#seussial the musical

[cartrunkent]

Favorite Musicals #6: Seussical: The Musical

Seussical: The Musical- This holds the record for fastest discovery to Broadway visit for me. I bought the recording on a Saturday and was on a bus with my mother the following Wednesday to see the show. We were planning the trip before I bought the disc. Our county parks and recreations dept. ran a trip to NYC every month (alternating Wednesday and Saturday,) and I had started trying to go every couple of months. I was in a period where I didn’t decide on what show I was going to see, just showed up and went to the box offices and hoping for the best. I was a student and had a student ID at the time which made it easier and a little less expensive. That’s the background. I loved the recording, and it made the decision of what to see easier. It was our first stop when we got out of the bus and was a success.

Horton was my man and Kevin Chamberlain’s performance was amazing to me. Alone in the Universe remains my favorite song. And…I admittedly had a crush on Michelle Pawk’s Gertrude. The show’s central theme of someone being different and how others interacted with them… (Sensing a theme in some of these?)

When I went, Bryan Batt was my Cat in the Hat, and I met him briefly on the set of Mad Men a long time later. That day in the theater, I said the right words since I was in college at the time and studying theater. They took me to a few of the tech areas and I got to spend some time in the spot booth talking with the spot operators after the show.

PHOTO: Imagine this is a really cool image of the Cat in the Hat striking a pose in a lighting look that only existed for half a second. I can't find it right now (cause it was a long time ago.)

A local production was the first time I did lighting design professionally for the theater. The opening song had more lighting cues than most shows I do now! That’s kind of a wild memory. There’s a lot more memories I could share from that show because I do talk about it frequently…and it was about 20 years ago at this point.

Photo Below from the production I directed. (spoiler alert?)

I did lights for another production, a friend’s school, within a few years. Then, one of my local groups put it in their schedule and folks started to encourage me to direct it. I was reticent to do so, because it was larger than I wanted to tackle after my previous musical (Into the Woods.) …but at the last possible second (the weekend that the director applications were due,) I had an epiphany. I put my hat in to do the show. I’ll talk more about that later, maybe.

Photo Below from the production I directed. (spoiler alert?)

I’ve gotten to light the show one more time…but I’ve missed other opportunities to see it.

Favorite #5: Man of La Mancha

Favorite #4: Jekyll and Hyde

Favorite #3: Jane Eyre

Favorite #2: A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder

Favorite #1: Assassins