As a kid, I was a massive fan of the variety show. It was a chance to see all my favorite celebs make a brief cameo in a comedic sketch or see them forced to sing a song or two. One of the variety show stalwarts, Bruce Vilanch, brings back the art form in his holiday special, Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas.
Making the Yuletide Gay is set as an old TV Christmas special from the 60s and 70s hosted by the inimitable Paul Lynde (Michael Airington). Which begs the question…did you know Paul Lynde was gay? You learn something new every day.
All Paul wants to do is pour himself a glass of Christmas bourbon, but he’s constantly being interrupted by various guests knocking on the door or barging into his living room, all flanked by a squad of dancers. Guests include Tab Hunter (Spencer Day), Sal Mineo (David Hernandez), Liberace (David Maiocco), Evie Harris (Jack Plotnick), and Bea Arthur. Also making an appearance is Sirius/XM On Broadway host Set Rudetsky and drag queens Jackie Beat and Lady Bunny.
“…an old TV Christmas special from the 60s and 70s hosted by the inimitable Paul Lynde…”
If you’re looking for a Christmas special that honors and pays tribute to the birth of Jesus Christ, Making the Yuletide Gay is not for you. So before you can type the words “blasphemous,” it’s best for you to move on to Donny & Marie; the special is very gay and pretty much a drag show from start to finish.
Director Scott Rocket succeeds in creating a snowy Christmas special that takes place in the heart of Hollywood. Written by Vilanch, the show is loaded with Christmas spirit, and by Christmas spirit, I mean double entendre and a litany of sexual innuendo. Your favorite Christmas carols turn into gay anthems, and your favorite straight stars of the era…well, may not have been straight at all. Liberace?…who knew?
Vilanch is a master at the silly variety show. The brief comedy sketches are fun, and it’s joke after joke after joke, broken up by variety show quality musical dance numbers. Michael Airington is superb as Paul Lynde…it’s great that Airington can find work today as Paul Lynde. If David Maiocco as Liberace wasn’t actually playing the piano…well, I was fooled.
Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas was made for a specific audience. It pokes fun. It’s irreverent. It’s very gay…and it’s Christmas.
"…It's very gay...and it's Christmas."
I can’t believe some streaming service bought this. Not because of the gay theme, but because of its concept. It features characters from a bygone era. Anyone who knows who Paul Lynde, Sal Mineo, or Liberace are either dead or do not watch a streaming service. If Bruce Vilanch wrote & pitched this in the 80s to TV, and we were a more tolerable society, then it would be a hit. Vilanch pulled this out of his filing cabinet, blew the dust off the script and blew someone, to sell this to Amazon Prime.