Christmas Day is in our grasp. Why the vodka? Glad you asked!
Who's Holiday! brings R-rated Cindy-Lou Who back to Theater Wit for her sixth consecutive year of adults-only holiday fun.
Step inside Chicago’s #1 holiday bedazzled mobile home to meet Cindy Lou-Who. She's 40 now, and ready to reveal the shocking true story of all the crazy things that happened after her Christmas Eve encounter with the Grinch.
Veronica Garza returns to her Jeff-nominated role as Cindy-Lou Who, now 40, flirty, and ready to spill the green tea about the Grinch. Photo: Noelle Harrison
Veronica Garza, who earned a Jeff nomination for originating the role in Chicago, and recently won a 2026 Jeff Award for Best Performer in a Supporting Role in Marriott Theatre’s A Little Night Music, is back as Cindy Lou-Who – funny, flirty and foul-mouthed as ever.
First Cindy-Lou welcomes audiences into her mobile home at the base of Mount Crumpit for a festive holiday party. After plying her guests with party snacks and Malort, she spills the green tea about the twisted turns her life took after her Christmas Eve encounter with the Grinch.
Veronica Garza is Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit's adults-only holiday show, Who's Holiday! Credit: Noelle Harrison
"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 sixth outing of this hilarious, heartfelt comedy by Matthew Lombardo. Also back is Angela Weber Miller’s Jeff Award-winning, Seuss-inspired set. Designers include Shelley Strasser, lights; Uriel Gomez, costumes; Lonnae Hickman, props, and Matthew R. Chase, sound and production manager.
Veronica Garza is Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit's adults-only holiday show, Who's Holiday! Credit: Noelle Harrison
"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.
Opening Night is Friday, November 27 at 7 p.m. Performances run through December 27: Saturday, November 28 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, November 29 at 3 p.m.; Monday, November 30 at 7 p.m. (Industry Night); Thursday and Friday, December 3 and 4 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 5 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday, December 6 at 3 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, December 10 and 11 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 12 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday, December 13 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, December 17 at 7 p.m., Friday, December 18 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Saturday, December 19 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, December 20 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.; Tuesday, December 22 at 7 p.m., Wednesday, December 23 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, December 26 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.: and Sunday, December 27 at 3 p.m. Run time is 70 minutes, no intermission. Tickets are $42-$70. Who’s Holiday! is for adults only. Tickets for children 12 and under are $500. 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 Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Convenient parking is available for $10 across the street 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.
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!
Veronica Garza as Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit's adults-only holiday show, Who's Holiday! Credit: Noelle Harrison
Who’s Holiday! Cindy-Lou Who’s Who:
(from left) Veronica Garza plays Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit’s return engagement of Who’s Holiday! directed by Christopher Pazdernik, written by Matthew Lombardo.
Veronica Garza (Cindy-Lou Who, she/her/hers) returns for her sixth 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 playing both Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan's mothers. Earlier this year Garza won a Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actor as Countess Charlotte Malcolm in Marriott Theatre’s A Little Night Music. Other roles include all the adult women in Mean Girls, 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) is thrilled to be spending his sixth Christmas in the trailer park! Described as having “a near encyclopedic knowledge of musicals," in 2024 they were named to Newcity Stage’s Players: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago. Their career began at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, followed by three seasons as Artistic Director of Refuge Theatre Project (Jeff Awards, Best Director and Best Production of a Musical, High Fidelity). They are also well-known for their long association with Porchlight Music Theatre, including directing eight Porchlight Revisits productions and three years as the Producing Artistic Associate. Most recently, they served as Producing Director for Theo Ubique Cabaret Theater for four seasons and currently, Managing Director for Season of Concern. Additional directing credits: Music Theatre Works, Chicago College of Performing Arts, Ohio Northern University, Round Barn Theatre, Hell in a Handbag, Underscore & CPA Theatricals. Casting credits: Porchlight, MIRACLE (World Premiere), House, Haven, Frame of Reference and Nova Entertainment. Earlier this fall, Pazdernik served as Dramaturg for the Chicago Premiere of A Strange Loop (Raven/About Face). An openly HIV+ artist, Christopher also produces the annual fundraising concert Belting for Life, benefiting AIDS Foundation 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 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” (Time Out New York).
Veronica Garza is Cindy-Lou Who in Theater Wit's adults-only holiday show, Who's Holiday! Credit: Noelle Harrison
Following Who’s Holiday!, Theater Wit’s 2026-27 season continues in with the Chicago premieres of Dead Outlaw, book by frequent Wit collaborator Itamar Moses, in a co-production with Porchlight Music Theatre, February 21-March 21 at the Zacek-McVay Mainstage at the Biograph Theatre and the Chicago premiere of We Had a World by Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Admissions, Prayer for the French Republic), March 12-April 25 at Theater Wit. Purchase tickets at theaterwit.org, call (773) 975-8150, or purchase in person at the Theater Wit box office.
Better yet, a great way to support Chicago’s storefront theater scene is to purchase a Theater Wit Membership. The monthly fee is just $35, often less than the price of a single ticket, $25 for students and $62 for a dual membership. For that, members see as many shows as they want on the company’s three stages – Theater Wit productions, resident, and visiting companies – year round. Sign up at theaterwit.org/boxoffice/membership.
In addition to Who’s Holiday!, visiting companies presenting seasonal shows over the holidays include Griffin Theatre’s The House Without a Christmas Tree, November 21-December 27, and It’s a Horrible Life: The Golden Girls Lost Episodes Musical Parody by Hell in a Handbag Productions, December 7-January 3.
Photos courtesy Theater Wit
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 Fall 2025, Theater Wit received a three-year, $600,000 grant from the Paul M. Angell Foundation in support of Theater Wit’s Shared Spaces program, which empowers the artistic work of independent itinerant theater producers through subsidized, affordable space rentals and tailored production, accessibility and administrative support.
To learn more, visit theaterwit.org or follow the company on Facebook or Instagram.
