Welcome to the kickoff article of the 10th year of A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas, where I spend the holidays watching and reviewing various Christmas specials, some famous, many obscure. Every year I assume that I have finally reached the end, only to once again discover I have more specials I want to cover than slots I have available. This year, I expect 14 entries between now and Christmas Eve (knock on wood).
Full confession time: this first entry was intended to be the last entry for last year, but time got away from me, a big disappointment since I had to get this differently from most of my usual sources, which I tend to watch on YouTube or other similar sites if they're not streaming legally anywhere. While there are bits and pieces of the concert on YouTube, there does not appear to be a complete copy of this as it was broadcast on PBS in 2002. I instead had to watch it on DVD, which required me to put an order in via interlibrary loan, as my local library, nor did any other nearby libraries appear to have a copy. The copy I got came from a small town in Idaho, one that seems to have two Mormon temples, which probably explains why their system had this in stock. The DVD version ran for nearly 2 hours, while the PBS special was edited to fit a 1-hour timeslot.
When Angela Lansbury died in October 2022, just days before her 97th birthday, the world was reminded of what a singular talent she was. That she was a great singer wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who had watched Beauty and the Beast or Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but her greatest musical triumphs, on the Broadway stage, are largely lost to time. For a 16-year period from 1964 though 1980, she would star in six musicals, winning four Tony Awards for Best Actress. Alas, the only one of those performances that was properly captured for posterity was the last, when she originated the role of Mrs. Lovett in the first production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which was professionally recorded with Lansbury and George Hearn in 1982. Her other winning roles--in Mame, Dear World, and Gypsy--survive only via cast recordings, grainy footage from the Tony Awards, and, in the case of Mame, a couple of bootlegs shot from the audience.
I don't know exactly when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (which, because current church leadership doesn't like the word "Mormon", is now officially the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, a rebranding about as ill-advised as changing Twitter to X) began doing elaborate Christmas concerts with special guests, or how long they've been airing on PBS a year later, but they were certainly doing them by 2001, when Lansbury was the special guest. A year later, in 2002, Mormon Tabernacle Choir Presents the Joy of Christmas With Angela Lansbury would run on PBS stations nationwide.
One thing that is noticeable watching the full concert is just how sparingly they used Lansbury. She only had three solo numbers, all songs she introduced on stage or screen, only one, "We Need a Little Christmas" from Mame, being seasonal (the other two were the title song from Beauty and the Beast and "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd, an interesting choice to say the least given the context it is used in the musical). She also does two dramatic readings, a rather glurgly story about a young boy who decides to rewrite his part as the innkeeper in a Christmas pageant on the fly, and a dramatic reading of the Nativity Story from the Book of Luke.
For much of the show, however, she is offstage, turning the show over to the Choir. To be honest, this felt like a bit of a bait-and-switch, as most likely people were watching the special or watching the DVD to see Lansbury (my guess is that the PBS version of the special kept all of Lansbury's appearances and cut down on the choir numbers). That I feel this way is a bit unfair, to be sure, as the choir is, of course, magnificent. However, there isn't a ton of variation from one song to another. Granted, I'm writing this up nearly a year after I saw it, but I can't remember one choir number, while I remember all of Lansbury's appearances vividly.
I wish I could say I enjoyed Mormon Tabernacle Choir Presents the Joy of Christmas With Angela Lansbury more. It was a solid show, but the various non-Lansbury numbers ended up blending together. I suspect it would have been preferable to be in the audience rather than watching at home. If you're a fan of the Choir, then seeking out the whole concert is recommended. Otherwise, you're probably better off just sticking to the segments online of Lansbury's performances.
Next time: The most popular dog in the world (circa 1978) meets the most famous man in the world.
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