Remember little Cindy-Lou Who, who was not more than two?
What became of that tot, after that Grinch and what-not?
Find out when Cindy-Lou Who, now 40, returns to Chicago’s Theater Wit for her fourth season in Who’s Holiday!, a comedy with a twist of rhyme, November 29-December 29, 2024.
Chicago theater star Veronica Garza returns to reprise her title role, holding court from Cindy-Lou Who’s holiday bedazzled mobile home at the base of Mount Crumpit.
Veronica Garza, Jeff-nominated as Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit’s Who’s Holiday!, back for her fourth season, November 29-December 29. Photos: Charles Osgood
First Cindy-Lou welcomes audiences inside. Next she plies them with snacks and shots. Only then does she reveal the true story of the twisted turns Cindy-Lou's life took after her Christmas Eve encounter with the Grinch.
It’s all told in R-rated Seussian rhyme, so…
Come join us for this grown-up Who's holiday fete!
Leave your kids at home (that's the safest bet.)
And try to catch up with Cindy-Lou Who's life,
She's seen some things due to her own grinch-y strife.
But nothing can dampen the holiday cheer:
Not vodka, not Rudolph, not even flat beer.
With a song in her heart, and a pipe full of weed
She'll celebrate trailer park living at need
Her wisdom dispensed with a shot and a leer.
For this is a holiday tale of such vision...
With smoking and drinking and gossip ...
...and prison.
Veronica Garza, Jeff nominated for her role as Cindy-Lou Who, returns for Theater Wit's fourth annual adultsonly holiday show, Who's Holiday! Credit: Charles Osgood
“A hell of a lot of fun,” raved the Chicago Reader. “Garza is a comic genius,” wrote 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 fourth 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.
The first performance and press opening night is Friday, November 29 at 7 p.m.
Shows continue Saturday, November 30 at 7 p.m..; Sunday, December 1 at 3 p.m.; Monday, December 2 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, December 5 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 6 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 7 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, December 8 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, December 12 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 13 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 14 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, December 15 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, December 19 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 20 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Saturday, December 21 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, December 22 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Monday, December 23 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, December 26 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 27 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Saturday, December 28 at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, December 29 at 3 p.m. Run time is 65 minutes, no intermission. For mature audiences only.
Tickets are $15-$45. Tickets for children 12 and under are $180. 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 and Instagram.
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 2024 remount of Who's Holiday! Credit: 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 fourth 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 Georgie in The Full Monty, 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 The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and 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.
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 – or $25 for students, and $62 for a dual membership - 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.
