Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! is everything that's wrong with everything, especially entertainment

Los Angeles Times

The "early twitch of satisfaction" of the Matthew Morrison-led pretaped NBC TV musical "quickly faded into bewilderment, irritation and finally despair," says Mary McNamara. "I assume the musical ends as the book ends, with the Grinch’s heart expanding as he realizes that Christmas is about more than toys and trees and roast beast. But I’ll never know for sure, because I bailed right around the time the decidedly non-tot Cindy Lou Who was engaging in a near-Jesuitical conversation about why a noticeably green and hairy Santa Claus was attempting to steal the family Christmas tree. Fearing this would devolve into yet another forgettable song leading to another uninteresting scene involving Cindy Lou’s garish yet bland family, I just shut the whole thing down. Glancing at my watch, I realized that I had put one hour and 35 minutes into this enterprise and that The Grinch Musical! is everything that is wrong with everything. Especially the entertainment industry‘s insistence on punishing perfectly good stories and series by remaking them in perpetuity."