{"id":237376,"date":"2014-12-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/whos-love-christmas\/"},"modified":"2014-12-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T08:00:00","slug":"whos-love-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/whos-love-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Whos love Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Charlene Baldridge | Revisi\u00f3n de teatro<\/p>\n

Nothing brings a community together so well as tradition. The same is true of family. This is especially true in the case of the Old Globe\u2019s annual tradition, a musical titled \u201cDr. Seuss\u2019 How the Grinch Stole Christmas!\u201d<\/p>\n

Seen opening night Nov. 20, the 17th annual production has become tradition\u00a0 \u2014 a perpetual gift to San Diego and San Diegans \u2014 just as envisioned by Dr. Seuss\u2019 widow, Audrey Geisel, and then-Globe Artistic Director Jack O\u2019Brien, who conceived and directed the first production here.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The cast of the 17th annual production of Dr. Seuss\u2019 How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, directed by James V\u00e1squez (Photo by Jim Cox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Those who attended O\u2019Brien\u2019s presentation of the concept will never forget his enthusiasm as he described the Whos, Whoville and John Lee Beatty and Robert Morgan\u2019s original scenic and costume designs. Other than slight tweaks to music and choreography, nothing much has changed. James V\u00e1squez, who has staged it since 2003, currently directs the work. Generations of young San Diegans have seen the show, pointed at the stage, and said, \u201cI want to do that,\u201d and they have, giving rise to legions of singing, dancing youth who enrich the local scene, then spread out, along with their younger brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n

\"(l<\/a>
(l to r) Burke Moses as The Grinch and Jeffrey Schecter as Young Max (Photo by Jim Cox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGrinch\u201d utilizes two teams of youngsters (Pink and Red), who alternate performances as Little Whos, Teen Whos, and name-role Whos. On opening night, 8-year-old Taylor Coleman portrayed Cindy-Lou Who for the second year, alternating with Gabriella Dimmick, also a repeat Cindy-Lou.<\/p>\n

Burke Moses, a Broadway star with impressive and numerous hunky credits, makes his debut as the Grinch, providing a musically fine, intentionally gauche green guy, whose conversion from heartless Christmas hater to who-man-being is exceptionally touching.<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s adult company is chock full of familiar and favorite Southern California singer\/actors, some debuting in the show and others returning. For instance, Robert J. Townsend (seen most recently as the father in San Diego Musical Theatre\u2019s \u201cNext to Normal\u201d) makes his debut as Papa Who opposite Bets Malone (her second year as Mama Who). Jill Townsend, Robert\u2019s wife and a formidable presence in any company, is among the six Grown Up Whos. Geno Carr and his wife Nancy Snow Carr portray Grandpa and Grandma Who, and extreme veteran Steve Gunderson returns to the show for his 12th year, this time as Old Max, the Grinch\u2019s dog. Old Max returns to Mt. Crumpit to say farewell before he leaves. He relates the story of Young Max (Jeffrey Schecter) and how he abetted the Grinch in his attempt to steal Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>Elan McMahan, resident music director at Vista\u2019s Moonlight Stage Productions, conducts the 8-member Who-Chestra, all represented by the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada. With book and lyrics by Timothy Mason and music by Mel Marvin, the show features \u201cYou\u2019re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,\u201d the vaudeville number \u201cOne of a Kind,\u201d and Cindy Lou\u2019s heart-stopping \u201cSanta for a Day,\u201d sung by the little girl who catches the Grinch stealing her family\u2019s Christmas everything and innocently believes him to be St. Nick.<\/p>\n

By the time the snow falls and the Grinch learns that Christmas cannot be stolen, all the children and adults in the audience are captivated. As a young boy on his way to the parking lot was heard to say, \u201cMommy, when can we come back?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. Her book \u201cSan Diego, Jewel of the California Coast\u201d (Northland Publishing) is currently available in bookstores. She can be reached at charb81@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

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By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review Nothing brings a community together so well as tradition. The same is true of family. This is especially true in the case of the Old Globe\u2019s annual tradition, a musical titled \u201cDr. Seuss\u2019 How the Grinch Stole Christmas!\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":237377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Whos love Christmas","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}