Last year’s musical took place in the Mean Girls version of high school, while this year’s transports the audience to the zany world of Dr. Seuss.
“It is very different from what I’ve done,” said Senior Samantha Sampson, who plays Mayzie La Bird. “It’s a kid-friendly show. We’ve done kid-friendlier shows in the past, but this is more kid-friendly than I’ve ever done or seen.
“Specifically, the ‘Seussical the Musical’ is a bunch of childhood stories that you are putting together on a stage so you have to make sure that it is recognizable enough so that they come to life. Between going from Mean Girls last year to this is a whole world shift.”
The musical, which opened this weekend and will continue with performances next weekend, follows the adventures of Horton the Elephant, with a lot of other Seuss characters thrown in.
“It has a childlike wonder to it, which is refreshing,” said Senior Brianna Koves, who plays Gertrude McFuzz. “. . . It just shows a lot of good life lessons, which most musicals do, but they did it in a way that it’s easier to understand.”
Junior Nathan Jones stars as Horton.
“I like the songs that he sings and his character. He just has a strong character,” Nathan said. “He has some of the best songs, I think, in the show. They just sound motivating, and it shows him and his character throughout.”
The narrator for the show is the Cat in the Hat, bought to life by Senior Jamya Crockett.
“What makes this play stand out is definitely the color scheme and the costumes because it’s colorful, outstanding and just not like a regular play . . . it’s more vibrant and has some unexpected colors,” she said.
The play contains a lot of songs that resonate with the cast.
“They are very good songs,” Nathan said. “My favorite song is ‘Solla Sollew.’ I sing it and then there’s other characters that join in mid-song. It just has a beautiful melody to it, and it’s just that the sound of the song is beautiful in general.”
Jamya enjoyed the song ‘How Lucky You Are.’
“It really touches me because it’s guiding you and telling you ‘Hey even when you’re at your lowest, just remind yourself that you can keep going and that you’re lucky in your own special way,’ ” she said.
The musical stresses the theme of acceptance and recognizing that everyone is special and unique.
“It has a childlike wonder to it, which is refreshing,” Briana said. “It’s a lot of fun, and it has a really good theme that is definitely just stated straight out in the musical multiple times. I don’t know. It just shows a lot of good life lessons which most musicals do, but they did it in a way that it’s easier to understand.”
Although the cast spent hours perfecting their parts and building the sets, they built many strong memories.
“It’s very fun, very lively, though very quick and very challenging,” she said. “There’s so many excess details that you need. Building the set was fun, but challenging because there’s so many excess details that you need to make it look cartoonish and whimsical.”
Samantha also enjoyed the “the shenanigans backstage.”
“For example, me in my role, we have what we call a group of bird girls and they’re kind of like the narrators, but they are also my posse. They follow me around and when we were waiting to go on stage, we piled on top of each other for no particular reason. Just random stuff like that. the genuine moments and memories we make is all worth it.”
The show is also special to Nathan because its his final one with a core group of seniors.
“I’m going to miss their positive attitudes and how they just carry themselves during the show and how helpful they are,” he said. “t’s their mentality. They encourage me to keep on going, keep performing, and doing my best.”
Samantha encourages underclassman to get involved in thetater next year.
“Most people think ‘Oh, you’re on a stage and you’re performing,’ but there is an entire world just backstage,” she said. “I may perform but I’m also the sound designer for thespian troupe. I love performing, don’t get me wrong, but I also have that technical side and so I just balance both. You can do as many aspects of theater that you want to put your mind to. There’s lighting, building, set designs, props, costumes, all of that. . . . You get taught how to use every single tool that you need to make the thing that you want to create.”
