Old frog eyes is back.
The Grinch, that green-skinned creature with the glowing bulbs, primordial hissing and a knack for being disgusting, is stealing gifts again at the Children's Theatre Company. And he does it all in a manner that still makes you go Eww.
As the antihero in "Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas," which opened over the weekend in Minneapolis, Reed Sigmund gargles milk then spits it back into the cup from whence it came. He delivers a compound burp that sounds like bowling pins crashing into one another in slow motion. And he hops around in his shaggy, mustard-green countenance like a thing that has broken out of its exhibit and is feeling its power.
Yet, when the Grinch meets Cindy-Lou Who (Monica Xiong), he melts and becomes almost civilized — a quiet, domesticated thing that may no longer relish abusing his faithful dog, Young Max (Matthew Woody, who alternates the role with Audrey Mojica).
In staging his last "Grinch" as leader of CTC, Peter Brosius has achieved some longheld desires that he has envied from the TV version of the Seuss classic.
His production features a little scene where the Grinch is driving his sleigh in the air up Mount Crumpit through the night, with his dog using its limbs like wings. It's a fleeting and magical bit of stagecraft.
Brosius has pulled out all the stops for the holiday show, which is briskly paced, boasts more antic dancing by choreographer Linda Talcott Lee and is chock full of small, winning details.
As the show moves toward the much more popular TV version, Brosius also makes good use of the snippet of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," which Dr. Seuss originally composed for his 1966 animated special and which is delivered onstage by Old Max (Dean Holt). That song augments the music of composer Mel Marvin, who collaborated with the late book-writer and lyricist Timothy Mason.
