Seussical

*Seussical*
Seussical
	File:Seussical.gif Logo
Music	Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics	Lynn Ahrens
Book	Lynn Ahrens; Stephen Flaherty
Basis	The stories of Dr. Seuss
Productions	2000 Broadway ; 2002 First National US Tour; 2003 US Tour

Seussical the Musical (or simply Seussical) is a musical based on the books of Dr. Seuss that debuted on Broadway in 2000. The play's story is a rather complex amalgamation of many of Seuss's most famous books.

Plot overview

The overarching plot of the show mirrors that of Horton Hears a Who!, centering on Horton the elephant's endeavors to protect the people of Who-ville, who live on a tiny speck of dust. It also features characters and scenarios from many other Seuss books, including the Butter Side Uppers / Downers from The Butter Battle Book, Gertrude McFuzz from Gertrude McFuzz, and some characters that never made an appearance in any of Dr. Seuss's books. The Cat in the Hat, an outside observer, acts as narrator and devil's advocate throughout the show, briefly leaping into the action on several occasions to create conflict and keep the story moving.

In all, the following Seuss books have some characters and/or settings are incorporated into the show:

Plot

This synopsis describes the 2003 tour starring Cathy Rigby.

Act I

The story begins with a bare stage, save for an odd red-and-white striped hat. A small boy discovers it and imagines what it could belong to, finally conjuring up the Cat in the Hat. The Cat creates the Seussian world around him and the boy ("Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!"), and he acts as the narrator for the remainder of the musical, as well as playing some of the minor roles. At the Cat's encouragement, the boy thinks up the Jungle of Nool, where Horton the Elephant is bathing.

Horton hears a strange noise coming from a speck of dust, and decides there must be someone on it. He rescues the speck and places it on a clover ("Horton Hears a Who") and decides to guard it. Led by the at-first-villain Sour Kangaroo, the other animals in the jungle mock him mercilessly, except for Gertude McFuzz, Horton's next door neighbor, who admires his compassion and begins to fall in love with him ("Biggest Blame Fool"). Horton soon discovers the dust speck is in fact a planet covered with microscopic people called Whos. They introduce themselves and their community (such as their yearly Christmas pageant based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas) and explain their predicament. In addition to being unable to control where their dust speck flies, they are on the brink of war and all of their beautiful Truffula Trees (from The Lorax) have been cut down ("Here on Who"). Horton's resolve to guard the dust speck is strengthened.

At this point, the Cat in the Hat abruptly pushes the boy from the beginning into the story; he becomes Jojo, the son of the Mayor of Whoville. No sooner does he enter than he is roughly scolded by his parents: he has inadvertently been causing trouble at school by thinking (or rather, having Thinks), disrupting the class and horrifying the teachers. Jojo is sent to "take [a] bath and go to bed/And think some normal Thinks instead," but the Cat soon persuades him to "have a think in the tub." Jojo imagines the tub is McElligot's Pool ("It's Possible"), distracting himself and accidentally flooding the Mayor's living room. The Mayor and his wife wonder what they should do about their son ("How To Raise a Child"). After receiving a brochure from the Cat, they decide to send him to military school, under the supervision and persuasion of General Ghengis Khan Schmitz (A character in I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew), who is preparing to go to war with those who eat their bread butter side down (as in The Butter Battle Book) ("The Military").

Meanwhile, Horton has been guarding the clover for "over a week", getting ridiculed by the Citizens of the Jungle. He then thinks about how no matter what others may say or do, he still has his dreams for adventure and a friend. He decides to chat with the Whos, and Jojo responds. They chat and discover they have found a friend in one another ("Alone in the Universe"). Jojo goes to sleep, only to be woken up by the Cat in the Hat. The Cat asks him what should happen next, and Jojo decides to focus on Getrude. Her feelings for Horton are stronger than ever, but she fears he doesn't notice her because her tail consists only of "one droopy-droop feather" ("The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz"). At the advice of Mayzie La Bird, whose tail is enormous and dazzling, Gertrude, goes to Doctor Dake by the Lake (played by the Cat), who prescribes her pills to make her tail grow ("Amayzing Mayzie/Amayzing Gertrude"). Gertrude is so excited by the dramatic and immediate results of the pills that she overdoses.

