A Broadway Holiday: Musicals that Celebrate the Holiday Season

We can all use a little holiday cheer this year. Well, we have a holly jolly lot of it for Broadway lovers. With Christmas next week, the Rose Center Theater has put together a list of 12 Broadway musicals that have feature Yuletide. From Christmas-themed musicals to to shows who's story revolves around the holidays, here are musicals that are guaranteed to lift your holiday spirits!

Annie

Starting as a comic strip, this beloved story of a plucky orphan who finds a new home with a wealthy billionaire, Annie is probably one of the best known musicals that celebrate the holiday season. The 1977 musical culminates in a Christmas celebration and with the joyous Charles Strouse-Martin Charnin song "A New Deal for Christmas."

A Christmas Story

Everybody at some point during the holiday season has seen a re-run of this classic film. But what many do not know is that there recently was a musical adaptation of A Christmas Story. The story still follows Ralphie who is longing for his Red Ryder BB gun and scheming to make sure Santa brings him one. The stage production however, with a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, this classic story is brought into the 21st century adding even more color, and life, with yuletide gems like "It All Comes Down to Christmas,"“Up on Santa’s Lap,” and the title song.

Elf

Made famous by actor Will Ferrell in 2003, Elf has become a holiday favorite ever since. Fast forward to 2012, add Matthew Sklar (music), Chad Beguelin (lyrics), and Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan (book), and you get the Broadway stage production, which tells the same story of Buddy the Elf who comes from the North pole and sets off in search of his birth father.

Mame

“We Need a Little Christmas” is one of the many iconic musical moments of the 1966 comedy Mame. The famous song from Jerry Herman, and sung by the legendary Lucille Ball, has become a staple of Christmas. In the musical, the proactive, outgoing Auntie Mame refuses to let the Great Depression get her down, even though she herself has gone bankrupt.

Meet Me in St. Louis

The film classic Meet Me in St. Louis was featured a fantastic score by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, including the classic "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," first sung by the great Judy Garland.

Rent

The iconic 1996 musical that took Broadway by storm, Rent follows a group of Bohemian artists struggling to stay in their home in Alphabet City rent-free. The close bond between the characters is especially felt when they spend Christmas together, with little money, and somehow find a way to celebrate the joy of the season. Jonathan Larson's rock musical features a Christmas Eve celebration of all things that go "agains the grain" in "La Vie Boheme."

White Christmas

We couldn't compile a list of musicals that celebrate the holiday season without including this Irving Berlin classic. "White Christmas is one of the most recorded holiday songs of all time, and appeared in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, then became the foundation for the 1954 film musical White Christmas, lead by the Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. The film, like many successful movies, eventually found its way to Broadway.