The only thing more fun than reading a Dr. Seuss book is seeing a magical musical extravaganza—live, onstage. Based on selections from the enormously popular works of Dr. Seuss, SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL centres around Horton The Elephant who discovers a tiny community of “Whos” on a dust speck. Against the ridicule of others, Horton learns to stand up to opposition as he discovers that, “A person’s a person no matter how small”. Meanwhile, Jojo, a boy from the Who community, encounters the Cat in the Hat who makes Jojo’s imagination come alive and teaches that, “Anything’s Possible”.
SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL is not just for kids, but the kid in all of us.
This was my first time to see a production of SEUSSICAL, and I’ll say that, typical to Palm Canyon Theatre’s form, the show was better than solid. I’ll admit that I’m usually not a fan of any performance by a local company that uses children in the cast – especially in large quantity. Although SEUSSICAL is one of them, Don Lillie’s direction worked and he was able to coral and control them (for the most part) having them enhance the story rather than distracting from it — for the most part – did I already say that? As is the challenge with any production featuring a large number of non-professional children on stage, there will be some glitches. Although the performance I attended was was no exception, the glitches mostly added to the “cute” factor.
The songs are fun and tuneful and the execution overall is good. The performances that stand out the most are Nicholas Sloan as Cat In the Hat, and Mado Nunez as Horton the Elephant. Sloan’s Cat seemed to have jumped directly out of his mischievous shenanigans from one of Seuss’ books and on to the Palm Canyon stage in true Cat in the Hat fashion, while Nunez just made me laugh – and Nunez could sing too. Both were very well cast in their roles and were able to bring the iconic storybooks to life.
J.W. Layne’s artistic designs jump off the stage and effortless transport you into Seuss’ pages the moment you enter the theatre and costume design is equally as impressive.
I say go see it – and take the kids. This is truly a show that is for both children and adults. There is enough content and visual excitement to keep the kids engaged, and enough adult humor to keep the adults from getting bored (and not so adult that the children will understand things they shouldn’t – if you get my drift).
SEUSSICA THE MUSICAL runs thru July 20th with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm.
Palm Canyon Theatre is located at 538 North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, CA. For tickets and more information contact Palm Canyon Theatre at 760.323.5123 or www.palmcanyontheatre.org.
SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL stars Mado Nunez as Horton, Nicholas Sloan as Cat in the Hat, Jamie Leigh Walker as Gertrude, Allegra Angelo as Mazzie and Brianna Finnell as Kangaroo.
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Book by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
Co-conceived by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Eric Idle
Based on the works of Dr. Seuss
Palm Canyon Theatre is currently offering subscription packages for the 2014-2015 Season.
