Christopher Pazdernik Archives

Eight actors of various races and genders from Avenue Q stand onstage in front of the set, which is a brick apartment building with a green door. The actor in the center holds Princeton, a puppet, and the actors on the right of the photo also are all holding puppets. The actors on the left are not holding puppets.

Street songs

by Kerry Reid March 15, 2023March 15, 2023

In what was seen at the time as quite the upset, Avenue Q took home the Tony Award for best musical in 2004, beating out the Wicked machine and the critically acclaimed Caroline, or Change. The 2007 documentary ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway lays out the behind-the-scenes stories of that season, culminating in Avenue Q […]

A middle-aged white woman in a holiday dress, leggings, and plaid high heels sits at a kitchen table, her feet propped on the table. She is holding a cigarette and has her head thrown back as if in the middle of a funny story.

Theater Review

Season of the Grinch

by Katie Powers November 30, 2022November 30, 2022

After earning rave reviews during its Chicago premiere last year, Matthew Lombardo’s provocative take on a holiday classic makes a triumphant return to Theater Wit. Who’s Holiday follows a now 40-year-old Cindy Lou Who (Veronica Garza) as she tells the story of the infamous night she met The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and the not-so-heartwarming […]

On the left at a slight distance, a group of actors crouch with their arms outstretched. A Black man with his arms stretched to the side stands before them. On the right front, another Black man gestures with his arms in front of him toward the group. They are wearing bright clothes reminiscent of the 1960s.

Theater Review

The magic is gone

by Amanda Finn June 24, 2022June 24, 2022

Every piece of art has a timeliness. When it is born and put into the world, it becomes part of its identity for better or worse. For Godspell, that time has come and gone. First staged in 1971, this musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak is painfully dated. That cannot be fixed no matter […]

Veronica Garza as Cindy Lou Who, dressed in holiday-themed clothes, sits on a couch in front of a tinsel Christmas tree.

Theater Review

Cindy Lou Who is all grown up

by Dmitry Samarov December 1, 2021November 30, 2021

Christopher Pazdernik directs Matthew Lombardo’s 2017 grown-ups-only update of Dr. Seuss’s yuletide classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. On the outskirts of Whoville, in a modest but homey trailer, a very adult Cindy Lou Who recounts her meet-cute with the Grinch and the resulting fallout. Who’s Holiday! Through 12/26: see website for full schedule, Theater […]

Arts & Culture

Refuge Theatre lifts Hands on a Hardbody out of complete banality

by Justin Hayford March 22, 2019August 18, 2021

“If you want something,” they sing, “keep your hands on it.”

Arts & Culture

The Last Session’s backstory makes it more than a relic of the AIDS crisis

by Dan Jakes November 2, 2018August 18, 2021

Playwright Steve Schalchlin’s survival turns the musical into something hopeful and defiant.