Seussical the Musical

Never having seen Seussical before, and being much of a novice with regard to the weird and wonderful Dr Seuss stories, I wondered whether I was going to follow this show. However there were no fears on this score.  With a tremendously talented company led by an equally talented Production Team of Director (Iain Hughes), Musical Director (Peter Robinson) and Choreographer (Arlene Anderson), the story was effortlessly conveyed to even the most Seuss-ignorant person!

The musical takes characters from the Dr Seuss stories and intertwines them with a tale largely narrated by The Cat In The Hat (Brodi Orkney).  We hear about the Whos, and in particular JoJo (Alice Kemp), whose misadventures leave them living on a speck of dust, with their voices only audible to Horton the Elephant (Ben Anderson). Horton, in turn, is ridiculed by the other animals, except by Gertrude McFuzz (Millie Anderson) - a bird who is trying to gain his affections.

This show stretches the abilities of even a talented cast, particularly since it is nearly all sung - thirty seven numbers in this version. It would be extremely unfair to pick out any one member of the perfoming team for praise. Suffice to say that principals mentioned above together with Mayzie La Bird (Adele Ward), Mr & Mrs Mayor (Connor Wright & Brogan Orkney), General Schmitz (Oli Anderson) and Grinch (Sophie Williams) all gave superbly effective performances both in acting and singing. These, aided in every way by a paricularly enthusiastic chorus, gave a rousing start to the show and continued until the very last note had been sung.

Full use was made of a very workable set - the differing levels adding interest to the production. Costumes were colourful and appropriate, and all made in-house! This, together with effective lighting and good, clearly audible sound (the well-controlled Band of thirteen musicians never drowning out the young voices) made for a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining evening!

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