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Disclaimer:
The reviewers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of TheatreLouisville.org. |
Peer Reviews Seussical the Musical Book by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Reviewed by Cory Vaughn Entire contents are copyright © 2009 Cory Vaughn. All rights reserved.
I thought about writing this review in Seussian verse, but thought better of it. Let's start by getting the obvious out of the way: 1) Clarksville Little Theatre, now in its 62nd season, is no PNC Bank Broadway Across America Series, and they've never pretended to be. 2) Seussical the Musical, their latest production, is no masterpiece, and it's never aspired to be. And 3) the lower your expectations, the more likely you are to enjoy this production. I'll put it another way: I am an alumnus of CLT with full knowledge of the company's limitations of space, money, and technological resources, as well as their ability to work around these limitations when they try. I have also worked as a technician on another production of this show not long ago, and I know full-well how entertaining it can be; when done absolutely right, it is truly one of the guiltiest of all pleasures. My expectations, therefore, were somewhere in the middle, and I enjoyed myself well enough at Friday night's premiere.
The show itself remains a fine score (music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens) yoked uneasily to a book (by the same) that's a real mess, trying to tell four or five stories that don't really go together. The book takes its inspiration (so to speak) mainly from the two stories of Horton (played by a cute and low-key Bryce Blair), and it follows him through a series of misadventures as he tries to protect all the Whos down in Whoville and help hatch an abandoned egg. Along the way, though, we also get the whole population of Whoville, all the animals of the Jungle of Nool, an entire trainload of clowns and acrobats from the Circus McGurkus, and a Cat in the Hat (perennial CLT favorite Neil Brewer) who is not really a part of any of these stories but meddles in all of them as he narrates the proceedings. In a way, it's fitting: the authors seemed determined to cram every Seuss character into one show, and the producers at CLT, never to be outdone, have crammed seemingly the entire population of Clarksville, Indiana onto their one tiny stage. Director Mike Seely should be given an extra credit in the program as traffic cop! While none of the performances are exactly effortless (some of the roles are downright miscast), there are at least a few deserving of an A for effort. Rachel May is a particular standout as Gertrude McFuzz, the shy and homely bird carrying an inter-species torch for Horton (this might be the cutest, most off-the-wall musical theatre romance since Audrey and Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors but for Horton's initial obliviousness toward her, which is not entirely his fault). I also admired the way the company overcame its financial and technological shortcomings to surround the cast with imaginative props and costumes, as well as two swell black light scenes. Although "The Musical" actually appears in the show's title, the musical elements of this production are its weakest. Voices are bland and underdeveloped (though three of the show's four leads manage to make up for it with cute and quirky performances, and the fourth, Ms. May, actually sings quite well), choreography by Glenna Godsey is at times pedestrian, and in both cases, there are many instances where everybody is not even entirely together. I was glad, however, that they retired the crappy virtual orchestra they've used for the last few years and sprung for a trio of live musicians, with Chris Bryant and Music Director Dennis Blake on the keys and Josh Howe on drums and percussion. In the end, I know that the show's target audience consists of the parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents, etc. of all those little tykes in the Whoville scenes, as well as the local children of varying ages who either grew up or are currently growing up on the Seuss books, and none of them are likely to care about or even notice the inconsistencies in script or the lackluster sound or a stage that's too crowded for any of them to even recognize their loved ones in the onstage throng. NOTE: I personally would consider this a pretty G-rated show with nothing particularly offensive to the little ones' eyes or ears, although as an adult, I am well aware that there is a way to see certain aspects of the story with raised eyebrows. Yes, it's possible to see the Gertrude subplot as a cautionary tale about using drugs and plastic surgery to become more attractive. Yes, it's possible to see the Horton story with its mantra, "A person's a person, no matter how small," as an allegory about abortion. Yes, it's possible to wonder how an elephant and a bird could possibly make a plausible couple. It's possible, but why would you want to? We suggest that you not waste too much time trying to make the show something in your own minds that probably never occurred to its creators. As I said at the top of my review, this is one of those shows that you'll enjoy more the less you think about it.
Seussical the Musical www.clarksvillelittletheatre.org/ Remaining Performances: January 15, 16, 17 at 8:00 pm Tickets: Adults: $15.00. Starring: Neil Brewer, Bryce Blair, Jonathan Culwell, Rachel May, Carrie Chastain, Gary Crockett, Janet Morris, Glenna Godsey, Jessica Godsey, Josh Martin, and many others. Posted January 12, 2009
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