Stephen Day
RCC students star in 'Suessical'.
The Riverside City College Theater department experienced a busy weekend full of entertainment and high spirits as they opened the Landis Performing Arts Center for “Seussical The Musical.” “Seussical” is a musical comedy inspired by many of the stories of author Dr. Suess. Some of the more prominent storylines in the musical come from Suess’s “Horton Hears a Who!”, “Horton Hatches the Egg”, and “Gertrude McFuzz”. Although the Broadway debut in 2000 didn’t have much success and closed a year later, “Seussical” became a prominent production for regional theater, and has been done by almost every youth theater group in the Inland Empire. With that said, I was not sure what to expect. I have never seen the production done with an adult cast.
Act I opened with high energy and bright colors. While it is common to see productions of “Seussical” follow precisely the aesthetic of Dr. Seuss, I appreciated Director Jodi Julian’s refreshing interpretation. The character’s costumes had a personified design. For example, the Wickersham brothers, a gang of delinquent monkeys looked more like greasers and the Bird Girls chorus appeared less like birds and more like saloon-style showgirls. Horton the elephant even, just wore overalls and a baseball cap. As the show opens with “Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!”, the cast introduces themselves with fun and dynamic choreography. At times, it was hard to know what was the focal point during the song, when the whole company is one stage. However, the stage extended around and in front of the orchestra, which was a nice addition to the use of space on the stage, and drew me as an audience member.
As the story progressed and the characters traveled to different places within the show, I was anticipating creative set design. I was a little disappointed that the set design relied on tall projection screens. I understand those screens are not cheap, but having physical sets the cast can interact with can not only showcase the skills the set design team has, but can add to the fictional world of “Seussical”, and keep the audience more engaged. I appreciated the use of special effects and lighting though. It was a nice touch to use fog, bubbles, and even clovers falling from the sky. The Wickersham brothers even swung from low-hanging ropes like monkeys. However, the show still brought me out of it, with the cartoonlike backdrops, and human-like costume design.
The narrator of the story, Cat in The Hat (Bryce Johnson), and the shy bird Gertrude McFuzz (Bella Ramirez) had memorable performances. Gertrude’s character development was clear throughout the whole show and embodied the small details about the character. Bryce Johson as Cat in The Hat had the audience laughing throughout all of “Seussical”. A highlight of his performance was during the opening of Act II. He implemented audience interaction and did some magic tricks. There were times though, when the Cat in The Hat upstaged other characters and pulled attention. Such as when the posh bird Mayzie is sitting on a nest, and the Cat in The Hat is messing around on the other side of the stage. Act II had peaks and valleys. Sad moments lacked intensity, compared to the high-energy moments, that were entertaining. I did enjoy the courtroom scene and its creativity of choreography.
As critical as I am, I had a good time watching “Suessical”. It was a fun production to see and was entertaining throughout. As someone who has seen multiple productions of “Suessical”, this was a refreshing take on the show. The cast was shamelessly unserious in a good way and was committed to creating the world of Dr. Suess. This was another fun production from RCC, and I am looking forward to the rest of the season with “Rent” from April 3, 4, 5 and “Amadeus” from April 24, 25, and 26. You can get tickets here.