Horton hears a whew! 'Seussical' gets new look, second chance after troubled debut

By EVERETT EVANS

Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one hundred percent."

The mantra of Horton the elephant, hero of Dr. Seuss classics Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton Hears a Who, was the guiding principle for Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty in the creation of Seussical, the musical inspired by the writings of Dr. Seuss.

Tony winners for their magnificent Ragtime score, Ahrens and Flaherty have been "one hundred percent" faithful to the spirit, and in many instances to the letter, of Seuss' work -- Seussical incorporates lines, ideas and chunks of narrative from his books.

Just as the hapless yet indefatigably honorable Horton gets into trouble for doing the right thing, Ahrens and Flaherty met their share of hassles during Seussical's bumpy Boston tryout and less-than-friendly reception on Broadway in fall 2000.

Yet just as Horton eventually wins out, Ahrens and Flaherty may be headed for vindication with the new touring edition of Seussical that opens Tuesday at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts' Sarofim Hall. It's the tour's second stop, following the inaugural one-week stand in Indianapolis.

"We're thrilled and grateful it's getting a second chance," said Ahrens, the lyricist of Broadway's finest words-and-music team to emerge in the past 15 years. In this case, she also collaborated with composer Flaherty on the show's book. "I choose not to look back (at the disappointing Broadway reception) but forward to a beautiful new production that I think will find a tremendous life across America."

Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-91), aka Dr. Seuss, delighted readers of all ages for more than 50 years -- from 1937's And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street to 1990's Oh, the Places You'll Go! His trademarks are extravagant nonsense, wacky neologisms, fantastical creatures and trenchant social comment on everything from prejudice (The Sneetches) to the destruction of the environment (The Lorax). Told through ingenious (usually rhymed) texts and fanciful illustrations, Seuss' warm, funny and exuberant tales seem naturals for musicalization.

Coming to Seussical fresh from their adaptation of a very different literary classic in E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, Ahrens and Flaherty saw the Seuss oeuvre as a "delightful challenge," Ahrens said.

First they did what their moms had done for them when they were kids: They sat down and read to each other all the Seuss books

"We discovered that his books still felt fresh, relevant and profound," Ahrens said. "We just had the puzzle of how to weave together dozens of disparate stories and wonderfully zany characters to make a show that was beautiful, topical and true to the spirit of Dr. Seuss."

They found the "greatest drama and inherent plot" in the two Horton adventures, so they linked those to form the show's main plot.

Horton is the only one who hears the cries for help coming from the dust-speck planet of the Whos, but his efforts to save them make him an outcast. His fellow citizens in the Jungle of Nool attempt to lock him up and destroy the dust speck. Midway through this ordeal, Horton also promises to sit on the egg deserted by Mayzie LaBird while she takes a break. But neglectful Mayzie never returns, leaving Horton again a subject of ridicule, captured and sold to a circus as a freak attraction.

"Onto Horton's story," Ahrens said, "we strove to hang as many characters, images and ideas as possible from the other books."

The ultimate Seuss icon, the Cat in the Hat, made a natural "host and emcee," leading the audience into Seuss' world and assuming various guises. Gertrude McFuzz, the woeful bird with the one-feathered tail, became Horton's love interest -- her quest for a flashier tail now an effort to make Horton notice her.

Other books inspired a song (McElligot's Pool) or cameo role (Yertle the Turtle). Ideas and phrases from Bunches of Hunches and Oh, the Places You'll Go! turn up in the song Having a Hunch, while Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (a "think" in Seusstalk is a thought) provided the title of the show's opening song and recurring theme.

Quotations from Seuss range from phrases to sizable chunks of narrative that set up the plot lines for Horton and Gertrude

"What I did mostly," Ahrens said, "was take a few lines, use those as a jumping-off point, work them into a song and make them mine."

Sung or spoken, everything in Seussical rhymes in true Seuss style.

"Audrey Geisel (the author's widow) came to an early workshop and gave me a great compliment," Ahrens said. "She said, `I can't tell where his words end and yours begin." For Flaherty, who revitalized

For Flaherty, who revitalized turn-of-the-century Americana in Ragtime and gave a Caribbean lilt to the team's first Broadway hit, Once on This Island, Seussical opened unbounded musical territory.

"Dr. Seuss' world isn't based in any particular time, place or reality," Flaherty said. "So it was a terrific opportunity to let my imagination run free and come up with any kind of music.

"For the brash, extroverted folks in the Jungle of Nool, I used R&B, soul and Motown sounds I loved growing up. For the tiny Whos, the sound is a Main Street, U.S.A. marching band shrunk down, with a bit of Spike Jones zaniness. For the Cat, who runs the story from outside and performs for us, I took sounds from American vaudeville. Because Horton is a character who cares deeply, earnest but not wimpy, he has the most folklike sound, with heartfelt ballads

Seussical began as one of the most eagerly awaited shows of recent years; a Toronto workshop generated great buzz. The troubled Boston tryout and rumors of frantic fixing branded it a show "in trouble," coloring the Broadway reception. Despite that, it ran six months and, according to Playbill On Line, "was beloved by a good chunk of the audience."

Cathy Rigby, who took over as the Cat midway through the Broadway stand, loved the show and wanted to tour it. The former Olympic gymnast, whose best-known stage credit is her Tony-nominated turn as Peter Pan, supplied the name needed to tour. Ken Gentry of NETworks, which is producing the tour, saw the appreciative response on Broadway and recognized the material's appeal to all ages. "The thing that makes Dr. Seuss magical," he told Playbill, "is that, as an adult, there's something for you there, too

For the tour, Seussical is newly directed by Christopher Ashley, whose recent credits include last season's Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show and the off-Broadway hit Wonder of the World.

As the cast album indicates, there's nothing wrong with Seussical's lively, catchy score and its way of telling the Seuss tales. The tricky aspect is determining what Seuss' world should look like onstage -- and that's where there was room for improvement in the Broadway version.

"So many people have strong emotional ties to this material," Flaherty said. "There's a proprietary feeling to people's expectations." "From workshop to Broadway to the

"From workshop to Broadway to the tour," said Ahrens, "we've realized: Simple is better. The show is about the power of the imagination. A tour presents strict (limits on) costs. You can't do all the big things you might try on Broadway. And for this show, that's good. It's now simpler, more focused and pared down visually."

Besides minor changes in script and score and new entr'acte material to showcase Rigby's physical dexterity and performing skills, the main change is that Jo-Jo, the littlest Who, now turns up at the start of the show as a little boy the Cat is guiding into the story

"Now the Cat sings the opening song to the little boy," said Ahrens. "He leads him into the story, teaching him to use his imagination. There's now a relationship there that continues through the show. It's a conceptual change that puts the show in a better perspective, as the whole thing is now seen from the child's view."

The past few weeks have been a "crazy but fun time," according to Flaherty. While fine-tuning revisions on Seussical, the team also has been putting finishing touches on its new show, A Man of No Importance, now in previews and opening Oct. 10 at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theatre.

"The story examines friendship and the nature of love," he said. "It looks at many different kinds of love, including love of the theater. It's about making choices in life, to go where the heart resides."

"What's fun about revisiting Seussical while working on the new show," said Ahrens, "is that we're jumping between opposite ends on the spectrum of musical writing. But you let every show find its form