Last night I went to see yet another production of "Seussical, the Musical." I have seen many productions of this show and, I admit, that I usually come away very disappointed. I think the problem has been that the Elementary School shows, even doing the Junior version, just don't have the singing, dancing and acting capability to do it justice. The songs are pitched way too low or require too wide of singing ranges for most young children's voices. And the Community Theater shows done by mostly adults may have the singing, dancing, and acting chops, but just lack the believability factor.
But the show I saw last night was actually the most enjoyable production of this show I have seen yet. They had enough trained singers and dancers to pull this show off in clever ways. The cast was incredibly large, probably close to 100 young children and teenagers, from ages 5-15!
The company that produced the show offers year-round training classes in dancing, singing, and acting. The Musical is the culmination of a year's worth of training activities. It also helped that the show was presented in a professional theater with state-of-the-art lighting and sound. Each of the characters speaking or singing solos had their own dedicated lavalier mic. That ensured that the lines and songs were heard clearly. The lighting effects on the whimsical sets were magical. But it was the costuming that blew me away. I am sure that over the years, this company has collected costumes for every shape and size of body imaginable. They were colorful and bright, even sparkly, and quite believable as Dr. Seuss characters. (Really! What Elementary school production could possibly afford fanciful colored wigs for 50+ actors?)
My granddaughter and I came to the show as invited by my young friend who had a lead role. We were very impressed with how enjoyable the production was. This was the first time I actually got choked up by the sweet ending. It was so nice to finally see a version that had a range of characters that were believable. Sometimes it is hard to feel the innocence of a children's story when done strictly by adults or older kids. Because this production had the "littles" and the "bigs," the play between the Who's that live on the speck of dust and the larger animals living in the Jungle of Nool was actually believable.
Kudos to this cast and crew!
But the show I saw last night was actually the most enjoyable production of this show I have seen yet. They had enough trained singers and dancers to pull this show off in clever ways. The cast was incredibly large, probably close to 100 young children and teenagers, from ages 5-15!
The company that produced the show offers year-round training classes in dancing, singing, and acting. The Musical is the culmination of a year's worth of training activities. It also helped that the show was presented in a professional theater with state-of-the-art lighting and sound. Each of the characters speaking or singing solos had their own dedicated lavalier mic. That ensured that the lines and songs were heard clearly. The lighting effects on the whimsical sets were magical. But it was the costuming that blew me away. I am sure that over the years, this company has collected costumes for every shape and size of body imaginable. They were colorful and bright, even sparkly, and quite believable as Dr. Seuss characters. (Really! What Elementary school production could possibly afford fanciful colored wigs for 50+ actors?)
My granddaughter and I came to the show as invited by my young friend who had a lead role. We were very impressed with how enjoyable the production was. This was the first time I actually got choked up by the sweet ending. It was so nice to finally see a version that had a range of characters that were believable. Sometimes it is hard to feel the innocence of a children's story when done strictly by adults or older kids. Because this production had the "littles" and the "bigs," the play between the Who's that live on the speck of dust and the larger animals living in the Jungle of Nool was actually believable.
Kudos to this cast and crew!
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