Seussical

Crash Bang Wallop youth theatre group gave a fun evening of rhyme, song, dance, acrobatics and fabulous colour with this musical show of Dr Seuss books, that was certainly enjoyed by the audience throughout the evening

The opening song with good volume by the full cast on a brightly painted forest static set gave a colourful and energetic start to the night. The costumes were eye-catching colours and subtle animalistic nicely designed.

The "Young boy"/"JoJo" (Abigail Robertson) had a lovely voice and clear diction with a warm character, the "Cat in the hat" (Georgia Williams) in her super costume and make up gave a very dramatic performance as the eccentric all-knowing narrator to the piece, and "Horton the elephant" (Mackenzie Proll) was the sweet, empathetic, put-on character with a beautiful mellow tone and depth of feeling to his singing.  These three main leads were ably supported by the other principals, the very respectful Mayor and Mrs Mayor, (Theo Greening and Ella Smith), the sassy Mayzie Labird (Ella Murton), the desperate Gertrude McFuzz (Emma Kelly), very powerful jazzy voice of Sour Kangaroo (Elfie Boyle) punched through in each of her songs. General Genghis (Harry Gates) with his foreign accent that held all night gave a good character, and the very colourful dancing birds provided the more choreographed numbers with lovely harmonies too giving a depth of cast that this young cast should be most proud of.

The full cast of principals and chorus gave energy to their performances, great enthusiasm and smiles, climbed all around the high constructions very nimbly, and maintained their many varied characters through-out; even with an odd costume glitch of feathery nature, heart stopping trip at the top of the stairs, or sound error in the Wickershams’ trio with a mic not working, none were ever phased at all, carried on regardless. Well done.  There were songs with good harmonies, especially “It’s Possible”,  there were solos with lovely singing especially Mrs Mayor’s lovely soprano voice, there were songs with good diction especially JoJo, and songs with good comedy especially Gertrude with her growing tail feathers  and the “snot” sprays.

With the small stage area of the Forum the production team made good use of a side extension to the stage for the Whoville world that worked well , and cleverly painted to be part of the clover head and all the Whos had their own characterisations that was nice to see.  The reveal of the bath and ensuing song was done well and super voice of JoJo in the solo.  The lighting added good effects and more colour, changing moods and location effects, with good use of fluorescence for a “glowing fish” scene.

A full and enjoyable production by a great team effort. Well done all.

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