Cindy Lou Who is all grown up and peppering her rhyming couplets with enough 4-letter words to make a sailor blush as Anica Petrovic delivers the most dazzling of solo star turns in Matthew Lombardo’s Who’s Holiday at Hollywood’s Hobgoblin Playhouse.

You’d have to have had the most dismal of childhoods not to be familiar with Cindy Lou, the adorable Whoville toddler who surprised The Grinch mid Christmas tree theft, and I think we can all agree that there’s never a better example of the true spirit of Christmas than sweet, innocent Cindy Lou Who.

Well, like Britney Spears in her “…Baby One More Time” era, grown-up Cindy Lou is “not that innocent” anymore, as she quickly reveals while awaiting the arrival of her party guests on what promises to be the most festive of Christmas Eves.

“Such an innocent I was. Oh, the ignorance of youth. Then life starts to unfold and you get kicked in the tooth,” a sadder-but-wiser Cindy Lou informs us in speech patterns reminiscent of such childhood favorites as “Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Cat in the Hat,” and of course “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

 But no Dr. Seuss character ever spouted couplets like the rhymes Cindy Lou busts in Lombardo’s solo play, lines like “I watched for awhile as he was stealin’ our shit. Then I cooed by mistake and he saw me. That twit,” or “How would I know he was evil or crass? He gave me some water. Then patted my ass.”

In other words, leave the kids at home because Who’s Holiday is rated R for raunch.

It should also be rated H for heart, because no matter how foul her mouth may have gotten, even an outcast like Cindy Lou (who can no longer show her face in Whoville for reasons that will soon be revealed) will have ours breaking a bit when guest after guest calls to inform her that they won’t be celebrating Christmas Eve chez Cindy Lou this year.

As for the reason her entire guest list seems to have turned against her, well that probably has something to do with how Cindy Lou’s best friendship with the Grinch changed the day she turned eighteen and “he took me alone to the dock. Where he gave me my present. His big, thick, long …” (Thankfully for those with sensitive ears, the phone rings just as Cindy Lou is about to complete this particular rhyming couplet.)

 The rest, as they say, is Whoville history, though to find out more you’ll have to head over to the Hobgoblin where Anica (pronounced Ah-nee-tsa) Petrovic delivers her most sensational performance yet, and that’s saying something given than just a year and a half ago she won her very first Scenie as Breakout Performer Of The Year.

And what a role Lombardo has written for a solo star to dazzle in, one that scored L.A. musical theater legend Lesli Margherita a rave from the New York Times when she originated the role off-Broadway in 2017.

 Looking gorgeous as all get-out in a pair of sexy holiday outfits designed by Angela Manke and performing under Taylor Wesselman’s spot-on direction, Petrovic positively sizzles as Cindy Lou, captivating us from her first entrance and never missing a beat or letting go of our hearts for the entirety of the play’s 60-minute running time.

Gregory Craft’s lighting design is pretty darned dazzling too, with music director Ben Barahona Ginsberg earning snaps of his own as Petrovic belts out “Blue Christmas” and has the audience joining in on “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”

 The production’s uncredited set, specifically designed to be quickly struck so that the next show in Hobgoblin’s Frosty Fest can move into the theater, is Christmas Eve-party festive.

Who’s Holiday is produced for Domino One Productions by Wesselman and Petrovic. Jordan Adelman is assistant director and stage manager. Madelyne Heyman is weed consultant.

 You don’t have to be a Dr. Seuss fan (though who isn’t, really?) to fall in love with Cindy Lou Who in Who’s Holiday, and with Anica Petrovic stealing every scene she’s in (which is all of them), there’s no more tantalizing theatrical treat in town.

The Hobgoblin Playhouse, 1516 N Gardner St, Los Angeles.
www.frostyfestla.com

–Steven Stanley
December 11, 2025
Photos: Mirjana Mededovic and Christopher Higginson

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Hobgoblin Playhouse, Los Angeles Theater Review, Matthew Lombardo