Liza In A Big Slice Of Christmas Ham
I bow to no one in my loathing of Christmas: its tinseled kitsch, its revolting religiosity, its forced expectation of giving. But I did get a kick out of the above YouTube clip of a teenage Liza Minnelli in “The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood.” It was an ersatz musical production of “Little Red Riding Hood†that aired on ABC television in late November 1965, and features nine original songs written by acclaimed composer Jule “Gypsy” Styne and lyricist Bob “Funny Girl” Merrill. In the Christmas show, the Big Bad Wolf (Cyril Ritchard, best known as Captain Hook in “Peter Pan”) tells the familiar story of how he squared off against Red Riding Hood (Liza Minnelli) and the Woodsman (Vic Damone) from his point of view.
