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- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 4
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- TELEVISION
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- CHRISTMAS SPECIALS. The networks, suffering economic woes,
- have cut back on holiday specials this year, but not on their
- time-warp wholesomeness. None is cuddlier than Dolly Parton:
- Christmas at Home (ABC, Dec. 21), in which the country singer
- twangs I'll Be Home for Christmas -- and is. Disney's Christmas
- on Ice (CBS, Dec. 21) brings Mickey and Minnie together with
- Katarina Witt and Tai Babilonia, while Richard Mulligan plays
- a small-town eccentric who meets an extraterrestrial (Beau
- Bridges) in Guess Who's Coming for Christmas? (NBC, Dec. 23).
- On the classical side, James Galway and Frederica von Stade
- headline A Lincoln Center Christmas Gala (PBS, Dec. 19). And,
- of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas is back again (CBS, Dec.
- 19). It's 25 years for that treacly tradition: Time for
- retirement?
-
- MUSIC
-
- CHRISTMAS PARTY WITH EDDIE G. (Strikin' It Rich/Columbia).
- A Yuletide celebration for people who hope Santa gets stuck in
- the chimney. Funny, funky and often obscure rhythm classics to
- bounce you through -- or rescue you from -- all the seasonal
- goodwill.
-
- A CREOLE CHRISTMAS (Epic Associated). Splendid holiday
- doings, rhythm-and-blues style, with some heavy New Orleans
- seasoning.
-
- A JAZZY WONDERLAND (Columbia). And just when you thought you
- couldn't bear another Christmas song, here come 14 of them by
- a gaggle of top jazz artists ranging from Harry Connick Jr. and
- the Marsalis family to Dexter Gordon, Marlon Jordan and Joey
- DeFrancesco. Hardly the first -- but far from the worst.
-
- MOVIES
-
- HOME ALONE. And a little child shall lead them. To the box
- office, anyway. This crafty comedy about an impish boy
- abandoned at home on Christmas Eve will reach the $100 million
- mark this week.
-
- EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. The Jesus story retold in pop pastel
- colors -- except that Edward, poor gentle creature, nearly gets
- crucified at Christmastime. Tim Burton (Batman) directs the
- season's funniest, bittersweetest film.
-
- ETC.
-
- RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL'S CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR. This
- delightful potpourri of holiday song, dance and frivolity
- continues to charm children -- and their parents -- as
- engagingly as it has for the past 57 years. All the seasonal
- staples are there, from the Nutcracker's wooden soldiers and
- Santa's elves to the traditional show-closing Nativity scene
- in which, as usual, live camels, sheep and donkeys manage to
- upstage the Holy Family. In New York City, through Jan. 3.
-
- MOSCOW ON ICE HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR. If you can stand the
- culture shock, drop by Donald Trump's glitzy Taj Mahal Casino,
- with its neo-Indian domes and portals, and catch this
- breathtaking ice-skating gala by a prizewinning troupe of
- Soviet athletes in dazzling exotic costumes. In Atlantic City,
- through Dec. 26.
-
-
- By TIME's Reviewers. Compiled by Andrea Sachs.
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