The Snow Must Go On
Writers: Scott Damian, Heather Provost
Director: Jeff Beesley
Cast: Heather Hemmens, Corey Cott, Kaelyn Yoon-MacRae, Samantha Kendrick, Axel Hansen, Emily Leung, Sully McIntyre, Ela Williams, Sal Tait, Dan De Jaeger
Broadway's Corey Cott (The Heart of Rock and Roll, Newsies) plays Isaiah, a — I'm not going to say washed-out Broadway star, but oh, how the once-buzzy have fallen. Isaiah went from the star of a musical to performing in a one-man show at a bar so far off Broadway it may as well be in the Hudson. The three people in the audience: his sister Jess (Kendrick), niece Aurora (Yoon-MacRae), and a tipsy elderly man who definitely does not exist outside the confines of the bar. It's not a good night for Isaiah, and after he doesn't even get the chance to audition for a superstar Broadway producer, he retreats back to his hometown to hide out.
An ex-Broadway star in a small town complete with niece at Christmastime? You know where this is going.
Isaiah gets roped into directing the holiday play — and also finishing the script, because the town of Hancock demands that the high schoolers perform an original Christmas play every single year, or else! By his side is guidance counselor Lilly-Anne (The Groomsmen trilogy's Heather Hemmens) as well as his niece and a few eager (and some not-so-eager) high schoolers. Oh — and that superstar Broadway producer? Her daughter goes to the school. And she can sing, but she doesn't have the confidence! Etc., etc., etc.!
Seriously, if you've ever spent a holiday season watching the Countdown to Christmas lineup on Hallmark, you know exactly where all of this is going.
Home for the Holidays: Isaiah retreats back to Hancock, which is the name of an actual town in New York, a two and a half hour drive to Manhattan and the lights of Broadway. I guess it is feasible that the principal of Archer Academy saw Isaiah in his starring Broadway role (and thus fast tracks him to substitute director of the school play).
'Twas the Night Before This Movie: Broadway really took up all of Isaiah's time, as his sister so directly informs us in the first five minutes: "Well, after three years of not really seeing each other, we thought it was important for us to come."
They Brought Presence: If you put Dan De Jaeger in a movie, he's gonna bring the present of his presence. He stole his scene in last year's Following Yonder Star, and he was great the year before that in The Santa Summit. This movie underuses him as Hal, the neighbor crushing hard on Isaiah's sister.
Ho Ho Ho: The movie's funniest joke is the name of Isaiah's one-man, off-off-off-Broadway musical: Frost/Blitzen. God, it is perfect. As far as openings go, a carousel of shots of glamorous Broadway theaters smash-cutting to a dim, dreary exterior with "FROST/BLITZEN" on a sign is quite possibly the funniest one of any Hallmark movie this year. I just wish the rest of the movie could live up to that opening shot!
Exactly As Advertised: Considering that Isaiah hastily copy/pastes the second half of Frost/Blitzen into the script for Randolph the Christmas Elk, The Snow Must Go On feels boring by comparison. And that's kinda the movie's whole problem.
The Snow Must Go On is, at best and at worst, fine. It's beat-for-beat a Hallmark movie, which I can't really ding it for because it is a Hallmark movie. The one place where it deviates is in the casting of a male lead — but hey, women aren't the only ones who can forsake big city dreams for small town success!
That's pretty much all there is to say about The Snow Must Go On. The performances are all solid, so much so that I was left wanting more. That's especially true of the high school students, most of whom get short-changed after the auditions so we can focus on Isaiah and Lilly-Anne.
But that's my main critique of The Snow Must Go On. It sets up a lot of fun elements (more Frost/Blitzen meets Randolph the Christmas Elk excerpts, please), fun characters (the bad boy who gets a lead role, the overeager theater kid, a principal who's a total fan of Isaiah's) but doesn't go anywhere with them. Fun for the family? Sure! A must-watch if you miss its premiere? Not really.
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
