Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, recent Tony Award winners for the musical Dear Evan Hansen and lyricists of La La Land’s Academy Award-winning song “City of Stars,” also scored A Christmas Story: The Musical and will compose several new songs for the live television event, with Grease: Live’s Jonathan Tolins and Robert Cary adapting the book.
The three-hour live television event, inspired by the 1983 movie A Christmas Story (aka the one where the kid gets his tongue stuck to a frozen flagpole) and the Tony Award-nominated Broadway production A Christmas Story: The Musical, will be executive-produced by award-winning film, television and theater producer Marc Platt (Grease: Live, La La Land).
The former SNL star/excellent singer will star as nine-year-old Ralphie Parker’s mother in Fox’s live musical adaptation of the classic holiday movie A Christmas Story, the network announced Tuesday during its Television Critics Association summer press tour panel.
A Christmas Story will air live on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 7pm ET/PT (tape delayed on the West Coast) on Fox.