Horton is ambushed by a group of ne'er-do-well monkeys called the Wickersham Brothers ("Monkey Around") who steal the clover and run off with it. Horton gives chase, until the monkeys give the clover to a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vladikoff. Horton continues to chase the clover, until Vlad Vladikoff drops it into a large patch of identical clovers, 'one hundred miles wide' ("Chasing the Whos"). The Cat in the Hat abruptly freezes the action and delivers an ironically cheery tune to the audience ('How Lucky You Are"). Horton begins to look for the clover, hoping that the Whos are still alive, when Gertrude, who has followed Horton all this distance, catches up with him. Her tail is now gorgeous, if impractically large. She tries to catch his attention, but he is too busy looking for the Whos to notice her ("Notice Me, Horton"). She retreats to take more pills while he continues searching. After searching 2,999,999 clovers, Horton loses hope, and he sees Mayzie La Bird high in a nest. Apparently, she was in Fort Worth, when she met a nightingale named Tweet McFirth. After 'three weeks of bliss', Tweet left her with an egg. Mayzie then persuades Horton to give up on the search for the Whos and sit on her egg while she goes off for a vacation. Horton reluctantly agrees, and Mayzie flies off ("How Lucky You Are (Mayzie's Reprise)"). Horton waits on the egg for months, until finally he is captured by hunters. Gertrude makes an attempt to go after Horton, but the size and weight of her new tail prevents her from flying. The Cat in the Hat, backed by the full company, sings "Horton Sits On The Egg" to finish off Act I.

Act II

At the top of the act, Horton is transported to New York City and auctioned off to a man from the circus (If I Ran the Circus) ("Egg, Nest, and Tree'). After going on the road and 'sitting on the egg for 51 weeks, sitting here while people have paid to take peeks', Horton meets up with Mayzie again, and tries to give the egg back to her. She selfishly insists that he keep it as a rather dubious gift, wishes him a sarcastic good luck when it hatches, and leaves. Horton, betrayed and alone, sorrowfully remembers how no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't save the Whos, or poor Jojo. Realizing that the egg also is alone without its mother, and he is the only one who can help it. With a brave determination, declares that he'll do better than try, and protect the little egg with everything he has ("Alone in the Universe (Reprise)"). Then he sings the egg a lullaby about a magical world called Solla Sollew. At the same time, Jojo, the Mayor, and the Mayor's Wife, lost in the clover field, reflect on recent events, wishing they could all be in Solla Sollew as well ("Solla Sollew").

The Battle of Butter finally commences. Jojo rebels against General Schmitz and abandons the army. He hands in his sword and hat and unwittingly runs out onto a minefield, vanishing in an explosion. The General assumes that Jojo died in the explosion, and heads back to Whoville to deliver the sad news to his family. The Cat reveals to the audience that Jojo did, in fact, survive, but Jojo quickly discovers that he's lost, and doesn't know where to turn. After being confronted by the Cat and the Hunches (Hunches in Bunches), Jojo finds his way home by the power of his Thinks ("Havin' a Hunch").

Meanwhile, Gertrude sneaks into the circus where Horton is kept at night and frees him. She explains the troubles she went through to reach him, including getting all but one of her tail feathers plucked out to allow her to fly, and finally confesses her love for him ("All For You"). What's more, she found Horton's clover, as well! Horton is delighted to find the Whos alive and well, but the happy ending has not arrived yet: the evil Sour Kangaroo suddenly appears and with the Wickersham Brothers, kidnaps Horton. Horton is dragged back to the Jungle of Nool and put on trial for "talking to a speck, disturbing the peace, and loitering...on an egg." The Cat plays the bailiff, and Judge Yertle the Turtle presides over the case. Gertrude and Horton make a stand at the case, but the verdict is obvious from the beginning: Horton is remanded to the "Nool Asylum for the Criminally Insane," and the clover is to be boiled in a kettle of beezlenut oil. Horton, aghast, encourages the Whos to make as much noise as they can, to prove they exist. Their efforts initially seem futile, until Jojo comes up with a new word, "YOPP," his shouting of which reverberates throughout the world and finally makes the Whos heard ("The People Versus Horton the Elephant"). The court acquits Horton, and the Sour Kangaroo ends her wicked ways and decides to do her part in protecting the clover. On Who, Jojo is celebrated for his achievement, to be honored as Thinker Non-Stop.

Suddenly, the egg hatches: to everyone's surprise, a tiny flying Elephant-Bird comes out. Horton panics, realizing he can't handle flying progeny, and asks Gertrude what he should do. She responds, "I have wings, yes I can fly...you teach him earth, and I will teach him sky." They agree to raise the child together. The Cat in the Hat appears one final time to sum things up ("Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (Reprise)"). The scene dissolves, leaving only Jojo, now just a boy again, and the strange hat from the top of show. He walks up to the hat, and pulls it over his head. Blackout. The curtain call is accompanied by a final number set to a verse of "Green Eggs and Ham".

Character Analysis

(See MTI Shows casting)

Please note that this analysis is based on the commonly accepted portrayal of these characters. Of course, as the art of acting encourages, the portrayal of these characters is up to the actor's discretion, and, therefore, some productions may illustrate these characters in a different light.

The Cat in the Hat- The Cat causes confusion as to whether he is a "good guy" or "bad guy." He claims to be helping JoJo, but ends up being one of the major sources of conflict. Therefore, most actors tend to make the Cat a mishevious character. He wants to help JoJo, but not without having some fun first.

Horton the Elephant- Horton thinks of others before himself. While this may seem like a positive trait, Horton exhibits this quality to a fault. He tends to help others at the expense of his own happiness. Many actors choose a "big, friendly giant" approach to playing Horton. He is the nicest of persons, but not the brightest.

