Onstage with "Seussical the Musical"

My pal Dave Lavender wrote this excellent story about Seussical the Musical, which opens tomorrow night at the Keith Albee Theatre:

First Stage Theatre director Mary Smirl takes one look at a stage full of color-splashed Seussical characters from the Cat and Mayzie to Wickershams, bird and cat girls, kangaroos, cadets, Who's and a small army of Seuss rockettes and breaks into a Whoville smile that could melt a mountain of frost from around any Grinch heart.

"Everybody makes it better," said Smirl standing and embracing the typical chaos of rehearsals gone wild earlier this week.

And she does mean everybody - a stage-filling First Stage cast of 82 is costumed, rested and ready for a sure-to-be-wild live theatrical ride of Seussical, that's set for 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, April 20-21 and April 26-27 as well as a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. April 22 and a run-closing 2 p.m. Saturday matinee on April 28.

Tickets are $15 and $10 for children 12 and under.

Spiced with a dozen-piece orchestra under the musical direction of keyboardist and veteran vocal instructor, Lara Donahoe, and with choreography from Tiffany McCullough Carroll, this version of Seussical contains about 40 more cast members than when First Stage took on the whimsical production back in 2005.

Utilizing the Cat in the Hat as the emcee, Seussical, follows Horton the Elephant's journey to protect the tiny people of Who-ville (who live on a tiny speck of dust), while also weaving in many of the beloved characters of Dr. Seuss' cache of magical books from "Yertle the Turtle," and "The Lorax," to "The Butter Battle," "The Sneetches," and "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street."

Producer Tommy Smirl said First Stage tries to see saw back and forth between shows with a smaller cast to super-sized shows that can introduce a wide age range of kids to the rigors of the community theater that's been pumping out shows and scores of students who are now professional actors since 1990.

"Especially here in the Keith-Albee, which is so grand, there's nothing worse than having two or three people on such a large stage for 30 minutes at a time," he said. "We had been looking at doing this show again for some time. We want to do a big show once a year or at least every other year to bring in new kids. When we do some of the smaller cast shows, the veterans who've come up through the ranks get all the spots. When we do something like this we bring in a lot of new ones and there are some kids who are bitten from the time they start. That makes you feel good, because it's a lot of work to put a show on."

The First Stage crew has been rehearsing four days a week for 31/2 months to prep for the show, and this past week have been rehearsing for up to five hours a night prepping for the two-weekend run inside the stately Keith-Albee.

As often is the case in First Stage, the cast, which ranges in age from 3 to 18, has a crop of veteran students to lead the way and who also appeared in "Seussical" in 2005.

Levi Kelley, Catherine Dennison and Sarah Metz, all tiny Whovillians back in the day are now Horton, Mrs. Mayor, and Yertle the Turtle, respectively, while Jack McGee, a former cadet is now The Cat, and Rileigh Smirl, then Baby Kangeroo, is now a lead Bird Girl.

Just a few of the other cast members set to light up the stage are: Jojo, Aarman Karimpour; Gertrude McFuzz, Meg Barber; Sour Kangaroo, Sarah Bryan; Mayzie La Bird, Maggie Donahoe; Mr. Mayor, Samuel Collins and General Ghengis Kahn-Schmitz, Jesse Donahoe.

A well-known choreographer in the area, Mary Smirl said they've infused the show with more movement and some more dance roles from Suess Rockettes and Mini Rockettes, to a troupe of five Cat Girls, who're like The Cat in the Hat's entourage.

All of that movement is prompted by memorable score by Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) that contains such sing-along songs as "Solla Sollew" and "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!"

Donahoe, who also has two children in the play, and whose husband is on the crew as well, said Seussical is packed with beautiful, moving and difficult music that's been tackled head on by this cast of young actors.

"Technically, the music is very difficult but the kids have done a great job learning it," Donahoe said. "We have very few high schoolers in it, but they have really stepped up to lead. I think it says something for First Stage to take on this kind of show. My dad, who lives in Parkersburg, is always astounded at the opportunities that my kids get here in Huntington. It truly is amazing to be able to go play in the Keith-Albee Theater on this big stage."

For more info about the show, go online at www.firststagetheatre.org.