Cindy Lou Who, now 40, holds court from her trailer home, retelling the story of the sordid events after she met the Grinch in Who’s Holiday!, Theater Wit’s smash hit holiday show, back for the season, November 24-December 30. Opening is Friday, November 24 at 7 p.m.
Chicago theater star Veronica Garza returns to her Jeff-nominated role as Cindy Lou Who, who, in R-rated Seussian rhyme, welcomes audiences inside her trailer home, plies them with snacks and shots, and ultimately shares the untold story of the twisted turns her life took following her Christmas Eve encounter with a green furry outcast.
Veronica Garza, Jeff nominated as Cindy Lou Who in Theater Wit’s Who’s Holiday! by Matthew Lombardo, directed by Christopher Pazdernik, is back for her third season, Nov 24-Dec 30, 2023. Credit: Charles Osgood
“A hell of a lot of fun,” wrote the Chicago Reader.
“Garza is a comic genius,” raved Chicago Theater Review, hailing Who’s Holiday! “a very funny, often poignant production guided with panache by an excellent director.”
That director is Christopher Pazdernik, who returns to direct Wit’s third outing of this hilarious, heartfelt holiday comedy by Matthew Lombardo. Also back is Angela Weber Miller’s Jeff Award-winning, Seuss-inspired recreation of Cindy Lou Who’s holiday-bedazzled mobile home. Designers include Shelley Strasser, lights; Uriel Gomez, costumes; Lonnae Hickman, props, and Matthew R. Chase, sound and production manager.
Veronica Garza, Jeff nominated for her portrayal last holiday season as an adult Cindy Lou Who, returns for Theater Wit's 2023 remount of Who's Holiday! Credit: Charles Osgood
First performance and press opening night is Friday, November 24 at 7 p.m. Shows continue Saturday, November 25 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, November 26 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, November 30 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 1 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 2 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, December 3 at 3 p.m.; Monday, December 4 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, December 7 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 8 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 9 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, December 10 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, December 14 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 15 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Saturday, December 16 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, December 17 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Wednesday, December 20 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, December 21 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 22 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Saturday, December 23 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Tuesday, December 26 at 7 p.m.; Wednesday, December 27 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, December 28 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 29 at 7 p.m.; and Saturday, December 30 at 7 p.m. Run time is 65 minutes, no intermission. For mature audiences only.
Tickets are $39-$48. Purchase tickets at theaterwit.org or call the Theater Wit box office, (773) 975-8150.
Theater Wit is located at 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in the Belmont Theatre District in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Convenient parking is available for $8 across the street from the theater in the lot behind Kubo restaurant (pay at the Theater Wit box office.) Neighborhood street parking is available, as are private paid lots (tip: book ahead and at a discount with Spothero). Theater Wit is also accessible via the CTA 77 Belmont bus, and is three blocks west of the CTA Belmont Red/Brown/Purple line stop.
To learn more, visit theaterwit.org or follow the company on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Press play to watch and download video of Cindy Lou Who asking the audience, "remember me?"
Press play to screen and download video of Cindy Lou Who rapping in Who's Holiday! More video clips here.
Veronica Garza returns as an adult Cindy Lou Who in Theater Wit's 2023 remount of Who's Holiday! Credit: Charles Osgood
Christmas Day is in our grasp. Where’s the vodka? Glad you asked!
Veronica Garza returns as an adult Cindy Lou Who in Theater Wit's 2023 remount of Who's Holiday! Credit: Charles Osgood
Be sure to stop by Theater Wit’s lobby bar for snacks, chocolates, a curated selection of beer, wine and soda, plus your pick of this year’s Who’s Holiday!-themed seasonal speciality drinks:
Cindy’s Little Helper (a dessert shot! $6)
Fast and Delicious: Luxardo Cherry liqueur, Mozart Chocolate liqueur, whipped cream and a cherry
Who’sy Boozy Hot Chocolate ($12)
Hot & Sweet: Hot Cocoa, Peppermint Rumchata, Amaretto Liqueur, Whiskey Acres Bourbon, whipped cream, candy cane crumbles.
Who-skey Sour ($12)
Sweet and Sour: Jameson, Plymouth Sloe Gin, House-infused Citrus Vodka, Rose’s Lime
The Snowplow ($12)
Creamy and Nutty Spices: Peppermint Rumchata, Shipwreck Coconut Rum
Krampusberry ($12)
Refreshingly Tart: Koval Cranberry Gin, North Shore Gin, Seltzer, Cinnamon stick
Spiced Apple Cider ($5)
Hot & Freshly Spiced: And could be freshly Spiked as well! For additional warmth: add any Liqueur +$4 (we like Koval Ginger) or Liquor +$6 (try the Four Roses small batch bourbon)
Cindy's Little Helper
Veronica Garza returns as an adult Cindy Lou Who in Theater Wit's 2023 remount of Who's Holiday! Credit: Charles Osgood
Angela Weber Miller’s Jeff Award-winning mobile home set for Theater Wit's Who's Holiday! Photo: Charles Osgood
Who’s Holiday! Who’s Who:
(from left) Veronica Garza plays Cindy Lou Who in Theater Wit’s return engagement of Who’s Holiday! by Matthew Lombardo, directed by Christopher Pazdernik.