Gertrude McFuzz- Many actors choose to use a "character voice" when portraying Gertrude to further the already very seuss-esqe character. All Gertrude wants is the love of Horton, and she will go to great lengths to get this love. Therefore, Gertrude is a very passionate character, though comedically light-headed at times.

Other Productions

Bob Hope Theatre, South East England, 2008,

Tickets can be brought from www.bobhopetheatre.co.uk, use this link[1] to be redirected to the website for tickets.

Eisenhower Middle School

Also, on March 6,7,8, 2008 Eisenhower Middle School (Eisenhower Website) performed Seussical which was directed by Holli Vanwiemokly and Robert Albanese. It was performed by the Eisenhower Middle School Drama Club.

Changes in Script

After the failure of the original Broadway production of Seussical, the writers re-wrote the script, resulting in the form that is now available for license. One of the most prominent changes is the revision of "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!." The play now opens with Jojo, at first just a boy, monologuing about an unusual striped hat he has just found, imagining it to be worn by the Cat in the Hat, who pops up and sings the song to him. This revision, by extension, removes the Cat's original introduction, necessitating a rewrite of parts of the opening song, in which the play's creators added a darker element to the story with an early introduction of the Hunches. This new section is repeated in the song "Havin' A Hunch" as the climax to Jojo's thread of the story. The characters of the Cat in the Hat and Jojo have also been altered significantly. Due to the fact that Jojo now imagines the world of Seuss in its entirety, he is now 'pushed' into the story at the point where he originally partook in his opening scene. This facilitated the removal of the song "A Day for the Cat in the Hat"; the writers chose to replace it with a reprise of the opening song, directly preceding "It's Possible". The song "The Military" has also been shortened, deleting an entire verse and excising most of Mr. and Mrs. Mayor's lines, both within the song and in the section preceding it. This meant that the scene in which Schmitz reveals that Jojo is "dead" in Act Two needed to be abridged and rewritten, as he would have been referencing events which did not happen. These, along with other less significant changes, such as revised lyrics throughout the play, were made to improve the storyline, primarily by adding more conflict for JoJo the Who and rectifying pacing issues.

Theatre for Young Audiences Version

Music Theatre International, who owns the licensing rights to Seussical, also offers a one-act version of the show. The "Theatre for Young Audience version" was conceived and first produced in 2004 by The Coterie Theatre (Jeff Church, producing Artistic Director), a Kansas City based theatre company, - with full support of the authors. This version includes the following significant changes:

The cast size has been reduced to 12 actors, with doubling assigned to various roles.
In most musical productions, Thing 1 and Thing 2 are added as "sidekicks" to the cat and have a fairly large part. They have been removed.
The entire military subplot has been extracted. As a result, the character of General Genghis Khan Schmitz, several scenes, and two complete numbers ("The Military", "Havin' A Hunch") are gone without a trace.
Since "How to Raise A Child" no longer segues into "The Military", it has been inserted into the scene preceding "It's Possible", rather than immediately following that number.
The song "How Lucky You Are" and many of its reprises are gone (although Mayzie's two reprises of the song remain).
The song "A Day for the Cat in the Hat" has been cut and replaced with a reprise of "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!"
Several Seuss-inspired sequences that had little bearing on the actual plot, like the Grinch's Christmas pageant and the Circus McGurkus parade, have been cut.
Several of the longer numbers ("Here On Who", "Solla Sollew", "Chasing the Whos, "All For You") are significantly cut down.
The line in "Oh the Thinks You Can Think" "Think of a general CRAZY FOR WAR!" has been replaced by "Think of some monkeys with trouble in store!" referring to the Wickersham Brothers, or the optional "Think of two Things popping up at your door!" - provided said production has chosen to implement the optional roles of Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Characters and the Books they Appear in

Cat in the Hat- "The Cat in the Hat"
Horton- "Horton Hears a Who" and "Horton Hatches the Egg"
Jojo- "Horton Hears a Who!"
Gertrude- "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories"
Mayzie- "Horton Hatches the Egg"
Sour Kangaroo- "Horton Hears a Who"
The Mayor of Whoville- "Horton Hears a Who"
General Genghis Kahn Schmitz- "I had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew", scenario inspired from "The Butter Battle Book"
The Wickersham Brothers- "Horton hears a Who"

References

External links

v t e Works by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
Musicals	Lucky Stiff (1988) Once on This Island (1990) My Favorite Year (1992) A Christmas Carol (1994) Ragtime (1996) Seussical (2000) A Man of No Importance (2002) Dessa Rose (2005) The Glorious Ones (2007) Rocky the Musical (2012) Little Dancer (2014) Anastasia (2016) Knoxville (2022)
Musical films	Anastasia (1997) Buster & Chauncey's Silent Night (1998) Bartok the Magnificent (1999) A Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004) Lucky Stiff (2014)