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 fifth season of bawdy holiday hilarity in Who’s Holiday!, November 28-December 28, 2025.
Chicago theater star Veronica Garza returns to reprise her title role, holding court from Cindy-Lou Who's mobile home at the base of Mount Crumpit. Opening Night is Friday, November 28 at 7 p.m.
Veronica Garza, Jeff-nominated as Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit’s Who’s Holiday!, back for her fifth season, November 28-December 28. Photos: Charles Osgood
First Cindy-Lou welcomes audiences inside her holiday bedazzled trailer. Next she plies them with party snacks and shots of Malort. 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.
Christmas Day is in our grasp.
Why the vodka? Glad you asked!
The tot from The Grinch has grown, you see.
She's cursing and drinking. She’s super messy.
Her FIVE YEARS at Theater Wit have been nothing but trouble!
And this year, we fear
She’s gonna make it a DOUBLE!
Veronica Garza, Jeff-nominated for her role as Cindy-Lou Who, returns for Theater Wit's fifth annual adults-only holiday show, Who's Holiday! Credit: Charles Osgood
"Raunchy, hilarious, and shatteringly honest, you won’t even care that a tear sneaked out," raved Third Coast Review. "Who’s Holiday is a gutsy one-woman show that is both hilarious and heart breaking in the best of ways. No hold backs, no rules, and no shame."
“Garza is a comic genius,” added Chicago Theater Review, hailing Who’s Holiday! “a very funny, often poignant production guided with panache by an excellent director.” The Chicago Reader called Wit’s annual holiday bon bon “a hell of a lot of fun” adding “Garza’s performance offers surprises for her audience at every nook and cranny.”
Director Christopher Pazdernik returns to direct Wit’s fifth outing of this hilarious, heartfelt 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.
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.
"Raunchy, hilarious, and shatteringly honest, you won’t even care that a tear sneaked out," raved Third Coast Review. "Who’s Holiday is a gutsy one-woman show that is both hilarious and heart breaking in the best of ways. No hold backs, no rules, and no shame."
“Garza is a comic genius,” added Chicago Theater Review, hailing Who’s Holiday! “a very funny, often poignant production guided with panache by an excellent director.” The Chicago Reader called Wit’s annual holiday bon bon “a hell of a lot of fun” adding “Garza’s performance offers surprises for her audience at every nook and cranny.”
Director Christopher Pazdernik returns to direct Wit’s fifth outing of this hilarious, heartfelt 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.
Enjoy Seuss-themed specialty cocktails like Cindy's Little Helper (pictured), The Grinch, The Snowplow or a Who-skey Sour at Theater Wit's bar during the run of Who's Holiday!
Or, see if Cindy Lou-Who picks YOU to drink a shot of Malort at the top of the show.
Veronica Garza returns as an adult Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit's
2025 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) returns for her fifth season 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 Rona Lisa Perretti in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Georgie in The Full Monty, Rosalie Mullins in School of Rock (Jeff nomination, Best Supporting Actor) and the Deputy in Groundhog Day (all at 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) is a Jeff Award-winning director and producer who has been active in Chicago theatre since 2007. Described as having “a near encyclopedic knowledge of musicals," they were recently named to Newcity Stage’s Players 2024: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago. Pazdernik made his Wit debut with Who’s Holiday! in 2021. He is currently 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 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. He is currently managing director of Season of Concern.
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 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.
In September, Theater Wit announced new and unprecedented support for Chicago’s neighborhood theater community in the form of a new, three-year, $600,000 grant from the Paul M. Angell Foundation for Theater Wit’s Shared Spaces program. The program, launched in 2024 with seed money from the Richard M. Driehaus Foundation, is already empowering the artistic work of up to 20 independent and itinerant theater producers annually through subsidized space rentals at more than 50 percent off the standard market rate, plus tailored production, accessibility, and administrative support.
A great way for audiences 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 – $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.
To learn more, visit theaterwit.org or follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.
