Word: prissiest
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...Hanukkah, Parker and Shaiman expand the tune "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" into a five-part round for Kyle, his parents, Stan and Cartman; and Kyle plaints "The Lonely Jew on Christmas" with the help of someone who sounds like Neil Diamond. (It's Parker again; he's everywhere.) For the prissiest of your relatives, you can play the finale: a seriously heartfelt chorale of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." But all 18 tracks are funny, terrific and, in their oddball fidelity to the conflicting spirits of Christmas, kind of sweet...
...performers dig beneath this mannerism to suggest years of buried sorrow. Nancy Marchand, as the family's self-described cutup, has the gift of making banal observations sound witty. Anne Pitoniak, as the eldest and prissiest, combines dictatorial will with genuine dignity. Peggy Cass is the family entertainer, Elizabeth Franz its happiest housewife and Gisela Caldwell its edgy protofeminist, whose eventual crack-up seems to result from her discontent with women's lot. The most affecting performance comes from Bette Henritze, as a stroke victim whose singsong speech does not obscure a larger tragedy. When she admits...
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