Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel famously didn’t care for children and had none of his own throughout 63 years of marriage and two wives. But that didn’t stop him from writing 51 beloved books in his singular anapestic, tetrameter poetic style, read at bedtime by millions of parents around the world. This month, the Malibu Middle School Theater Arts Department brings those stories alive with their performance of “Seussical-The Musical.”
Premiering on Broadway in 2000, “Seussical” was written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who had received Tony awards for Best Book and Original Score two years earlier for “Ragtime.” Though receiving mixed critical reviews, “Seussical” went on to play more than a year and spawned two national touring companies and an annotated, children’s version of the musical. Malibu Middle School will present the full version, under the direction of Brigette Leonard.
“Seussical’ mixes up all the well-known characters from Dr. Seuss to tell a story about acceptance of people, no matter how small they might be,” Leonard said during a break in rehearsals last week. “I love the stories and characters and there are some beautiful songs. I want audience members from seven to 67 to relate.”
Leonard has a long love of Dr. Seuss, beginning with her childhood memories of “Green Eggs and Ham” and “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Before she started teaching, she worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s animation department and was part of the team that pitched Geisel’s widow, Audrey, for the rights to animate Dr. Seuss’ stories (Geisel died in 1991).
“It was very weird, but when we met with Mrs. Geisel, he was present,” Leonard said. “An urn with his ashes was right there.”
Leonard is such a Dr. Seuss fan that she traveled to New York for the opening of “Seussical” and has proprietary views of any adaptations of Geisel’s work.
“I was offended by the Mike Meyer’s film adaptation of ‘The Cat in the Hat,'” she said. “The 1966 version of ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ with Boris Karloff is a classic. And the ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ movie opened last summer, so everyone should be familiar with that story.”
Horton is the only one of Dr. Seuss’ characters that appeared in two books, “Horton Hatches the Egg” (1940) and “Horton Hears a Who!” (1954), and forms the basis of the musical, as a caring elephant convinced by the irresponsible Mayzie la Bird to sit on her egg while she goes off on vacation. Having spent time protecting a village of Whos living on a speck of dust, Horton is well qualified for the job but runs into many adventurous challenges in the task.
Though Leonard insists the musical has no social commentary beyond valuing everyone as an individual, Geisel was very ideological, drawing political cartoons for the left wing New York newspaper, PM. Before he joined the army in World War II (producing propaganda films for the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces), he was very critical of isolationists like Charles Lindbergh, who opposed American entry into the war. His cartoons lampooning the viciousness of Hitler and Mussolini were legion and he strongly supported President Roosevelt’s conduct of the war. Curiously, while he railed against American racism toward Jews and blacks, he depicted all Japanese and Japanese Americans as secret fifth columnists, ready to betray the country.
While writing what are considered to be some of his best books after the war, like “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!,” Geisel thematically expressed some of his views in his children’s books like “The Sneetches and Other Stories” (promoting racial equality), “The Butter Battle Book” (condemning the arms race) and “The Lorax” (hyping environmentalism). In 1974, political columnist Art Buchwald printed Geisel’s adaptation of his “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” as a polemic against Watergate, titled “Richard M. Nixon Will You Please Go Now!”
“Seussical,” however, is written as pure musical joy and Leonard is directing it as such.
“I did all the costumes, which, being a Dr. Seuss story, are very important,” Leonard said. “I hope the musical encourages interest in reading again among young children, as well as enjoying the music and dancing.”
Eighth-grader Peyton Zouck plays Mayzie La Bird. She said she has always loved Dr. Seuss since she was “a kid.”
“The music is really, really cool and funny,” Zouck said. “The message is that even if you are really small, you’re still you. Even if someone is weird, he’s a person. So, it’s about tolerance.”
Also in the eighth grade, Skylar Steinberg plays the put-upon Horton.
“The show has so much imagination,” Steinberg said. “My costume has big ears and a long trunk. I just love the music; it really makes you want to dance. Horton is trying to save a small world.”
“Seussical-the Musical” plays Feb. 19-22 at Malibu High School Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased online at the Malibu High School Web site, malibuhigh.smmusd.org