That’s when the curious little boy JoJo (Rebecca Schwartz) sees his bedroom comes to life – the bed, the bookshelves, the dresser, and the toys are ensemble members or are being pushed around by the cast. And before the kid knows it, he’s talking with the ever-mischievous Cat in the Hat who wants to use JoJo’s imagination to imagine a story of Horton the Elephant who hears whos on a tiny speck of dust that no one can see and only he can hear. Before poor JoJo knows it, he’s being pushed down a slide to become part of the story itself – the tiny boy who who will have to save whoville or come to a bubbly end in a hot, steamy kettle of beezlenut oil.

Flinging him into the story is the talented Whitney Brandt as the Cat in the Hat. With charisma, flair, and humor, she keeps things unpredictable and flying along. She takes her torture of poor Horton seriously and whimsically while he’s helplessly stuck on a nest, proves to be an excellent auctioneer, drenches the audience with her tears (and the aid of a spray bottle), and kicks off the second act with a huge solo song-and-dance act that proves her to be a serious triple threat (then drags an unsuspecting audience member up to the stage to make him mimic her flamboyant act, kicking him off the stage when she’s through with him).

Ranjeet Paul is a kind and sensitive Horton who sings a soothing rendition of the lullaby Solla Sollew and almost notices the pitiful tweet of his bird-next-door Gertrude as she sings to him (he cocks his head, then goes on searching for his missing whos). Delivering that pitiful tweet is Emily Jacobson as a fun and quirky and melodramatic and pitiful Gertrude. Her personality opposite comes by way of Mayzie LaBird, the one who tricks Horton into sitting on her egg, with Nisha Balsara charming as the vain and self-centered and Amazing Mayzie who has a testy relationship while sunning herself on the beach with Jose (The Cat in the Hat) who is fanning her with a palm frond a little too annoyingly. Also generally annoyed is the Sour Kangaroo and the Young Kangaroo in her pouch, with Caitlin O’Neill and Margie McGregor giving us some big voices and big attitude, even after they soften at the end (when Horton tells Gertrude he’s slow and he’s fat, the Sour Kangaroo nods to her Young Kangaroo).

They’ve set the show in 1920s New York, with Scenic Designer Jon Shelledy doing fantastic work with the bedroom and the Jungle of Nool (Central Park). The illusion is further enhanced with the work of Costume Designer Elizabeth DeMonico and her team that deigned all sorts of incredible costumes including some stylish society dresses for the narrating Bird Girls, good period suit-and-vest outfits for the thuggish Wickersham Brothers, Horton as an old-time gas station attendant (a rag hanging out the back pocket for a tail), and the whos as little nerds dressed in yellow with flowers along the skirt edging. Those timid and amusing who nerds huddle together like glue (when you’re that small, you’re no doubt safer in numbers), even doing their bows huddled together. Rae Moses conducts the live school orchestra that does a nice job with the score. And adding the final touches are some lovely lighting touches that illuminate flying bathtubs, mermaids, scary hunches, a circus complete with poodles and cirque du soleil ribbon dancers, and all sorts of wonders dreamed up by Dr. Seuss.

Performs November 13 - 16, 2008

Rob Hopper
Executive Director
National Youth Theatre