Clever 'Seussical' delights at Clowes

By Marion Garmel

Indianapolis Star September 18, 2002

Who knows why "Seussical the Musical" didn't do well on Broadway? The touring production that opened the 2002-03 Broadway in Indianapolis season at Clowes Hall is so clever, colorful, tuneful and full of heart that it can't go wrong.

Stealing ideas from everywhere, including "The Lion King" and Jimmy Durante, creators Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have woven together a delightful tale of an elephant who saves a world and finds a family.

Of course, anyone who grew up on the children's books of Theodore (Dr. Seuss) Geisel will recognize these stories. But Flaherty (music) and Ahrens (lyrics) have taken bits and pieces from a dozen books and woven them into a satisfying tale of a boy whose "thinking" allows him to conjure up a world of flashy birds and dancing monkeys, an elephant with a heart of gold and a world so small it exists in a speck of dust.

JoJo, the boy, doubles in the role of the dreamer and the son of the mayor of tiny Whoville. Only an elephant named Horton, an overgrown Charlie Brown of sorts, hears their calls for help when the town is in trouble. Chaos erupts in the Jungle of Nool when Horton is captured and sold to a circus man, but all ends well.

Rigby's a busy Cat.

Cathy Rigby, who plays The Cat in the Hat, is not only the narrator but flies through the show in a variety of interesting and funny roles. When Mayzie LaBird lounges on a piano bar, singing her goodbye song, Rigby pounds the keys and growls like Durante.

When the bird Gertrude McFuzz asks for a pill that will help turn her scraggly tail beautiful so Horton will notice her, Rigby does a Dr. Ruth impression as she dispenses advice.

The rhymes come from Dr. Seuss, who never wrote a line that didn't rhyme, but the clever interweaving of stories comes from Flaherty, Ahrens and co-conceiver Eric Idle. This is a smorgasbord of a show, with some melodies that seem to have jumped over from "Ragtime," also written by Flaherty and Ahrens.

Except for Rigby, there are no big names in the cast, but everyone is so good it doesn't matter. Eric Leviton's Horton is a true everyman. "I'll just have to save them all," he says of the Whos, "because a person's a person, no matter how small."

Things do not always go well. At one point the clover holding the Whos is stolen by monkeys, and plummets to the ground. "Our world smashed, our city's trashed." But eventually, if you think it hard enough, you can find your way home. Dr. Seuss comes through again.

Talented cast

Drake English and Richard Miron are alternating as JoJo.

Gaelen Gilliland is outstanding as Mayzie; Garrett Long is a charming Gertrude McFuzz, Natasha Yvette Williams belts out her songs as the Sour Kangaroo, and Don Stitt and Amy Griffin are perfect as JoJo's parents, Whoville's Mayor and Mrs. Mayor, looking like they just arrived from Miami Beach.

The electricity of the staging -- the colors, the lights, the amazing underwater scene with fish and birds flying through the air -- is difficult to describe. This is a technically difficult show, but those aspects all seemed to be working on opening night.

Maybe on Broadway, it was just too heavy, but this fast, funny and amazing show is really very good. Kids and parents who grew up on these stories will find it appealing.