TNT will present Christmas In Washington, which will feature Grammy-winning Christian music group Casting Crowns, Tony-winning performer Kristin Chenoweth, country star Julianne Hough, Grammy winner Darius Rucker and a cappella Straight No Chaser.
TNT will present Christmas In Washington, which will feature Grammy-winning Christian music group Casting Crowns, Tony-winning performer Kristin Chenoweth (pictured), country star Julianne Hough, Grammy winner Darius Rucker and a cappella Straight No Chaser. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT
Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw will host the event for the fifth consecutive year.
Annually attended by the President and First Lady and other Washington VIPs, this concert, in its 27th year, is a holiday music celebration benefiting the National Children’s Medical Center. It is taped at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and will premiere on TNT Wednesday, Dec. 17 , at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).
It will be followed by a special presentation of the TNT Original A Christmas Carol, starring Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Kristin Chenoweth took some time out to answer a few questions related to the project, and also share her feelings a about “Pushing Daisies” and other smallscreen topics.
Kristin, do you have a favorite Christmas song that you could just listen to all year long if you had too?
Kristin Chenoweth: We were just geeks when it comes to music, Christmas music - I listened to all the great albums. We had a Christian singer named Sandy Patty that had an awesome Christmas record, we had Frank Sinatra's, we had Bette Midler's and Barbra Streisand's Christmas record.
You know it’s kind of hard because I remember the first song that I played on the piano was the Little Drummer Boy. And that is just something that I don’t need to hear anymore. I’m done with the Little Drummer Boy. But oddly enough one of my favorite songs is – is something that I put on the album and – and hopefully put my own stamp on it and it’s – it’s called “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
It’s a standard classic Christmas song, but it builds in the music and it tells a story and I love it. I love the orchestrations on this track especially. I've always love it if you sang it in church you know or you heard it on somebody else’s album, I’ve always loved that song, so I would have to say that one.
Did you get to pick any of the songs for the TNT Washington Special?
Kristin Chenoweth: No, they pick them for me. They listen to the album and they picked them for me and – and I love the songs that they chose. I'm a little disappointed that I don't get to do Do You Hear What I Hear, which is my favorite track on it.
But they have different singers that they have to - who knows what everybody else is doing. It has to fit into a program so I'm excited to be doing the classic I'll Be Home for Christmas. And then of course, the What Child is This is beautiful. So I get to sit with a full orchestra. That’s not going to suck so I'm excited about that.
What do you prefer, theater or television?
Kristin Chenoweth: That’s funny. I think for me, I love obviously Broadway. I mean there’s nothing like performing in front of a live audience. And also losing yourself in a character, and TV and film certainly has its challenges.
Pushing Daisies was one of the highlights of my career, certainly playing that character was. But my favorite this is I do a lot of concerts with orchestras all over the world and I love making music with an 80 piece orchestra behind me and I also love bringing what it is that I do - which is a little bit of everything, especially if you are doing an opera to try and make it relatable to people that might not normally like opera or opera buffs that might not normally like country music or you know country music people that might not normally like musical theatre.
I like to not be limited by myself by being in a role so I would have to say that the concert singing, the concertizing is really what fulfills me the most. With that being said, you know, Broadway doesn’t suck. I love it and I miss it, I miss it a lot and but I loved being on TV and I’ve loved being in movies.
Four Christmases was so fun and you know I just want and all I care with this economy is that I keep can keep getting a job.
Talk about "Pushing Daisies." So many people loved that show. How will it end?
Kristin Chenoweth: Me too, I’m going to cry. Well last week’s episode I did get to do a wonderful song from the Bangles or is it the B-52s? Eternal Flame. I will be singing again, a little bit of a Lionel Richie song coming up. But no, the answer to the question is the writer, our creator Brian Fuller specifically asked if – if he could write an episode to write everything off and ABC specifically said, “No don’t do that.”
Because you never know what’s going to happen, see we didn’t know until recently that we were cancelled. So we went ahead and shot an episode thinking that they could be a possibility that we’d come back.
Which is kind of a bummer, because our fans will be kind of like wait a minute – wait what – what happens? But Brian Fuller is such a creative genius …this is not news, so I’m not breaking any secret here, but he has talked about writing a movie version.
We can't like act those out. At least the fans will get closure and to be honest so would we. I'm doing OK. I'm extremely sad. I wished we could have had an episode where we wrapped it up.
I am very surprised that the show that was – that was – I understand that ratings weren't what they hoped and I also understand that we are very expensive show to produce.
I get it. Like I get in my mind but my heart has a harder time with it. So I'm sad. Just keep on the lookout and hopefully there'll be a movie. That’s why I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I was honored to get those scripts every week. I thought I'm getting a piece of gold here and I'm going to – I'm going to do my very best with it
Your Talkback on this Story