Whether or not the weather outside is frightful, your DVD player is delightful with this fortnight of holiday flicks that appeal to gay and lesbian sensibilities — just in time for our Hollywood issue of movies, coming this Friday.

Home for the Holidays. Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) navigates dysfunctional family dramedy during her solo trip home for Thanksgiving when her teenage daughter opts out of the year’s celebration. Tensions predictably boil over at the family table, but the weekend is wrapped nicely in a bow when the special guest of Tommy, Claudia’s gay brother, offers a second helping of stuffing. The Jodie Foster-directed Home for the Holidays celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Make the Yuletide Gay. Astonishingly, there are few holiday films that feature LGBT characters (this list is fairly comprehensive as a result), let alone films that have gay main characters. But out Texas-native director Rob Williams changed that in 2009 by adding the spritely sweet Make the Yuletide Gay — about an in-the-closet college student (Keith Jordan) whose boyfriend (Adamo Ruggiero) suddenly shows up on his doorstep — to the Christmas-movie canon. MTYG has earned several awards, including Best Narrative Feature at FilmOut San Diego, Festival Favorite at Philadelphia QFest, and the Jury Award for Best Men’s Feature at the Long Island Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Holiday Heart. Ving Rhames stars as a Christian drag queen (how’d that fly under your radar until now!?) who takes in a drug addict (Alfre Woodard) and her daughter after his police-officer boyfriend dies. Based on the Cheryl L. West stage play of the same name, this made-for-Showtime movie has an astonishing 92 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Scrooge & Marley. A modern-day variation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, this reimagined version depicts Scrooge as a bitter old queen whose bah-humbug attitude gets a makeover from the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future… and Bruce Vilanch.

Love, Actually. Widely regarding as one of the best holiday movies of the new millennium (by straight girls, at least), this romantic comedy told via 10 separate-but-intertwining stories throws the gays a bone with Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) and Joe (Gregor Fisher) — a rock star and his manager, respectively — who decide that getting drunk and watching porn together for Christmas is better than being alone. Because duh. (The writer-director recently revealed he had intended to include a lesbian relationship in the film.)

24 Nights. An unlucky-in-love gay man (Kevin Isola) thinks his new co-worker (Stephen Mailer) may be a gift from Santa Claus himself after making a Christmas wish for a boyfriend. Mental illness works in mysterious ways, y’all. David Burtka — before he was ever a twinkle in NPH’s eye — also stars in this 1999 romantic comedy.

Red Lodge. An impromptu marriage proposal is given at a train station en route to a holiday celebration with family in Montana. In lieu of an engagement ring, there’s a cock ring – because these dudes are classy AF.

Holiday in Handcuffs. There’s not a chance you missed this ABC Family staple that premiered in 2007 – what with all the endless promotion the initial season (Clarissa and A.C. Slater are together on your TV for the first time — watch!) and the subsequent showings during the channels “25 Days of Christmas” schedule. It’s about as well acted as any Melissa Joan Hart/Mario Lopez vehicle should be, but they’re cute, so there’s that.

The Family Stone. As if Carrie Bradshaw’s alter ego, Sarah Jessica Parker, isn’t enough to get you on board with this Home for the Holidays-esque romantic comedy-drama, the brood’s deaf, gay son Thad (Tyrone Giordano) and his interracial partner Patrick (Brian J. White) should be. Plus Dermott Mulroney, Paul Schneider and Luke Wilson!

Too Cool for Christmas. Perhaps the Christmas film with the most interesting backstory, Too Cool for Christmas (a tale about a teenage girl who shuns the reason for the season — and her gay parents — in favor of a ski getaway with friends) actually has a straight-parent companion version that appeared on Lifetime in December 2004. Not much has changed since then — there are still no holiday movies with prominent gay characters on Lifetime — which is why you should support this festive anomaly all the more.

Miracle on 34th Street. Shirley Temple! Do you need another reason?

Holiday Inn. If it’s an Irving Berlin musical, it must be Christmas! There’s a void of LGBT characters in this 1942 black-and-white musical starting Mr. Holiday Bing Crosby and the light-on-his-feet Fred Astaire — well, none that are specifically labeled as such, at least. But we’d be fooling ourselves if we thought there’s nary a nancy-boy singing and dancing around that hotel all day.

