Seussical the musical
Reveal Theatre and fusion performance arts presented Seussical the musical at the Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent during August 2008, Seussical the musical was Conceived by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens & Eric Idle.
Review by Fern Basnett of the Evening Sentinel
ON SATURDAY I watched a giant elephant, laughed at a wise cracking cat, and wondered at the antics of an entire civilisation living on a spec of dust. No it wasn't some strange dream, at least I hope not, it was Seussical – a musical featuring all the beloved characters from Dr Seuss.
This production at the Victoria Hall, in Hanley, was a collaborative venture between Reveal Theatre Company and Fusion Performance Arts, which starred over 24 talented local youngsters.
The story centres upon Horton an elephant (Matthew Newton), who hears voices coming from a spec of dust, and becomes convinced that therein lies the world's smallest universe.
How could anyone ever doubt him?
The tiny world is in fact Whoville, occupied by the Who's, and they are in trouble! Horton tries to help but he has the mischievous Wickersham Brothers and to deal with and the precious spec of dust gets lost.
As well as the adventures of Horton, the story also enters the parallel universe of Whoville, were young inhabitant JoJo is in serious trouble for too many uncontrolled "Thinks", resulting in him being sent to a military academy.
I must admit that, unlike the children, who took this very much in their stride, I was in danger of becoming a little confused at times. Luckily, that famous character Cat In AHat (Gareth Hughes) did a splendid job of narrating and helped to make sense of this colourful chaos.
There were over 14 specifically written songs in this show, which is a lot, given that none are well known. I would have liked to hear more of the wonderful poetic narrative for which the Dr Seuss books are famous. This production was infinitely more sophisticated than the average children's show.
Seussical celebrates the power of imagination as a world without limits, and really deserved to be much better supported by a larger audience. The creativity evident in costumes and make up was superb and with some wonderful characterisations by the cast, this was an excellent performance.
11-August-2008