Episode 48: BONUS! Mrs. Santa Claus Saves Christmas

BONUS! TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE: In celebration of Petra and Viktor closing out the second season of our favorite cozy mystery, we are upping the cozy and adding some froth, saccharine, and a full Jerry Herman (LA CAGE, MAME, HELLO DOLLY) score of songs we think may have been in a drawer for a while.  It's MRS. SANTA CLAUS, the post-Murder She Wrote television movie also starring Charles Durning, Michael Jeter, and Terrence Mann.  If you've not yet experienced this overstuffed spectacle, you don't even have to whistle: we're here to get you through it.

In this musical that depicts early 20th century New York as a rich, clean, patchwork quilt of races that get along, on the cusp of women's liberation, and one that still sort of glorifies child labor as long as they're well-heated, Angela Lansbury takes on the the titular role as only she can: fully committed, utterly delightful, and surrounded by actors who can only try to keep up.