MUSICAL THEATRE REVIEW: SEUSSICAL
11/11/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 4.5/5
Pictured: Damien Atkins

It wasn’t even a year ago that Allen MacInnis, artistic director of the newly re-re-christened Young People’s Theatre worked a bit of stage magic, stripping the wraps off a delightful mainstage production of A Year with Frog and Toad that quickly became a must-see on the kiddy’s Christmas circuit. And for those of you wondering if he can pull another rabbit out of his hat for this year’s holiday season, the answer might be a highly equivocal “No.” That’s because when you can stick a hand into a hat and pull out a kangaroo, a trio of monkeys, a brace of exotic birds, a stout-hearted elephant and a delightfully peripatetic cat who normally wears that hat, who really needs a rabbit anyway?

Particularly when you’ve got a rhyming magician like Theodor Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, on side, as re-interpreted for the stage by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. Several years ago they put their heads together over a library of the good Doctor’s collected works and came up with SEUSSICAL — a show that, while it failed to take Broadway by storm, proved nonetheless, in a somewhat expurgated version, to be an enduring delight to children of all ages.

In fact, a lot of people learned that when MacInnis first staged the work in his theatre in 2006. Now MacInnis is doing it again, marshaling a delightful and largely brand-new cast on Judith Bowden’s lollipop world of a set and serving up a treasure chest full of life lessons all but guaranteed to underscore the less materialistic side of the forthcoming holiday season.

It all begins with an encounter between young Jojo (Jennifer Villaverde, just a tad overwound on the charm front) and the Cat in the Hat (a spot-on Damien Atkins) The soigné sort of feline quickly teaches the young girl about the glories of imagination — all of which leads, with inexorable delight, to a retelling of the tales of Horton, a steadfast elephant played with simple stalwart charm by George Masswohl.

One day, while languishing in his bath, Horton starts hearing things and discovers the things he is hearing all emanate from a tiny speck of dust, which is really home planet to an all but invisible population of microscopic beings called Whos. Suddenly aware of the dangers his new friends face, Horton sets about protecting them, earning the scorn of his neighbours, who think he’s got bats in his trunk. But undeterred, Horton soldiers on in the firm conviction that a person’s a person, no matter how small.

In the midst of general derision, Horton catches the eye and the heart of a sad little bird named Gertrude (Jane Johanson), who lives next door. She’s fallen in a big way for the protective pachyderm, despite the certain knowledge he is unlikely to notice a girl like her in a world filled with pumped-up pouty birds of paradise like Mayzie (for a good time, MacInnis called the incomparable Sharron Matthews and got just the right numbers). But the showboating Mayzie thinks a bird in the bush is a bit of a drag and sticks Horton with a mother of a babysitting gig, just at a time when he’s desperately wondering where the Who went and why.

It all resolves nicely in the end, but not before the cast — bolstered by Bethany Kovarik, Nichola Lawrence, David Lopez, Dale Miller, Natasha O’Brien and Desmond Osborne — have a chance to strut their stuff in song and dance, showcasing the work of musical director Diane Leah and the choreography of Nicola Pantin.

All in all, another fine package from the folks at YPT, just in time for the holidays.