The History of Seussical
Marleah Dentes
This year, Homer High School is tackling the production of a musical based on several books by Dr. Seuss. Seussical, created by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, consists mainly of Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches the Egg, and Miss Gertrude McFuzz. In September of 2000, it had its first run-through in Boston, Massachusetts. On November 30th of 2000, it opened on Broadway. These productions received unenthusiastic and poor reviews, and it closed in 2001 after 198 showings. The musical became stronger after the script was reworked and some songs were removed. Originally, an anonymous boy makes up the Cat in the Hat from his imagination after finding a striped hat onstage. The Cat creates the Seussian world and later pushes the boy into it, forcing him to assume the character of Jojo. The revised version of the musical went on two national tours from 2002 to 2004. There have been various off-Broadway productions of Seussical after the tours, in locations such as New York City and London.
Seussical focuses on Horton, the elephant from Horton Hears a Who, and his determination to protect the people of Whoville, while also protecting an abandoned egg left to his care. He works with his neighbors to save the Whos and restore peace to the Jungle of Nool. There are a lot of characters and scenarios from many other Dr Seuss books woven into the story. The Cat in the Hat mostly acts as the narrator, while sometimes jumping into the plot to keep the story moving nicely.
