Playwright: Based on the works of Dr. Seuss, conceived by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, and Eric Idle
At: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, on Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand
Contact: ( 312 ) 595-5600; $18-$23
Runs through: Aug. 20
BY CATEY SULLIVAN
Sure, it bombed with a resounding thud on Broadway. But in its Chicago Shakespeare Theater incantation, Seussical the Musical is colorful, zesty and zany with a sly purpose, and it's a delightful 80-minute romp for families. And the fact that the always attitudinous and gorgeously subversive E. Faye Butler is the Cat in the Hat? Now that, my friends, is some inspired casting.
Oh so wisely, Horton—the lumbering, kindly elephant at the heart of Horton Hears a Who—is the centerpiece of Seussical. Call me lacking in objectivity, but one of the enduring songs from my 1960s childhood remains the scarifying Boil That Dust Speck, wherein the bullying Wickersham Brothers ( 'We're the Wickersham brothers. We know a lot. We are out to convince you that those Whos, they are not.' ) urge the Seussian townsfolk to 'boil that dust speck, boil that dust speck, boil, BOIL BOIL!'—like a trio of rabid Cotton Mathers. The horror, the horror. It wasn't until Apocalypse Now that I experienced such feelings of terrified dismay.
Hence, making the tale of Horton Hears a Who the centerpiece of Seussical gives the show added panache, as far as I'm concerned.
Horton ( a loveable, earnestly kind and utterly de-handsomed Bernie Yvon ) , of course, has heard the Whos of Whoville from inside the dust speck and weeps great, elephant tears at the thought of his tiny friends being boiled to death.
It falls to JoJo ( the cherubic Mitchell Hollis, one of the few child actors around who is adorable but not cloying ) to come up with a Whoniverse-saving solution to prevent the Whos from meeting a ghastly end in a pot of scalding water.
Also well worth paying attention to are the aforementioned Wickershams ( Travis Turner, Devin DeSantis and Berwick Haynes ) , a trio of suave, jive-dancing nasties ( and I mean that as a compliment ) whose smooth moves embody the universal allure of bad boys.
And let us not forget Dame Alexandra Billings, whose Mayzie La Bird sets the standard for regal, scene-stealing fabulosity.
The music ( composer Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens ) is nothing to write home about, but it's performed with sparkle by a live five-person band, and it's got enough manically vibrant flair to keep children entranced.
Janice Pytel's costumes are whiz-bang arrays of feathers and fluff; whacky day-glo socks; and ridiculously wonderful headgear all crafted to make the birds, monkeys, kangaroos and other anthropomorphic creatures command the stage with eye-popping finery.
The glue holding the whole piece together is Butler's Cat in the Hat, who, while she looks nothing like the cat in the books ( or, God forbid, the dreadfully conceived movie version of Dr. Seuss stories ) absolutely captures the spirit of the iconic minx whose antics are embedded in thousands of childhoods.