The ongoing stagehands' strike had most of the theaters on West 44th Street dark. The Majestic Theater, home to "The Phantom of the Opera," and the Shubert, festooned with posters for "Monty Python's Spamalot," stood empty. But the sidewalk outside the St. James Theater, where "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical" reopened for an 11 a.m. Friday matinee, was thronged.

There were little girls in patent-leather shoes and parents jostling for tickets that went on sale after a judge ruled that "The "Grinch" could open despite the strike because of its short holiday run.

For Ed Dixon, who was preparing to go onstage, this morning's reopening of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical" after two weeks of picket lines and courtroom wrangling had all the punch of the denouement in a stage thriller.

"Being closed the day after we opened, having things go for us, then against us, then for us, last-minute witnesses saving the day!" said a gesticulating Mr. Dixon, who had just waddled down the backstage corridor in a voluminous dog suit he had not worn for two weeks. "You couldn't write this! It's a Hollywood version of a Broadway show."

Dressed as Old Max, the canine narrator of the musical based on the Dr. Seuss children's book, he wore floppy ears, a furry argyle vest, a bobbing tail and a circle of black makeup on his nose to suggest a snout. Minutes later he was onstage cavorting with elfin residents of Whoville.

The return of "The Grinch" brought the count of Broadway productions currently running to nine, as it joined a group of shows with separate contracts with the League of American Theaters and Producers. Performers, ticket-takers, and union officials said they hoped the reopening would push both sides in the strike toward a resolution in time for Broadway to reawaken for the holiday season.

"The theater is filled with imagery that moves people," said John Connolly, the executive director of Actors' Equity Association, who was inside the St. James. "This theater being open, all these people crowding the street outside - that's the image I hope will break the logjam. This is what Broadway is supposed to look like."

Jim and Susan Gray, who were in town from Broken Arrow, Okla., for a dental convention, had planned to take their children to the show on Wednesday , but when the strike canceled it, they resigned themselves to settling for the Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular. But when they heard "The Grinch" was back on, they rushed to buy tickets.

Their daughter, Hannah, 5, jumped up and down in her tulle dress as she waited to go in for her first Broadway show. Mrs. Gray, a teacher, who brings students to New York to see theater over spring break, said she had planned to see more shows, but was thrilled to be able to see at least one.

"That's what you do in New York - you see shows and you eat," she said.

Soon they were inside the theater's chaos. Souvenir sellers offered evil-looking long-fingered green Grinch gloves. A food vendor shouted: "Get your snacks now! No intermission!"

Mr. Dixon was onstage as Old Max: "The Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot," he declared as an ominous drum roll began and feathery snowflakes began to fall. "But the Grinch who lived just north of Whoville did not!"