Seuss is loose

Horton, the Whos and a colorful mix of characters will invade Bonduel next week as students perform “Seussical the Musical.”

“Seussical” will open Thursday at Sousa Hall at Bonduel High School and run through Saturday. All performances are at 7 p.m.

The main plot follows Horton and his discovery that a speck of dust is populated by Whos. While protecting the Whos from a group of folks who don’t believe anything living could exist on dust, Horton is left with an egg to watch over after the irresponsible Mayzie LaBird decides to take off and pursue other things.

The works of Dr. Seuss have attracted interest locally over the last two years, with the Box in the Wood Theatre Guild performing “Seussical” in 2014 and Gresham Community School performing the junior version of it earlier this year.

Kathy Brown, Bonduel middle and high school choir director, said she was eager to tackle the full musical because there were plenty of students interested and she has always loved the show.

“It’s family friendly, and the music is catchy,” Brown said. “It provides an opportunity for a lot of different ages to be involved.”

Moral lessons such as “A person’s a person, no matter how small” make the show very attractive to all audiences, Brown said, and provide an uplifting message.

“It’s very timely considering everything going on in the nation right now,” she said. “There’s something for everybody in it. There’s upbeat numbers, there’s slow numbers with a good message, and high-energy numbers.”

Doing a show during the summer has been particularly challenging, Brown said, due to families going on vacations, as well as work and summer sports schedules. She noted that it was still the easiest time of the year to do a show in Bonduel, as club and sporting events would have made executing the show difficult during the school year.

“You’re always going to run into difficulties,” Brown said. “There’s always going to be conflicts, especially in a small town, where kids are involved in everything.”

The Seuss books have been favorites of children for decades, but Brown made sure to sit down with cast members to flesh out the qualities that were important for their characters. She had them view other performances via YouTube as part of their preparation.

“That’s a resource that was never around at the beginning of my career in the ’90s,” said Brown, who is finishing her first year teaching Bonduel after previously working in the Pulaski and Gillett school districts.

For Brown, “Seussical” gives audiences a new glimpse into Seuss because it takes multiple books and puts them into a clearly flowing story.

“It’s ingenious how they put this show together with so many books. It’s relatable,” Brown said. “It’s similar to the movie for ‘Horton Hears a Who’ that came out recently, but there’s still books that are intertwined. It’s clever writing.”