Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
t’s a good thing kids LOVE the Children’s Theater Company’s annual holiday production of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! because there are many aspects of the musical that leave me feeling like my own heart may be two sizes too small. If you have little ones in your life, however, Grinch! is as close to a sure thing as you are likely to find this holiday season.
When the pandemic forced the Guthrie Theater to cancel the 2020 run of its perennial holiday performance of A Christmas Carol, the producers pivoted to a simple reading of Charles Dickens’s original text, read in turn by four actors, alone in front of a single camera. The result was as haunting as it was uplifting. The following year, the Guthrie brought on a whole new director and replaced their sprawling, high-budget production with a slimmer, simpler affair. Sunday’s performance of Grinch! left me wishing that it would get a similar treatment by the CTC–without a pandemic, of course!
Like A Christmas Carol, the story of the Grinch started off as a short story (or poem in this case). Seuss expanded it into the time-honored book that has been adapted and re-adapted over the years across many media formats. As it stands now, CTC’s Grinch! has become so bloated, loud, boisterous, and over-stimulating, it’s hard to even pick out the elements of Seuss’s source material from all of the additional filler that has been crammed into the show over the years. Perhaps more than anything, it is the portrayal of the Grinch himself that has suffered the most. Gone is the brooding and solitary figure alone in his mountain cave; replaced by a preening, malevolent bully who seems to relish terrorizing the Whos down in Whoville. It’s as though the director saw Jim Carey’s portrayal in the live-action film from 2000 and thought, “that’s fine, but what if he gave more Bronx mechanic vibes?”
While the title character gets all the attention, the real stars are the young actors playing Young Max and Cindy Lou Who. Harriet Spencer’s performance as Young Max on Sunday was the most dynamic and her rich, clear singing voice was especially notable.
Despite my pining for a simpler production, CTC’s Grinch! seems to grow ever more over-the-top, but that is just the sort of spectacle that children today expect. My three-year-old son was absolutely engrossed in the show from the moment the lights came up to the final bow. There’s no arguing with that, so get your tickets now.
Now through January 5, 2025 at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
Photo by Glen Stubbe
