Sunstone Finds the Heart of Christmas with ‘Who’s Holiday’

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Image: Sunstone Studios

Sunstone Studios 'Who's Holiday'

Much of the spirit of the holiday season is so hopelessly entombed in an imperviously superficial wrapping paper of perfunctory sentimentality. Sunstone Studios cleverly sneaks beyond the cliches of the holidays to find genuine heart in Christmas as it hosts one-woman holiday show of impressive depth and nuance: Who’s Holiday. Written by Matthew Lombardo, the show features Samantha Sostarich as Cindy-Lou Who all grown-up. The audience hangs out with the beloved Seuss character as she tells stories of all that has happened to her since her first encounter with the Grinch. Things get considerably adult from there as Sostarich deftly glides through intricacies of lost innocence. It hasn’t been an easy life for her. She has been in some pretty dark places prior to arriving at the trailer where she’s hosting her party.

On a surface level, the adult end comedy plays very much like a naughty adult post-mortem on How the Grinch Stole Christmas complete with rhyming couplets. The crass end of the humor digs-in just long enough to draw-in the audience before things begin to get considerably more sophisticated. As Cindy-Lou tells the story of her life after the events of Seuss’ tale, complexity gradually filters-in around dark, little jokes to reveal something of great complexity. Sostarich brings a warm and loving character to the stage. Lombardo’s script asks for a hell of a lot of the woman in the lead. Sostarich does some very beautiful things with the challenges of the script, which allow her to do lighthearted comedy, heart-crushing drama and everything in between in an impressively articulate and concise hour with an irresistibly charming character.

Sunstone Studios’ production of Who’s Holiday runs Mondays and Tuesdays through Dec. 20 at Sunstone’s space on 127 E. Wells Street.