Christmas Day with the Grinch, a short show and a long scroll
Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, December 25, 2025.
Christmas Day, one o’clock, and a show that sprinted
What better way to spend Christmas day than to see The Grinch on Broadway at the Washington Pavilion for a one o’clock matinee.
This was the shortest performance I’ve ever seen, only clocking in at one hour and twenty five minutes. That’s not a complaint, just an observation from a guy who blinked and realized we were already headed for bows.
This was also the first time that the doors were not opened half an hour prior to the show. While it was only 7 minutes, it felt longer. Seven minutes on Christmas with a crowd full of kids is not regular time. It’s Grinch time. It stretches.
The digital playbill hill I will die on
Again with the digital playbills. I know I talk about it most every Broadway review, but I will die on this hill.
This time it also got to me on the amount of advertisements that were between each “page” of the online playbill. This may be petty, but I counted. 7 ads between page 1 and 2, another 9 from page 2 to 3. This continued with the least amount being 3 later in the bill.
With a physical playbill I could easily turn a single page to be past all the ads, but this required scrolling to get to the next piece of information about the show I was seeing and it made my blood boil.
Digital is not automatically evil. But when it turns basic show info into an obstacle course, it’s not convenience. I did not come here for a scavenger hunt with the prize being the cast list.
Max narrating, a kid-first Grinch, and my jaded heart
Now back to the show. It was an interesting version of the beloved Dr. Seuss book, taking direction from the dog, Max, as the story’s narrator. That’s also part of the touring show’s whole setup, the older Max guiding the night, which gives it a warm bedtime-story feel. The official show overview on the production’s site leans hard into that classic, family-holiday vibe, and it makes sense once you see how the pacing moves.
This show was definitely fine tuned towards children, and maybe I’m a little jaded from the original cartoon version and the Jim Carrey mega hit, but this was a subpar show for my own liking.
Josh Woodie nailed the Grinch, but Max stole the whole thing
While the Grinch performer Josh Woodie, did a splendid job with the iconic role, it just wasn’t enough to push this to a must watch, but keep it at a, I’m glad I saw it, but don’t need to see it again.
There was a funny moment when the Grinch was taking away all the stocking from the fireplace when a throw of the stocking went a little too far and hit Cindy Lou in the face while she was sleeping. But she took it like a champ and didn’t even flinch. That’s live theatre for you. One little oops and suddenly you’ve got the hardest-working Cindy Lou in Whoville.
The star of the show in my mind was old Max himself W. Scott Stewart. This man was a reincarnation of Thurl Ravenscroft, the original singer of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” With a voice so low it sounded just like the original version.
That voice did the thing that the best holiday performances do. It snapped a memory into place. It made the room feel instantly more like Christmas than any snowflake projection ever could.
Afterglow
Overall I would say that if you have kids who enjoy live shows, I would consider bringing them if it’s around your neck of the woods during the holidays. The Washington Pavilion’s own write-up about the engagement, their Grinch week announcement, pretty much tells you what this show is built to do, pack the room with families and send them out smiling.
For someone like me, you might not need to go out of your way to see this one.
Still, I walked out with two things that stuck. One was the image of Cindy Lou getting beaned by a stocking and refusing to acknowledge pain like a tiny professional. The other was Old Max’s voice, that deep familiar rumble, reminding me that even when the show doesn’t fully win me over, Christmas sometimes shows up anyway in one perfect sound.
