“Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW! It is fun to have fun / But you have to know how,” declares the Cat in the Hat in Dr. Seuss’s original children’s book, and that playful spiritedness and imagination is what drives The Barn Theatre’s colorful production of Seussical the Musical.
The show is a mash up of several beloved Dr. Seuss books, primarily based on the story of Horton Hears a Who, with characters and scenes inspired by The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Butter Battle Book, Yertle the Turtle, and, indeed, The Cat in the Hat.
Written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (known also for Ragtime and Once on This Island), the show is now 25 years old and has undergone several revisions since its Broadway debut. Built upon the images and verse of Dr. Seuss, it’s made even more fantastical, vivid, and full of heart with Director Patrick Hunter’s vision, set to music directed by Matt Shabala with a terrific 7-piece live orchestra, and sprung to life with inspired choreography by Erin Ellis.
There’s so much to enjoy here it doesn’t matter much that there isn’t a singular story to follow and that it’s unclear if the show is primarily for children or for adults. It’s ultimately an all-ages delight and while it moves from the jungle to Whoville to other bubbly, sparkly imagined locales, it’s through the boy Jo-Jo’s mind on a creative quest guided by The Cat in the Hat as narrator that the audience experiences the magic.
That magic is largely created by the sensory wonders on stage perfectly reminiscent of Dr. Seuss’s illustrations. The original Broadway show was panned for trying to do too much with too much flash, but The Barn’s production strikes exactly the right balance with smart, efficient technical choices to effectively tell the story and create a Seussian world in which we joyfully get lost.
Those excellent technical choices include set design by Brendan Ragotzy that includes moving, shifting, colorfully painted periaktoi for quick scene changes, a set of stairs upstage, downstage ladders, and other moving set pieces; flat cartoon props by Ross; colorful lights by Noah Vos; excellent sound design from Troy Benton; and incredibly clever costumes by Sidra Sundberg that are, at turns, glittery, shimmery, brightly colored, feathered, and allow actors to become cheeky monkeys; elegant birds; a humble, heroic elephant; and a soulful, sour kangaroo, among other creatures we recognize and can’t help but love.
And these universally fine performers fully embody each of those characters, with such joy and depth, they invite us fully into this artful playground with their charms. From the irresistibly sassy, hip-swirling, acrobatic monkeys (Che Young, Sam Corry, Jake Decker) and the trio of lovely bird girls (Erin Ellis, Liz Lamora, Dakota Moreno) who bring marvelous character through clever choreography from Erin Ellis to powerful primary characters, the stage is alight with talent.
Luke Ragotzy is a wonderfully impish, playful Cat in the Hat; Spencer Duguay is the perfect imaginative boy JoJo whose “thinks take him places no one has been”; Abbey Grace Messing is a sparkly anti-hero as Mayzie LaBird; Vivian Lakin is a charming Gertrude McFuzz and creates lovely connection and harmonies with Patrick Hunter who is the heart of the show as an adorable, guileless Horton. Carrington Black is a force as Sour Kangaroo, and Charlie King is a stern but hilarious General Genghis Kahn Schmitz.
And because it’s so true to Dr. Seuss, amid all the colorful playfulness and inventive joy, some really beautiful messages emerge: anything’s possible, tell yourself how lucky you are, a person’s a person, no matter how small, and no matter how different you think you are, you’re not alone in the universe.
And perhaps more than anything else, it’s fun to have fun! Not only do they certainly know how at The Barn Theatre but they show the rest of us, and do so beautifully, too.
Seussical: The Musical
July 8-20
barntheatreschool.org
