‘A Christmas Story’ being transformed into live TV musical
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — It wouldn’t be Christmas without 9-year-old Ralphie and his unyielding passion for the Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot Range Model air rifle.
“A Christmas Story" has been such an audience favorite since it was made 34 years ago that Fox has created a live musical version to premiere Sunday.
Songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who already crafted a stage version, are back with some new songs and renewed enthusiasm.
“I think we got so excited about adapting it for stage initially because, in addition to it being familiar and being beloved, the thing that we’re always looking for as songwriters, as composers, is finding what in the story sings and what about this particular group of characters and this setting would allow us to write songs that really do something for the piece that otherwise wouldn’t be done,” said Paul, who mostly writes the music.
“That’s what we’re also planning on doing with the television broadcast: What can we do that’s just for TV, that’s very special — with the same story — because it does sing so much? There are characters who are larger than life. There’s a larger-than-life imagination at the center of the story. And it’s a kid with a really big ‘want’ at Christmastime.”
Marc Platt — who produced “Grease: Live” for Fox and is producing “A Christmas Story Live!” — said the live TV production won’t be anything like the stage play.
“There are no rules here,” he said. “This will not feel like you’re watching a stage presentation. When you’re in the life of a family, you will be live in the life of a family. By that I
mean, specifically, the environment in which you’re in, the way that the cameras move and the way that it’s shot.
“The musical is constructed somewhat like the film in that many of the numbers become the fantasies in this wild imagination of this kid. So how one gets transported from a living room of a house to magically appear in a completely fantastical setting right ... is a part of the fun of the experience of watching live television.”
Audiences know the movie so well, Pasek said, that the songwriters and producers have to stretch to create something original even as they maintain the magic of the original.
“We can kind of write around the moments that you want to see as a scene,” he said, “but then we can also enhance the moments that you want to see as fantasy and turn those into big production numbers."
Although they wouldn't reveal much, the men acknowledged that Ralphie’s mom’s declaration that the Red Ryder BB gun will “shoot your eye out” had to be included.
“‘You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out’ is a big, big production number that happens in the show,” Pasek said. “And it’s really exciting. And it’s the culmination of Ralphie really, really feeling down and out. And it becomes a big number with tap-dancing kids.”
“A Christmas Story,” Platt said, has a universal theme centering on Christmastime as a kid.
“It doesn’t matter what your background is,” he said. “Everybody has a story that’s relatable around Christmas or a nostalgic feeling about Christmas.”