Allison Williams as Peter Pan!

OK, I love me some Allison Williams (she is probably my favorite character on Girls) but, even I was a little taken aback by the news that she had been cast in NBC's upcoming Peter Pan Live! I mean, I'm sure she can sing and everything, but, if NBC's latest live “musical event” is as lame and over-produced as last year's The Sound of Music Live!, well, let's just say there's a pretty high probability that it's gonna totally suck.

And then I saw this super cheesy pic (above) of Williams in costume as Peter Pan and I knew that this movie wasn't just gonna suck, it also has serious train wreck potential. Which I always love, especially at Christmas! So, slap my wings and call me Tinkerbell, because this train wreck — which is produced by the reliably ham-fisted duo of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and also features Christopher Walken (!) as a singing Captain Hook! — is only gonna get better/worse from here on out. Simply put, I cannot wait!

Peter Pan Live! airs December 4th on NBC.

 

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Kelly Clarkson: “Wrapped In Red”

Kelly Clarkson has been all over the radio and talk show circuit this season — she was even the guest DJ on one of the all-Christmas music stations on Sirius/XMRadio last week! — but, if you’ve heard her new Christmas album, “Wrapped in Red”, you know that the girl has every reason to be proud of it. Loud, fun, sweet and beautifully-produced, Clarkson has called “Red” her favorite album she’s ever done, and I’m tempted to agree with her.

Every song on “Red” — which features a very cool mix of holiday classics and new material mostly written or co-written by Clarkson herself — is infused with Clarkson’s genuine love of Christmas music and the album has songs for every kind of holiday music fan. Clarkson’s rendition of “Silent Night” (sung with Reba and Trisha Yearwood) is just plain beautiful and her recording of “My Favorite Things”, whether intentionally or not, proves that there is only one true American Idol this holiday season. Sorry, Carrie.

But, of course the real gems are the raft of new songs Clarkson wrote for the album. “Underneath the Tree” is already an instant classic (not to mention Greta’s favorite new song to sing!) but the title track and the songs “4 Carats” and “Winter Dreams (Brandon’s Song)” are sure to be around for a while as well. We have over 75 Christmas albums in our collection and, trust me, it’s rare that you find one from a major pop star that feels so artfully-crafted and produced. Seriously, Clarkson knows her Christmas music, yo.

So, if you tired of the glut of mass-produced lump of coal Christmas albums that usually bubble to the surface this time of year, check out “Wrapped in Red” instead. And if you get a chance to catch her NBC Christmas Special in reruns or video on demand, watch that too, it’s freaking hilarious!

“The Sound of Music” LIVE

As usual, we’ve been watching loads of schmaltzy Christmas TV movies this season — thanks to the holiday-loving programming elves at Lifetime and ABC Family! — so, we were all very excited to watch tonight’s insanely-overhyped LIVE presentation of The Sound of Music on NBC. But, man, were we disappointed!

Actually I lost both of the girls ten minutes in and ended up watching the rest of the show alone, so, I guess I should say “I” was disappointed. And actually, disappointed is putting it nicely…

Overhyped, glacially-paced and curiously underlit (seriously, I’ve seen better lighting transitions in high school plays!) perhaps the worst thing about this so-called “major television event” was the woefully miscast Carrie Underwood. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Carrie Underwood and she did the best she could with the songs here, but, whenever she had to actually, you know, “act” Underwood was positively bloodless. It was like watching a really bad first time audition or something. It’s not that she didn’t try, but, wow, watching her try to inject some actual life and character into Maria was almost painful in spots. And the lack of any discernible acting skills on Underwood’s part was even more glaring anytime she shared the stage with a “real” actor.

But, honestly, this Music was so dead on arrival and totally tone deaf that even the real Broadway actors with serious chops like Audra McDonald and Christian Borle had a hard time bringing it to life. If there was one thing that kept this rickety old train running, it was the songs, which, let’s face it, are pretty hard to screw up.

And even though I found myself singing along in spots, I gotta tell ya, the only thing this ill-advised and totally unnecessary “remake” did for me was make me wanna dig out my Blu-Ray and rewatch the original. Sorry, NBC…but you get a big old lump of coal for this clunker.

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