REVIEW: Seussical The Musical, Queen's College

SEUSSICAL the Musical is a joyous, vivid celebration of the delightful and charming world of Dr Seuss.

Performed by a stellar cast of teenagers from Queen’s College, it was a spectacular psychedelic ride into a fantastical fantasy land peopled (animalled??) with multi-coloured characters.

I won’t try to explain the plot, which merges the tales of some of Dr Seuss’s most famous characters, because to do so, would be to use up many column inches and leave the reader probably none the wiser! What I can say is that the team at QC are at the top of their game and this cohort of students is one of the most talented I have ever seen in a youth theatre production.

The tale is narrated by a physically precise and disciplined Kate Goodman as The Cat in The Hat whose clear, perfectly pitched vocals and immaculate gestures push the story on at a smart pace aided by the petite, mute, blue haired twins; Thing 1 and Thing 2 (the perfectly co-ordinated Olivia Aldridge and Becky Brown). We are soon introduced to an array of other characters as fantastical as the creative mind could imagine.

Horton the Elephant played by a sensitive and honey-voiced Yasmin Howard leads the way. Her solos and duets are crystal clear and beautifully performed especially in combination with the diminutive but robust figure of Fabien Farbahi as a delightful JoJo (replaced at the interval by a charming Thomas Hazell-Evans). The effect is often surprisingly moving and a couple of times I found myself welling up at the sheer sentiment of it all.

In short (literally) a microscopic race of people (The Whos) live on a speck of dust on a clover leaf. Their existence is poo-pooed by all animals except Horton who champions their right to life (‘A person’s a person, no matter how small’). The Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Whoville are played with impeccable mid-American accents and fine-tuned singing voices by Max Carlson and Ella Dayer. These Whos are ably supported by a gang of yellow-clad Whos, whose hose are mainly yellow and blue making it difficult to tell Who’s who.

The sub-plot (and love- interest) is provided by Lottie Gaukroger as an unrequited Gertrude McFuzz who is in possession of only one tail feather and therefore down on self-confidence. She’s convinced her lack of plumage is the reason Horton doesn’t notice her. Her performance is quite excellent. She is yet another one with a pristinely tuned voice and an innate understanding of the musical theatre genre.

Occasionally, however, everyone is upstaged by a hilarious, crimson-clad Maisie La Bird in the shape of Sophia Edwards. Her big solo number contains the lyric ‘I’m amazing’ and to put it simply….she is! She is ably supported by a trio of beautiful backing singers (Morwenna Crook, Megan Pineda-Langford and Ciara Smith) who supply the harmonies.

One of the highlights of the show which brought the house down on Saturday night was a big number (Biggest Blame Fool) by the Sour Kangaroo (a feisty Mel Blake). Yet another great voice but this one’s also equipped with some very impressive, Whitney Houstonesque vocal gymnastics.

A wonderfully colourful chorus of monkeys, jungle creatures, cadets and circus performers, beautifully costumed by Charlotte Edwards, is skilfully marshalled around the stage by director Jane Evans who has crafted a production with so many enchanting tableaux. Along with this choreographer Jo Elliot seems to have the knack of getting huge the cast to co-ordinate as one in some pretty complex routines.

I’ve seen enough Queen’s productions to know that they don’t do things by halves and musical director Scott Morrison expertly presides over a tight sixteen-piece orchestra.

It all builds to a huge, joyful encore of ‘I Don’t Like Green Eggs and Ham’ with every member of the cast (over 100!) on and around the stage. Queens’ reputation as a leader in the field is cemented with another fantastic night out where all the production standards say more ‘West End’ than ‘School Play’.

Paul Cairnes