Veronica Garza (Cindy Lou Who, she/her/hers) returns for her third year as Cindy Lou Who, a role that earned her a Jeff Nomination, Best Actor in 2021. She also performed at Theatre Wit in Underscore Theatre’s Tonya and Nancy: A Rock Opera, for which she received a Jeff Award for her role as both Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan's mothers. Other roles include Rosalie Mullins, School of Rock (Jeff nomination, Best Supporting Actor) and the Deputy in Groundhog Day (Paramount), Roz in 9 to 5 (Firebrand), Sister Amnesia in Nunsense (Milwaukee Rep), Babs in Miracle (Royal George), Prudie in Pump Boys and Dinettes (Theatre at the Center and Timberlake Playhouse), The Homeless Lady in A New Brain (Theo Ubique), Lucy in A Charlie Brown Christmas (Broadway Playhouse) and the Fortune Teller in Sideshow (Porchlight).
Christopher Pazdernik (director, any pronouns) made his Wit debut with Who’s Holiday! He is Producing Director for Theo, where his credits include Assassins, Godspell and 8-TRACK: The Sounds of the 70s. Previously, Pazdernik was artistic director for three seasons of Refuge Theatre Project (Jeff Awards, Best Director and Best Production of a Musical, High Fidelity), and he has had a long association with Porchlight Music Theatre, including directing eight Porchlight Revisits productions and three years working in producing, casting and company management. He recently staged Avenue Q for Music Theatre Works. Also an openly HIV+ artist, Pazdernik is the founder and producer of Belting for Life, an annual benefit concert for Howard Brown Health, and co-captain of Team Option Up! for AIDS Run/Walk Chicago.
Matthew Lombardo (playwright, he/him/his) Broadway: High with Kathleen Turner at the Booth Theatre and Looped starring Valerie Harper in a Tony-nominated performance at The Lyceum Theatre. Off-Broadway: Who’s Holiday! (with Lesli Margherita) at the Westside Theatre; Tea at Five (with Kate Mulgrew) at the Promenade Theatre; Mother and Child (with Ann Wedgeworth) at Second Stage; End of the World Party at the 47th Street Theatre (director) and Guilty Innocence at The Actors’ Playhouse. His work has been produced at such prestigious theaters as Hartford Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, American Repertory Theatre, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and others. Television credits include Another World (WGA Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Writing). As a producer, he has presented concerts throughout the country for Broadway legends such as Carol Channing, Patti LuPone, Tommy Tune, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook, Billy Porter, Betty Buckley, Andrea McArdle and Faith Prince.
Who’s Holiday! returns to Theater Wit not without controversy. In 2017, Lombardo was locked in a legal battle with Dr. Seuss Enterprises over accusations of copyright infringement, delaying the play’s New York premiere for nearly a year. A U.S. District Court eventually ruled in Lombardo’s favor, citing his depiction of an adult Cindy Lou Who living in a trailer on Mount Crumpit as “fair use.”
Freed of red tape, Who’s Holiday! went on to be hailed “a raunchy riff on Dr. Seuss’s yuletide tale” (New York Times) that “dares to be as tasteless as possible while replicating Seuss’s trademark rhythms” (Time Out New York).
About Theater Wit, Chicago’s “Smart Art” theater
As a production company, Theater Wit is the premier smart art theater in Chicago, producing humorous, challenging, and intelligent plays that speak with a vibrant and contemporary theatrical voice.
As an institution, Theater Wit seeks to be the hub of the Chicago neighborhood theater scene. Led by Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler, Wit brings together Chicago’s best storefront theater companies in its three, 99-seat spaces, where audiences find a smorgasbord of excellent productions, see the work of a parade of talented artists, and mingle with audiences from all over Chicago.
Next spring, Theater Wit takes on a comic exploration of objectum sexuality with its Chicago premiere of Inanimate, Nick Robideau’s New York Times Critics Pick about a woman in love with a Dairy Queen sign, March 22-May 4, 2024. Press opening is Monday, April 1 at 7 p.m.
A great way to show support for Chicago storefront theater is to purchase a Theater Wit Membership. For a low monthly fee of $35 – often less than the price of a single ticket – Theater Wit members see as many shows as they want on the company’s three stages, year round. Sign up at theaterwit.org/boxoffice/membership.
Note: Theater Wit follows the community masking guidelines recommended by the Chicago Department of Public Health and CDC. At press time, the community risk level is low, and mask use is optional. For updates, visit theaterwit.org/about/covid.