Theatre Review: Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical at PPAC

Let’s start with this: the kids seemed to like it. Well, most of them. Some were flat-out scared. I saw one youngster drag her parents out shortly after the show started.

We’re talking about “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical,” now on stage at the Providence Performing Arts Center. The half-hour cartoon featuring the Grinch has become a holiday staple, ranking up there with “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Dr. Seuss’ book is a must-have for young readers. At least it was in our house. Now it’s been fleshed out into a 90-minute intermission-free musical. And I must admit, I did not love it.

You know the story. The Grinch is a cranky sourpuss who lives in a cave atop a mountain overlooking Whoville. The Grinch hates Christmas, so much so that he concocts a plan to sneak into Whoville on Christmas Eve disguised as Santa Claus and steal everything related to Christmas. But that doesn’t stop the Whos from celebrating the next morning. “It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!”

Moral of the story: Christmas isn’t about the commercial aspect. It’s about the spirit of the season. 

The musical mostly stays true to the book, although it appears to borrow more from the Jim Carrey movie. The biggest problem on opening night was the sound. At the top of the show, Old Max (Bob Lauder) comes out as the story’s narrator. Max, you’ll recall, is the Grinch’s dog. Here he is, later in life, about to recount the story of how the Grinch stole Christmas. But you could barely hear him. When music came up under him, he was virtually unintelligible.

Things didn’t get any better as the show progressed. It was difficult to follow along with the lyrics to the songs, and hard to understand what most of the characters were saying. Even the song that’s become another holiday staple – “You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch” – was difficult to follow, even when it was a singalong with some of the lyrics displayed on the Grinch’s sleigh. Lauder’s voice sounded perfect for that song, but you could only hear it in bits.

The set pieces looked like they’d been designed by Dr. Seuss himself, so there was an element of familiarity there. Some of the dialogue comes straight from the book. Some is written for the show, trying to sound like something Seussian, but it doesn’t always work. Again, the sound failure may have had something to do with that.

There are moments that could have been wonderful. “One of a Kind,” performed by the Grinch (Anthony Cataldo), should be a showstopper. But because of the sound, it really wasn’t. 

I know I sound like a broken record, but to be fully appreciated, theater must be heard and understood. The young actor playing Cindy Lou Who (either Vivian Atencio or Trinity Vittoria DeVito) was wonderfully cute, but her singing was overpowered by the music.

Like I said at the start, most of the kids seemed to like it. So, let’s go with that. Meanwhile, I’m the guy sitting here perhaps with a heart two sizes too small – when it comes to “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” anyway.