Not That Kind of Wicked

Aerina DeBoer as Cindy Lou Who (center left), James Schultz as the Grinch (center right), and the touring company of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical. Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel.

A review of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical

by Kennedy Freiberg, age 12

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical is based on the book of the same name which is about the Grinch who HATES Christmas! Why? Well his heart is 2 sizes too small; he hates all the noise noise noise that the Whos are making. He ends up trying to “steal Christmas” and meets a little girl named Cindy Lou Who, who makes him realize Christmas isn’t about the presents—it’s about the people you share it with.

I genuinely enjoyed this production! The actors did really well, especially Emma Rose Marinoff as Cindy Lou Who, who is only about 8-13 years old and did genuinely so well. She was able to capture Cindy Lou Who’s character perfectly. The fact that she is so young and can sing that well is really impressive, and she showed off her talent in her song “Santa for a Day.” Her acting combined with her singing really just made it feel like she was Cindy Lou Who, which made the performance all the better.

Josh Woodie as the Grinch was also amazing. He was so funny and was also able to be emotional in the scenes when needed. My personal favorite song of his was “One of a Kind,” because his singing was fantastic and he was able to hit pretty high notes for someone in his vocal range. But of course his singing wasn’t the only thing that I liked; his acting was also so good, he broke the fourth wall a lot (but was still able to be his character in those scenes), and he was able to portray the Grinch really well.

In conclusion I loved Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, especially the Wicked references, the set, the acting, and the music!

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