Seussical

The Nautical Star Theatre Company is proud to present

their musical selection for the 2009-2010 school year,

Seussical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seussical

Act I

("Overture") The story begins with a bare stage, save for an odd red-and-white striped hat. A small boy (Jojo) discovers it and imagines what it could belong to, finally conjuring up the Cat in the Hat {from The Cat in the Hat}. The Cat creates the Seussian world around him and the boy ("Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!"), and he acts as the narrator for the remainder of the musical, as well as playing some of the minor roles. At the Cat's encouragement, the boy thinks up the Jungle of Nool, where Horton the Elephant {from Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg} is bathing.

Horton hears a strange noise coming from a speck of dust, and decides there must be someone on it. He rescues the speck and places it on a clover ("Horton Hears a Who") and decides to guard it. Led by the at-first-villain Sour Kangaroo, the other animals in the jungle mock him mercilessly, except for Gertrude McFuzz {from The One Feathered Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz}, Horton's next door neighbor, who admires his compassion and begins to fall in love with him ("Biggest Blame Fool"). Horton soon discovers the dust speck is in fact a planet covered with microscopic people called Whos. Led by their Mayor and his wife, the Whos introduce themselves and their community (such as their yearly Christmas pageant The Grinch who is based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas), explaining their predicament. In addition to being unable to control where their dust speck flies, they are on the brink of war and all of their beautiful Truffula Trees {from The Lorax } have been cut down ("Here on Who"). Horton's resolve to guard the dust speck is strengthened.

At this point, the Cat in the Hat abruptly pushes the boy from the beginning into the story; he becomes Jojo, the son of the Mayor of Whoville. No sooner does he enter than he is roughly scolded by his parents: he has inadvertently been causing trouble at school by thinking (or rather, having Thinks), disrupting the class and horrifying the teachers. Jojo is sent to "take [a] bath and go to bed/And think some normal Thinks instead," but the Cat soon persuades him to "have a Think in the tub." (Oh the Thinks You Can Think (Reprise)) Jojo imagines the tub is McElligot's Pool ("It's Possible"), distracting himself and accidentally flooding the Mayor's living room. The Mayor and his wife, aghast, wonder what they should do about their son ("How To Raise a Child"). After receiving a brochure from the Cat, they decide to send him to a Military school run by General Genghis Khan Schmitz an over-zealous warmonger who is preparing to go to battle with those who eat their bread butter side down {from The Butter Battle Book} ("The Military").

Meanwhile, Horton has been guarding the clover for "over a week", getting ridiculed by the Citizens of the Jungle. He then thinks about how no matter what others may say or do, he still has his dreams for adventure and a friend. He decides to chat with the Whos, and Jojo responds. They chat and discover they have found a friend in one another ("Alone in the Universe"). Jojo goes to sleep, only to be awakened by the Cat in the Hat. The Cat asks him what should happen next, and Jojo decides to focus on Gertrude. Her feelings for Horton are stronger than ever, but she fears he doesn't notice her because her tail consists only of "one droopy-droop feather" ("The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz"). At the advice of Mayzie La Bird {from Horton Hatches the Egg}, whose tail is enormous and dazzling, Gertrude goes to Doctor Dake by the Lake (played by the Cat), who prescribes her pills to make her tail grow ("Amayzing Mayzie/Amayzing Gertrude"). Gertrude is so excited by the dramatic and immediate results of the pills that she overdoses.

Horton is ambushed by a group of ne'er-do-well monkeys called the Wickersham Brothers ("Monkey Around") who steal the clover and run off with it. Horton gives chase, until the monkeys give the clover to a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vladikoff. Horton continues to chase the clover, until Vlad drops it into a large patch of identical clovers, "one hundred miles wide" ("Chasing the Whos"). The Cat in the Hat abruptly freezes the action and delivers an ironically cheery tune to the audience ("How Lucky You Are"). Horton begins to look for the clover, hoping that the Whos are still alive, when Gertrude, who has followed Horton all this distance, catches up with him. Her tail is now gorgeous, if impractically large. She tries to catch his attention, but he is too busy looking for the Whos to notice her ("Notice Me, Horton"). She retreats to take more pills while he continues searching. After searching 2,999,999 clovers, Horton loses hope, and he sees Mayzie LaBird high in a nest. Apparently, she was in Fort Worth, when she met a night owl named Tweet McFirth. After 'three weeks of bliss', Tweet left her with an egg. Mayzie then persuades Horton to give up on the search for the Whos and sit on her egg while she goes off for a vacation. Horton reluctantly agrees, and Mayzie flies off ("How Lucky You Are (Mayzie's Reprise)"). Horton waits on the egg for months, until finally he is captured by hunters. Gertrude makes an attempt to go after Horton, but the size and weight of her new tail prevents her from flying ("Horton Sits on the Egg"). The Cat in the Hat, backed by the full company, sings a reprise of "How Lucky You Are" to finish off Act I.