Rent. A year in the life of Bohemian New Yorkers set between Christmas Eve 1989 and 1990. You’ll come for the story, but you’ll stay for the soundtrack.

Love the Coopers. Technically you won’t be able to pick up this newly released film on DVD until next year, so instead you’ll have to head to your local cinema to watch yet another dysfunctional family handle the holidays the best way they know how: with binge eating and alcohol. But between bickering and laughing and crying — and more bickering — there’s Anthony Mackie (one of only a handful of black gay characters in a holiday film) as a closeted cop who doles out life advice… even if he should be practicing what he’s preaching.

The post 14 gay-appareled Christmas movies to make your holidays merry and bright first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Chris Isaacson Presents in association with Ryan O’Connor has announced Upright Cabaret’s 9th Annual A Broadway Christmas. Hosted by six-time Emmy Award-winner Bruce Vilanch with musical direction by Gregory Nabours, there will be two performances only on Wednesday, December 17 and Thursday, December 18 at 8:30pm at the Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood.

Stars scheduled to perform are (in alphabetical order) Jill Burke, Candice Clasby, Will Collyer, Laura Dickinson, Sheila Karls, Jacob Lusk, Matthew Ryan Pest, Jonah Platt, Amber Snead, and Brandon Wardell, with more to be announced.

Under boughs of holly and multi-media of silver and gold, stars and snowflakes will glitter as Upright Cabaret combines the Best of Broadway with the Carols of Christmas. Along with the extraordinary vocal talent of the performers, brassy horns and sentimental strings will create a wonderland of cheerful songs and melodies guaranteed to bring on the holiday spirit.

Host Bruce Vilanch is best known for his work as a writer on 23 Oscar telecasts. He spent six years on The Hollywood Squares and played Edna Turnblad in Hairspray on Broadway an on tour across the U.S. Musical director Gregory Nabours is a composer/lyricist and music director who recently had an evening of his original work performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He is a founding member of the Coeurage Theatre Company and is the winner of two Ovation Awards, and LA Drama Critics Circle Award, an LA Weekly Award, and the NAACP Theatre Award.

Upright Cabaret’s 9th Annual A Broadway Christmas will take place at the Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood. Tickets are $25 and $30 with a $5 discount on purchases made by December 10. VIP packages are available, and tickets purchased online receive priority seating. Single entrée or drink minimums apply. Go to www.TicketWeb.com or www.ChrisIsaacsonPresents.com or call (866) 468-3399.

Chris Isaacson Presents is currently nominated for four BroadwayWorld.com Awards for its presentation of concerts this past year starring Laura Benanti, Danny Gurwin, Jeremy Jordan, and Jennifer Holliday. For more information about this and other CIP events including evenings with Mandy Gonzalez and Molly Ringwald coming up in 2015, visit www.ChrisIsaacsonPresents.com.

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Chicago, IL — The holiday season moves into high gear on Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7, when the Chicago holiday film Scrooge & Marley returns to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., a little more than two years from the date of its red-carpet premiere at the historic venue in 2012. Both screenings are at noon, for $10 each.

The movie, which was entirely shot in Chicago, is a modern-day, gay variation on Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. These matinee screenings include a festive pre-show. The swingin’ female a cappella caroling trio The Merry Janes will lead a holiday sing-a-long preceding the Dec. 6 matinee.

Audiences of all persuasions have embraced Scrooge & Marley, which stars David Pevsner as Scrooge, Tim Kazurinsky as Marley’s Ghost, Rusty Schwimmer, Megan Cavanagh, Ronnie Kroell, and David Moretti, features multiple Emmy Award-winner Bruce Vilanch as Fezziwig, and is narrated by two-time Tony Award-winner Judith Light. Members of the cast and crew will be on hand for both screenings. Advance tickets are available at www.musicboxtheatre.com.

