Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)

This is a feel-good Christmas TV movie starring Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Santa Claus, who, feeling neglected, leaves the North Pole with her husband's reindeer and sleigh to go out for a drive, but gets stranded in Manhattan during the Christmas season.This is a movie full of colorful costumes and bright cinematography to highlight the Christmas seasons. The dance choreography was great and the story was uplifting, if not a bit juvenile.There are plenty of spirited songs in the movie, which is perfect for those who enjoy musicals. I'm not a big fan of musicals and almost got driven up the wall with all those unending songs and thought the plot was a bit slow. But, it is still nice seeing Lansbury back on the screen, showcasing her many talents, and nice to have a meaningful movie on TV to bring the family together.

It is quite an obvious film to make, I just wonder why they haven't made it a proper film for the cinemas, or at least base it on the book I've read by Penny Ives. Basically Mrs. Santa Claus (Angela Lansbury) gets bored of the same job of helping the elves at the North Pole, and her husband, Santa Claus (The Muppet Movie's Charles Durning), so she decides to go on a explore of New York. She ends up getting a short term job for mean Augustus P. Tavish (Terrence Mann) making toys for the shops, and the only help she has is from the children workers. There are some good songs in amongst the almost corny story, but it is quite a pleasant film for Lansbury to be in, and it is a good family film for Christmas. Also starring Mousehunt's Michael Jeter as Arvo, Lynsey Bartilson as Nora Kilkenny, Bryan Murray as Officer Doyle, David Norona as Marcello Damaroco and Debra Wiseman as Sadie Lowenstein. Okay!

This is a quality musical movie, with another ten star score from the great Jerry Herman, my favorite composer. Most others have said many of the things I wanted to say here, so I'll just say don't miss it. Someone questioned why politics were added. In Lansbury's biography, she states that she turned down the role at first because it was too "fluffy" and when they added the human rights thing she was more interested. Composer Jerry Herman was very ill with HIV at the time this was being filmed. She also did this as a favor to him. He really wanted her to do the TV movie of MAME, saying that she was still able to pull it off, but she felt she was too old for the role, and so to do something for her friend, she did this musical, and I am glad she did this (although MAME would have been awesome, and finally a good movie).The score, orchestrations are 10 out of 10, the only problem I had was with a few of the special effects, I felt they could have been a notch better.Lansbury and Durning are excellent. This is a great 2 hour experience of the kind of movie that is so rare, and it works because of all of the broadway talent involved, that's who should be making musicals. Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) did the choreography and that's superb.Great movie, great cast, great music! The DVD also has a great but short "making of." on it, the DVD is definitely in my collection! I wish some of Herman's other shows were good movies, Hello Dolly being the only good one, my opinion of course. There's The Grand Tour, Dear World, La Cage Aux Folles, Milk and Honey and Mack and Mabel, great musicals without being filmed.

This is about the finest made-for-TV Musical I have seen Angela Lansbury in! I can easily visualize this on the stage. I think in the past her talent has suffered from small production budgets but thankfully, that's not the case with this show. Everything is top drawer. This doesn't have the complexity of a drama but that's not the point. This show succeeds nicely at what it sets out to be: a fun, holiday romp. Kudos to her step-son, David Shaw as the Executive Producer.