‘Who’s Holiday!’ is the Off-Central’s off-center Christmas show

Back in 2016, the estate of children’s author Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel attempted shut down the stage comedy Who’s 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 “transformative parody.”

Lucky St. Pete. This week, the Off-Central launches its second annual holiday season run of Who’s Holiday!, Michael Lombardo’s wacky play in which a now-grown Cindy Lou Who – boozy and flirty and living alone in a tacky trailer – recounts her torrid love affair with the Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

It’s most definitely not a show for children.

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.

“Alaina,” he says, “has a very natural positivity and a bubby personality. Just super-positive, hard worker, eager to learn. She’s been fantastic to work with on this project.”

Director Dylan Barlowe. Screengrab.

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.

The relationship between the director and the solo performer, in such a production, is “very symbiotic, in the sense that I’m certainly giving her direction on blocking, character work etcetera,” Barlowe explains. “But 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.”

What’s tricky about a one-person show, he continues, “is that you don’t necessarily have that energy to feed off of, from another performer onstage.”

The director, therefore, becomes the actor’s trusted sounding board. Their mirror.

And that’s how the relationship between the character and the audience is formed. The character “breaks the fourth wall” by taking the audience into their confidence.

The audience enters Cindy Lou Who’s “home” before she does, before her “party guests” arrive. “And she has a moment at the top of the show, before the text even starts, with – she and I have talked about – the character not even ‘having the mask on’ yet. And coming in, having a moment of privacy. Which helps Alainna sort of ground, and be comfortable taking up space.

“And naturally, (in that situation) you feel ‘Well, all eyes are on me, so I’ve got to keep talking the entire time.’ But we’ve given her that moment where it’s the quiet before the storm. Where nobody’s come over yet; you’re not ‘on’ yet, so to speak.

“She’s in a private moment, and then she recognizes ‘Oh, jeez, there are people here!’ And now she’s on.”

The party guests never do turn up.

A graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts’ musical theater program, Barlowe went on to study acting at Chicago’s Columbia College, where he minored in stage combat – along with acting and directing, “safely faking the fight” is a big part of his theater wheelhouse. “It allowed me to get certified with eight different weapons, with the American Society of Fight Directors,” he says.

There’s no combat in Who’s Holiday!, although Cindy Lou – in her ribald and somewhat ridiculous way – recounts a few chilling moments with her creepy green paramour, as part of her ongoing narrative.

“It’s just a load of fun,” Barlowe enthuses. “If you’re of a certain generation, like me, that grew up with the Ron Howard Grinch movie … the Cindy Lou Who that we know to be true is not the Cindy Lou Who we know to be true in this show.”

Who’s Holiday! opens Thursday and will run through Dec. 21. For showtimes and tickets, click this link.