NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL PREMIERE: NBC restarted the live TV musical genre by mounting one-night broadcast revivals of The Sound of Music and others, and it has another musical for the holidays this year. But because of the pandemic, it’s quite different. It’s not live, and it’s not even emanating from America: instead, it was filmed at the Troubadour Theatre in London. But approach without caution, because this Tim Mason-Mel Marvin musical adaptation of the 1957 Dr. Seuss classic children’s book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, is a delightful holiday TV treat – even, or perhaps especially, in a pandemic. Matthew Morrison, the teacher from Glee, stars as the Grinch. And playing the older Max, who looks back on his time with the Grinch, is Denis O’Hare. TV fans will know him from American Horror Story and The Good Wife, but Sondheim fans will never forget his star turn in Assassins as Charles Guiteau, the delusional man who assassinated President James A. Garfield, and sang his way to the gallows. (In real life, not just in the musical. Sondheim recycled Guiteau’s own lyrics: “I am going to the Lordy…”)
