Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, book by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, directed by Allen MacInnis
Young People’s Theatre, Toronto
November 10-December 30, 2011
“A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small”
In 2006 the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young people staged the Canadian premiere of Seussical that proved that Flaherty and Ahrens’ smaller-scale one-act version of their 2000 Broadway musical based on the stories of Dr. Seuss to be a great success. Now Allen MacInnis, the director of the 2006 staging, revisits the show in an entirely new production. I can’t say that the new production is superior to the old one, but the show is still an ideal entertainment for kids in junior kindergarten to Grade 6.
The main difference from the 2006 production is the design which now emphasizes that characters more as human beings than animals. This has both good and not so good effects. Judith Bowden’s costumes are not so good because they are visually uninteresting and sometimes hard to decipher. The bird Gertrude McFuzz is ashamed of having only one feather, but many will not realize that that one feather is represented by one pleat in her other wise ordinary shirt hanging down lower than the others. The Sour Kangaroo wears a bandana with the two ends sticking up as if they were ears but wears an apron with a pocket on either side. In one of these is a mini-kangaroo. How hard would it be to give her one pocket in front more like a real kangaroo? Only long after the show did I realize why the two Birdgirls were dressed in 1920s outfits with no hint of feathers or wings. They are “flappers”, get it? Most parents and certainly no children will understand the joke.
Phillip Clarkson’s design in 2006 gave Horton the Elephant a cap with long hanging earflaps to suggests his ears. Bowden, however, gives him heavy earmuffs that look like large earphones which would seem to muffle rather than ameliorate his ability to hear the tiny voices of the Whos. Clarkson’s Whos were adorable little bodies on a sheet behind which the actors stood to supply their heads. Here the Whos remain full-sized, dressed for some reason in yellow rainwear. Bowden’s set is also abstract with what look like giant cat climbing platforms standing in for the trees of the forest of Nool.
The possible upside to this kind of costuming is that it makes the behaviour of the characters more obvious. Only the monkeys’ gestural language gives any hint of their animal side. But with their uniform of black pants, vests and pork pie hats, it’s clear they are a gang and bully other around them, especially Horton. Mayzie, who looks like a woman in a tight red spangled dress with an outré headdress rather than a bird, speaks of getting pregnant by another bird and abandons her egg but she can’t have fun anymore no longer becomes just a kooky, funny character. It looks much more like what it is--a mother abandoning her child. When she lets Horton keep it because he hatched it, some unusually adult questions are raised about what makes a person a child’s parent--biology or love and care.
The only actor to return to the production is George Masswohl as Horton. Again he perfectly captures the innocence and earnestness of this loveable creature. His defence of microscopic Whos is the motto for the whole show--“A person’s a person no matter how small”--a thought that I would hope gives some comfort to some of the tinier kids in the audience.
Damien Atkins is a genial Cat in the Hat, the narrator of the action, who sometime participates in it in various disguises (such as Mayzie’s callous lover). Atkins makes the Cat an ambiguous figure with a sly edge. When he announces that something bad is going to happens he almost seems pleased.
In other roles, Jane Johanson is quite affecting as Gertrude McFuzz. It is great to see Johanson, long associated with the Shaw Festival as a choreographer, get a chance to act, sing and dance in a major part. Her shyness and awkwardness wins us over immediately and we hope just as she does that Horton will finally notice there is someone nearby who loves him. Sharron Matthews plays Mayzie not as an airhead, which might help excuse her bad behaviour, but as a kind of avian Mae West, who knows what she’s doing and knows it’s bad. Jennifer Villaverde is delightful as the little Who Jojo who first get Horton’s attention.
Last time the accompaniment tends to overpower the singing, but tis time under Diane Leah’s music direction the two are well balanced. Stage director and Artistic of Young People’s Theatre says he was interesting in staging Seussical again because it is linked to YPT’s season theme of the power of change. While the denizens of Nool do change their minds about Horton, what really stands out though Masswohl’s wonderfully warm performance is the importance of standing by your beliefs even when you are ridiculed by all around you. Equally important is his steadfastness in preserving life in all forms--whether it is Mayzie’s egg or the nearly invisible people of Whoville. Add jaunty music, clever lyrics and energetic performances and you have a show that you and both enjoy and discuss with your children over the holidays.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Natasha O’Brien, Damien Atkins (in background), George Masswohl, Sharron Matthews and Jennifer Villaverde. ©2011 Daniel Alexander.
For tickets, visit http://youngpeoplestheatre.ca.
2011-12-07
Seussical