Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS announced today that Lesli Margherita will star in the upcoming livestream of the critically acclaimed, Off-Broadway hit Who’s Holiday!. The livestream is set for Friday, December 11, 2020 and serve as a fundraising event for BC/EFA.
Watch the free one-hour stream at broadwaycares.org/whosholiday beginning at 8 pm Eastern. The performance will be available through December 15.
Who’s Holiday! tells the story of a middle-aged Cindy Lou Who, now residing in a beaten-down trailer in the snowy hills of Mount Crumpit. As she prepares to host a Christmas Eve party for her friends, she recalls her own perspective of that fateful night when she first met the Grinch, and the strange turn of events her life has taken for the past 40 years. The one-woman show was craftily written by Matthew Lombardo in a rhyming scheme homage to Dr. Seuss. Filmed during the show’s celebrated 2017 Off-Broadway run at the Westside Theatre. This is its first streamed performance.
Margherita, an Olivier Award winner for her West End debut in Zorro , made her Broadway debut originating the role of Mrs. Wormwood in Matilda The Musical. After more than 1,000 performances, she bid farewell to the Broadway company of Matilda and crossed the street to The Helen Hayes to star as the diva Mona Kent in the Broadway premiere of Dames at Sea. Margherita returned to Matilda to close out its Broadway run. Margherita has had recurring television roles on Homeland, Instinct, Seven Seconds, Transparent and The Crew. She can be seen in the upcoming film The Many Saints of Newark (the prequel to The Sopranos).
Lombardo is the playwright of Broadway’s High with Kathleen Turner and Looped starring Valerie Harper in a Tony-nominated performance. Off-Broadway, Lombardo wrote Who’s Holiday!, Tea at Five with Kate Mulgrew, Mother and Child with Ann Wedgeworth and more. His work has been produced at American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Rep and others.
Who’s Holiday! was directed onstage by Carl Andress, with set design by David Gallo, costume design by Jess Goldstein, wig design by Charles G. Lapointe, lighting design by Ken Billington and Jonathan Spencer and sound design by Bart Fasbender. Who Holiday! was originally produced by WhovilleTheatrical, Scott and JennyBeck, Jason Shaw, Ken Fakler, Drew Desky/Dane Levens and Darren Bagert. The show was filmed by David Kane.
The stream is free and donations will be accepted for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at broadwaycares.org/whosholiday2020. Every dollar donated will help those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses receive healthy meals, lifesaving medication, emergency financial assistance, housing, counseling and more. The donations also support and champion organizations focused on social justice and anti-racism.