MUSICAL THEATRE REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL
20 Dec'10

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5

If we were to be perfectly honest — and perfect honesty is a seasoning best used sparingly at this time of year, I caution — we’d have to admit that in some cases, it’s the wrapping and not the content that makes a Christmas present truly memorable. And while that applies mostly to things like warm, cozy socks and flannel jammies, it can also apply to the bigger ticket items that come together to make up the festive season as well.

Take, for instance, the touring production of DR. SEUSS' HOW THE CRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL — a Yuletide offering that’s taken up seasonal residence at the Sony Centre, where it opened Friday under the banner of Aubrey Dan’s Dancap Productions.

That would, of course, be the same beloved kids’ Christmas classic, penned and illustrated by the inimitable Theodor Seuss Geisel way back in 1957 — sadly better known today, one suspects, in either its subsequent animated or feature movie formats than through the delightful book that started it all. All of which means the wondrously addictive simplicity of the book — a blend of Geisel’s own unique illustrations combined with a straightforward story told in compelling rhyme — is all but lost under the weight of a staging that manages, in the full spirit of the season, to be both big-hearted and heavy-handed in its eagerness to please.

It is, as the title implies, the story of how the Grinch (a mean-spirited miscreant of a distinctly greenish hue played, con brio, by Stefan Karl) grows so weary of the Christmas excesses of the residents of Whoville that he attempts to steal every single holiday accoutrement the town has amassed, from presents and trees to stockings and puddings and the beasts of the feast. The story is told in flashback from the perspective of the Grinch’s long-suffering but loyal dog, a mutt named Max, played in his senior years by an avuncular and loveable Bob Lauder and in his frisky puppy phase by an enthusiastic and charming Seth Bazacas.

But in the end, the Grinch is no match for all the little Whos who call Whoville home, for even though every single Who in Whoville wakes up Christmas morning to find that his or her tiny town has been stripped of all vestiges of Christmas, the young Cindy-Lou Who (played by either Carly Tamer or Brooke Lynn Boyd, depending on the performance) makes her way to the very heart and soul of Christmas and thereby saves the day.

Clocking in at 75 minutes, without an intermission, this is a tale obviously stretched, under the direction of Matt August, to the full limits of its endurance. Polished to a high sheen and a little smug in its innocence, it all but buries its simple message — that Christmas is about what is in the heart, not what is under the tree or even the tree itself — under the weight of its staging.

Somewhere, under the the weight of Mel Marvin’s tunes, the designs of John Lee Beatty (sets) and Robert Morgan (costumes) and the choreography of John DeLuca and Bob Richard, playwright Timothy Mason has all but buried a sweet and simple story, as heart-warming as thick socks or flannel jammies. But chances are, when the smoke clears, a young mind is more likely to remember the lovely wrapping and not the warmth of the story.