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<\/p>\nBack in 2016, the estate of children\u2019s author Theodor \u201cDr. Seuss\u201d Geisel attempted shut down the stage comedy Who\u2019s Holiday! A judge ruled that the play did not, as claimed, infringe on the Seuss copyright (it satirizes characters from How the Grinch Stole Christmas) but was allowed as a \u201ctransformative parody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucky St. Pete. This week, the Off-Central launches its second annual holiday season run of Who\u2019s Holiday!, Michael Lombardo\u2019s wacky play in which a now-grown Cindy Lou Who \u2013 boozy and flirty and living alone in a tacky trailer \u2013 recounts her torrid love affair with the Mean One, Mr. Grinch.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s most definitely not a show for children.<\/p>\n
Alaina Rahaim makes her Off-Central debut as Cindy Lou. According to director Dylan Barlowe, the bright-eyed South Florida native conveys the right amount of innocence and insouciance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlaina,\u201d he says, \u201chas a very natural positivity and a bubby personality. Just super-positive, hard worker, eager to learn. She\u2019s been fantastic to work with on this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Director Dylan Barlowe. Screengrab.<\/p>\n
Barlowe is himself no stranger to the one-person show template. In 2023, he appeared in Every Brilliant Thing, the emotional memory play by Duncan Macmillan and Johnny Donahoe, at The Studio@620.<\/p>\n
The relationship between the director and the solo performer, in such a production, is \u201cvery symbiotic, in the sense that I\u2019m certainly giving her direction on blocking, character work etcetera,\u201d Barlowe explains. \u201cBut a lot of the show is so reliant on the performer being comfortable and confident taking up the space for as long as they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s tricky about a one-person show, he continues, \u201cis that you don\u2019t necessarily have that energy to feed off of, from another performer onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The director, therefore, becomes the actor\u2019s trusted sounding board. Their mirror.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s how the relationship between the character and the audience is formed. The character \u201cbreaks the fourth wall\u201d by taking the audience into their confidence.<\/p>\n
The audience enters Cindy Lou Who\u2019s \u201chome\u201d before she does, before her \u201cparty guests\u201d arrive. \u201cAnd she has a moment at the top of the show, before the text even starts, with \u2013 she and I have talked about \u2013 the character not even \u2018having the mask on\u2019 yet. And coming in, having a moment of privacy. Which helps Alainna sort of ground, and be comfortable taking up space.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd naturally, (in that situation) you feel \u2018Well, all eyes are on me, so I\u2019ve got to keep talking the entire time.\u2019 But we\u2019ve given her that moment where it\u2019s the quiet before the storm. Where nobody\u2019s come over yet; you\u2019re not \u2018on\u2019 yet, so to speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s in a private moment, and then she recognizes \u2018Oh, jeez, there are people here!\u2019 And now she\u2019s on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party guests never do turn up.<\/p>\n
A graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts\u2019 musical theater program, Barlowe went on to study acting at Chicago\u2019s Columbia College, where he minored in stage combat \u2013 along with acting and directing, \u201csafely faking the fight\u201d is a big part of his theater wheelhouse. \u201cIt allowed me to get certified with eight different weapons, with the American Society of Fight Directors,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no combat in Who\u2019s Holiday!, although Cindy Lou \u2013 in her ribald and somewhat ridiculous way \u2013 recounts a few chilling moments with her creepy green paramour, as part of her ongoing narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a load of fun,\u201d Barlowe enthuses. \u201cIf you\u2019re of a certain generation, like me, that grew up with the Ron Howard Grinch movie \u2026 the Cindy Lou Who that we know that we know to be true is not the Cindy Lou Who we know to be true in this show.\u201d<\/p>\n