7 Underrated Christmas Songs From Broadway Shows
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With the halls all decked, the gay apparel donned, and our umpteenth serving of Figgy Pudding procured, it is typically around this time of the month that the usual spread of Christmas songs is beginning to wear a little thin.
While the casual listener will be forced to hear no less than a dozen versions of, "Little Drummer Boy." from now until the 25th, theatre fans have a secret weapon to keep things fresh-- original Broadway cast recordings!
Now that we've established which of our favorite holiday tunes come from the pens and pianos of Broadway composers, let's check out what other Christmas tidings Broadway has to offer.
If you're all Fa-La-La-La'd out, read on for some underrated holiday faves from some of Broadway's best musicals here!
"God Bless Us, Everyone" from A Christmas Carol"God bless us, everyone." These iconic words, put forth by the beloved Tiny Tim from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, have been a holiday hallmark for generations. And if the spoken sentiment isn't enough, you'll be glad to know that in 1994, Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens further immortalized this phrase in a heartstring-tugging anthem for their musical adaptation of the classic tale, which ran annually at the Theater at Madison Square Garden until 2003.
The Depression was, well, depressing, but the sun came out once more in America thanks to Franklin Delanoe Roosevelt's New Deal. The classic musical Annie celebrates this revolutionary effort to revitalize a dying nation with a twinkling anthem from composer Charles Strouse. For the show's finale, the cast of orphans, billionaires, working class folks, and politicians gather to banish fear and sadness and usher in the spirit of eternal optimism that has become the hallmark of the Annie brand.
How would you react if you'd seen irrefutable proof of the existence of Santa Claus? After Michael and Emily Hobbs spot the big man in his flying sleigh outside of their Manhattan apartment window, they bust out this joyful tune that encapsulates just that feeling. With a frenetic pace, jingling orchestration, and youthful exuberance, this Act 2 number captures precisely how it would feel to find out magic is REAL. You can currently hear this song and the whole sparklejollytwinklejingley score of Elf the Musical at Broadway's Marquis Theatre through January 4, 2025.
The events of Jonathan Larson's RENT kick off on Christmas Eve-- December 24th, 9 P.M., Eastern Standard Time, to be exact. At the close of Act 1, with Christmas approaching, we follow the cast of bohemians to a bazaar of street vendors in the neighborhood tent city. As the characters move through Jonathan Larson's multilayered counterpoints, we are offered a different perspective on Christmas as the impoverished community juxtaposes their unforgiving reality with the opulent spectacle happening just a few miles uptown. Using motifs from popular holiday songs, Larson brought the bleakness of Christmas in Alphabet City to life on Broadway, shedding light on the hardships of an often overlooked population.
Elton John and Lee Hall bring us another holiday snapshot of class consciousness in this rockin' send up of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In this darkly comic number, the coal mining community at the heart of the story have banded together to protest against the British government's plan to close down a number of coal mines, a move which would result in massive wage cuts and job losses. This strike is directly based on the real-life "Miners' Strike" of 1984-85 led against Thatcher's policies and the frustrations of the working class folks of Northern England come to sneering and delicious life in this rebellious holiday rocker.
Though this song doesn't directly deal with Christmas, its tinkling, music box melody and stirring imagery conjure memories of Decembers past for both the listener and Anya as she struggles to recall her former life. As her recollections grow clearer, the song follows suit, wrapping Anya lush orchestrations and soaring voices, grandiose flickers of a royal past. Though most of us are not a duchess lost to a violent revolution, it is nearly impossible not to be absorbed in nostalgic winter images of dancing bears, painted wings, silver storms, and the warm and loving embrace of family.
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick bring the frantic pace of last-minute holiday shopping to life by way of a busy parfumerie in Budapest in this terrific and lesser known number from She Loves Me. The ensemble give even the most seasoned Sondheim veterans a run for their money performing this increasingly fast-paced and tongue-tying ode to the retail race to December 25.
