The drama department is serving up a recipe for fun when they serve a comb of fish, cats, and green eggs and ham that even sam I am will love. Planning for Seussical the Musical Junior already begon for the perfromances are excite for the February show.
Characters from different Dr. Seuss’s books come together when the Cat in the Hat tells a story about what happened when Horton the Elephant, played by sophomore Matthew Wang, finds a speck of dust full of Whos.
“[Seussical] is actually one [musical] I’ve always wanted to do. It’s one of those shows where the songs just get stuck in your head. It’s just a fun, fun show. We need something really light hearted, and we try to balance out the seasons,” Graham said.
After Drama club’s fall play, Our Town, a serious drama about life in the 1930s, Seussical brings a different atmosphere to the theater.
“This version is Seussical Junior, so it is a little bit shorter than the stage Seussical. This show has all those things down and it moves a lot quicker and faster. And it works really well and you won’t be able to tell what is missing,” Graham said.
Seussical Jr. is also taking on a different approach to the character’s costumes than past musicals.
“The costumes for this show are a little different. Horton is an elephant, but in our show he is dressed in street clothes. The whole premise of the story is to use your imagination,” Graham said.
Since each character is taken from its own individual book, the characters are more developed and each character has the potential to be the star of the play. Auditions started in October, and actors must have their lines memorized before the first practice on November 13. The actors have a total of five months to prepare for the musical. This musical is narrated by the Cat in the Hat, played by sophomore Conor Jordan, and involves stories such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and Green Eggs and Ham, all Dr. Seuss classics.
“The hardest part about the show will probably be to become animated enough,” Jason Miller, sophomore playing a Who, said. “Dr. Seuss normally intends to have characters that are larger than life, and to have high school students act larger than life is going to be a huge duty to take on, so that will be challenging, but I think we can do it.”
Along with tackling the acting, characters also have to be able to carry a tune, because the actors have to sing more than they talk.
“This show is actually like an opera, so there is hardly any dialogue. There will be maybe two or three phrases between songs, so that will make it different than your typical monologue,” Miller said.
On top of having to work through a challenging musical, most of the cast list is made up of underclassmen.
“I think that every cast is always going to be people who need to step up their game,” Miller said. “I think overall it’s a pretty good cast, and I‘m excited to see everybody become their character.”