptation of the Grinch that is reportedly inspired by Joaquin Phoenix's performance of the Joker (according to Morrison), the titular green character could hardly hold my attention. And I'm in the minority that thought "Joker" was only so-so! Morrison never attempted a low register like Patrick Page's run onstage but instead adopted somewhat of a British accent... because the show was filmed in England? The choice was unclear. Because the one-act story is bloated into two hours with excessive ads on holiday shopping and shingles medication, it felt like his Grinch never actually did anything entertaining. When Morrison tried to invite humor into the role with ad-libs like "this is my Emmy nomination," it came across as forced and unnecessary or downright uncomfortable. Plus, I never thought I would have to write this, but I spent more concentrated on the giant butt the costume designers gave Morrison instead of his singing. Literal shivers running down my back right now.

I've never seen a production of the Grinch musical live, but aside from Morrison, I'm not sure if the story fits the medium, outside of a one-act. The new additions to the repertoire, like a song where the Grinch suffers from maladaptive daydreaming and imagines children running around, screaming, and playing kazoos around him, only highlight what classics the songs from the original adaptations are. New sequences like a trip to a Whoville department store feels like filler and offers nothing new to the story besides a look into the capitalistic society of Whoville? As the Joker meme goes, we live in a society. An older version of Max narrating seemed off to me as well. In the present day, is the Grinch dead? Do dogs outlive grinches? What time period or dimension is this version of Max from?

I didn't care for the neon pink costumes of the Whos in Whoville, but the sets were charming with their storybook aesthetic. Stewart and O'Hare came prepared and gave their all as the two versions of Max. I was happy for newcomer Amelia Minto ("The Lost Girls") getting her chance on the stage as Cindy-Lou Who. The show creators' attempt at crafting a multi-generational storyline about Cindy-Lou Who's family was underdeveloped but a nice gesture, I guess?

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, "The Grinch Musical" diminished some of the Christmas cheer in my spirit and probably shrunk my heart a size instead of fostering its growth. If you want to experience the Grinch's tale this holiday season, stick to the classic 2000 live-action film starring Jim Carrey and hear his echo yell back at you, "You're an idiot," for even trying to watch another version of his story.

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