Seussical The Musical

I didn’t think that the Cat In the Hat stories by Dr Seuss appeared to immediately lend themselves to a full size musical theatre production, but RTSAs wonderful production of Seussical the Musical convinced me I was wrong.  Under the experienced guidance of Director and Choreographer, Dee Bennie-Marshall these talented young people quite literally lifted us up and placed us centre stage on the pages of the story books.

The singing was excellent and Musical Director, Matthew Symonds, had clearly supported the young people to perform these numbers with great energy and they were well supported by a live ten piece band.   Even though the songs were new to many of the audience the vibrancy and clarity of the signing really engaged those watching. The routines were all very energetic and everyone on stage performed with great enthusiasm and clearly working very hard to ensure that they were all in time.   There were also some beautiful solo routines and the Suessical Dancers took the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise.

The characters were wonderful, but the roles weren’t straight forward and I felt that the interpretation by these young performers worked very well to bring the unusual characters created by Dr Seuss to life.  

The role of the Mayzie La Bird was delivered to great effect by Grace Molloy, who along with Amelia Depledge as Sour Kangaroo and Cara Egan as Gertrude McFuzz presented excellent solo numbers.   Depledge moved and sang with confidence that matched her performance and Egan perfectly captured the comedy of Gertrude, maintaining a perfect accent throughout.   Marcus Bagley-Hodkin and Daisy Lockley as Mr and Mrs Mayor were hugely entertaining and both gave very strong performances.   Throughout the performance Rebecca Michie, Ciara Stothard and Carys Booth were great as the Bird Girls – dancing and singing to keep the audience entertained.  The energetic Wickershams were well played by Millie Ducket, Matt Whittaker and Kiran Richards who moved around the stage at lightening speed.

An excellent performance by Dillon Batey as Jojo (Boy) – this young man really excels in all the roles he takes and I particularly enjoyed his loveable portrayal of Jojo.  Dan Fenwick played Horton the Elephant with much sincerity and delivered some difficult narrative – a super performance.   Sincere congratulations must go to Will Leggetter as the Cat in the Hat, who in his role as Master of Ceremonies guided us through the storyline and brought the character to life.  His mannerisms and performance were just as though the mischievous cat had crept out from the books to entertain us.  Even when he was less prominent on stage he continued to perfectly portray his character so we believed we were in the magical world of Seuss – well done.

Everyone on stage demonstrated real energy and enthusiasm for this production and it was clear that they had had a great time in developing this production. I felt that the pace was very good and the delivery and diction by every cast member was excellent.  Every performer sang and danced to full effect and there is clearly a huge amount of young talent to keep this group moving forward. 

The costumes were colourful, effective and, where needed, perfectly matched the storybook characters.  Sincere congratulations to Kath Wall and her team for pulling this off ‘in house’.  The scenery and props were bright and again perfect for this story with strong light and sound to keep this production very sharp.  The stage management ensured swift changing of the scenes was well done with effective props.

Congratulations to everyone involved – a fun, engaging and very enjoyable production performed with great maturity by this young cast – ‘How Lucky I Was’ to be able to see the opening night. 

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