The festive spirit continues on Sunday, Dec. 14, when the Oak Park chapter of PFLAG and OPALGA ( Oak Park Lesbian and Gay Association ) co-sponsor a screening of the film at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St. The free 2 p.m. screening will be followed by an after-party that will include a festive carol sing-a-long and refreshments. Members of the film’s creative team will attend the screening and party. http://gopride.com/Zb20/

The Chicago Public Library will round out the season when it hosts two screenings of the film, at 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, at the Humboldt Park branch, 1605 N. Troy St.; and Monday, Dec. 22, at the Bezazian branch, 1226 W. Ainslie St. Members of the film’s creative team will attend the screening.

DVDs, Blu-rays, soundtrack CDs and other film related merchandise will be available for purchase at all the screenings. Scrooge & Marley, which noted film critic and Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas author Alonso Duralde has called “sweet and distinctive,” is also available for download via the movie’s website, which also includes detailed information about the film and links to other related merchandise available for purchase. Amazon has the DVD, Blu-ray and soundtrack available for quick purchase and gifting. See www.scroogeandmarleymovie.com.

The post ‘Scrooge & Marley’ returns Dec. 6 and 7 To Chicago’s Music Box Theatre first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

CHICAGO — “Scrooge & Marley,” a modern-day variation on Charles Dickens’ classic holiday story, “A Christmas Carol,” is now available on DVD and soundtrack and Blu-ray.

The film is also playing in theaters nationally and in Canada this holiday season. In Chicago, it plays Friday, Dec. 21, 8:15 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 22 at 7:45 p.m.; and Thursday, Dec. 27, 7:45 p.m. at Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N., State Street, Chicago, http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/scroogeandmarley.

Acclaimed out actor David Pevsner portrays Ben Scrooge while former Saturday Night Live star Tim Kazurinsky appears as the Ghost of Jacob Marley. The film also stars Rusty Schwimmer, Bruce Vilanch, Megan Cavanagh, Ronnie Kroell, David Moretti, Richard Ganoung, and JoJo Baby. It is narrated by Tony award-winning actress Judith Light. The stars at the gala opening include Pevsner, Schwimmer, Vilanch, Cavanagh, Kroell, Moretti and Ganoung.

DVD:

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CHICAGO – Bring up the immortal classic “A Christmas Carol,” by author Charles Dickens, then bring up how many film and TV versions have been done using its basic story. After a half hour of listing every conceivable production, a gay version won’t be found. “Scrooge & Marley” is the new film that takes care of that category. The premiere was last week in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre.

Bruce Vilanch, Portrays Fezziwig in “Scrooge & Marley

Bruce Vilanch is a Hollywood legend, a comedy writer known for working up material backstage at the Academy Awards, and developing jokes for Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr and Robin Williams. He also spent four years on “Hollywood Squares” and wrote/performed a one-man show, “Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous.”

HollywoodChicago.com: You seem like you were born to play a party coordinator like Fezziwig. What impresses you about his character in the source novel that you wanted to make sure was in this version of the story?

Bruce Vilanch: I viewed him as being crazy, over-the-top and flamboyant, at least as far as Dickens could go with that character back then, and it seemed to coincide with what the writers did in this movie. My Fezziwig spends a lot of time in the 1970s, when it seemed like everyone was having a party, and he was the party provider. [laughs] It was a nice match.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which line or piece of written material first got you noticed as the joke writer that eventually got you backstage at the Academy Awards?

Vilanch: I started writing with Bette Midler, having met her in Chicago at Mr. Kelly’s nightclub, and my reputation grew as she started doing more. I don’t know if it was one single line, but I remember I sold Johnny Carson a one-liner a long time ago. There was a football player named Lance Rentzel in the 1970s, and he was arrested for exposing himself. So the joke was ‘it was cold today…how cold was it?…it was so cold that Lance Rentzel stopped me on the street and just described himself to me.’ It got me a lot of notice, and I started writing more jokes for him and other people. So I’ll use that line as a first.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the most controversial line you’ve ever written, who said it and what was the circumstance and setting?

Vilanch: I can’t think about the specific line, but I was involved when Ted Danzig did blackface at Whoopi Goldberg’s Friars Club roast. It was Whoopi’s idea, and Ted went along with it because their relationship at the time was ending, and they both thought it would be a good way to put a period on it. It was wildly controversial.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, if you had to write a saying on one of your famous tee-shirts that best describes this film, what would that line be?

Vilanch: We put the ‘dick’ back in Dickens. [laughs]

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