Act II

("Entr'Acte") At the top of the act, Horton is transported to New York City and auctioned off by the Cat to a man from the circus ("Egg, Nest, and Tree"). Galled by his being forced to perform for "nuts", Horton laments all that has transpired, praying that Mayzie will soon return from vacation so that he might resume his search for the Whos ("How Lucky You Are (Reprise)"). Meanwhile, Mayzie is lazing about in Palm Beach, where she admits she tires of the monotony of sunbathing "day after day" ("How Lucky You Are (Reprise)"). After receiving an advertisement from the Cat in the Hat, she decides to embellish her vacation with an outing to the circus, where she reunites with Horton and the egg. Horton, relieved to see her after fifty-one weeks of sitting on it, attempts to give the burden back to her. Mayzie, however, refuses, congratulating Horton for the fortune he has made taking care of it and "giving" it to him to keep forever. ("Amayzing Horton") Alone with the egg, a sorrowful Horton vows to nurture it himself. ("Alone in the Universe (Reprise)"). Determined anew, he sings the egg a lullaby about a magical world called Solla Sollew, a kind of Seussian utopia that he swears he will one day reach. At the same time, Jojo, lost in the clover field, writes his parents a letter from Military School, wishing they could all be in Solla Sollew as well, a sentiment shared by his parents ("Solla Sollew").

Jojo and his compatriots are sent out at last to fight in the Butter Battle. At the front lines, Jojo finally summons the gall to confront General Schmitz, lambasting the futility of the war and abandoning the army in rebellion. However, he imprudently decides to dash across a minefield, triggering the mines and causing an explosion. ("Green Eggs and Ham (Transition to Butter Battle)") Meanwhile, the Grinch is just finishing up his annual Christmas pageant in Whoville after which the Mayor addresses his citizens, beseeching them to not despair and keep hoping that Horton will soon rescue them. Yet no sooner does his wife propose a toast to their "dear little son" than Schmitz marches in, announcing that Jojo has died in the war. Handing over Jojo's possessions, he leaves the Mayor and his wife to grieve, who assure themselves that their "perfect little boy" is in Solla Sollew. ("A Message From the Front/Solla Sollew (Reprise)") The Cat in the Hat, however, reveals to the audience that Jojo did in fact survive; now lost in some dark place far from Whoville and unaware of which way to turn ("Alone in the Universe (Reprise)"). After an angry confrontation, Jojo forgives the Cat in the Hat for his perceived offenses, taking his advice and trusting his hunches to lead him back home. At last, he and his parents share a joyful embrace ("Havin' a Hunch").

Back at the Circus, Gertrude reappears and frees a bewildered Horton. After he inquires as to how she managed to find him, she describes the arduous journey she underwent out of her love for him, including getting all but one of her tail feathers plucked out to allow herself to fly ("All For You"). What's more, she found Horton's clover! Horton, complimenting Gertrude for her efforts, takes it back at last and discovers to his delight that the Whos are all alive and well. Just as Horton promises Jojo and his parents that he will look after them, the Cat in the Hat returns and warns the boy that a happy ending has not yet arrived. All of a sudden, the Sour Kangaroo appears with the Wickersham Brothers and makes a "sour citizen's arrest", dragging him back to the Jungle of Nool and insisting that he be put on trial before Judge Yertle the Turtle. Gertrude and Horton make a stand at the case, but the verdict is clear from the beginning: Horton is to be remanded to the "Nool Asylum for the Criminally Insane," and the clover is to be boiled in a kettle of beezlenut oil. Aghast, Horton implores the Mayor to command every last Who to shout in order to prove their existence. Despite initial failure, Jojo saves them all by "thinking" up a new word, "YOPP," the shouting of which is just enough to make them heard ("The People Versus Horton the Elephant"). The court acquits Horton and the Sour Kangaroo repents, swearing that she will from then on help Horton protect the Whos. In Whoville, Jojo is celebrated for his achievement, honored by the Mayor as Thinker Non-Stop.

Suddenly, the egg hatches: to everyone's surprise, a tiny flying Elephant-Bird comes out. Horton panics, realizing he can't handle a flying progeny, and asks Gertrude what he should do. She responds, "I have wings, yes I can fly...you teach him earth, and I will teach him sky." They agree to raise the child together ("Alone in the Universe (Reprise)") The Cat in the Hat appears one final time to sum things up ("Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (Reprise)"). The scene dissolves, leaving only Jojo, now just a boy again, and the strange hat from the top of show. He walks up to the hat and pulls it over his head, causing a blackout. The curtain call is accompanied by a final number set to a verse of Green Eggs and Ham.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seussical

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