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Easton Thompson

Xan Mattek sings with cast members in Seussical, the musical. You can see the musical on Oct. 25-28 in Wilner Auditorium.

Seussical The Musical is a vividly multicolored musical based on some beloved characters created by children’s book author Dr. Seuss. Most of the musical’s plot is based on “Horton Hears a Who!” with The Cat in the Hat acting like a ringmaster in this circus of a show.

This musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty includes characters familiar to Dr. Seuss fans.

When a red-and-white-striped top hat appears on stage, it is easily recognizable to readers of Dr. Seuss. Soon, a girl enters the stage. She’s drawn to the magic of that hat. Suddenly The Cat in the Hat appears and begins singing about the power of imagination in “Oh, the Thinks You Can Think.”

More Dr. Seuss characters are introduced throughout the opener, including Horton the Elephant; Gertrude McFuzz, the bird with the one-feather tail; the Whos of Whoville, including the Mayor and his wife; General Genghis Khan Schmitz; Mayzie La Bird; the Sour Kangaroo and the Citizens of the Jungle of Nool.

The opening number comes to a close with Jojo and the Cat in the Hat using their active imaginations to transport everyone, including the audience, to the Jungle of Nool. And so the adventure begins.

The Cat in the Hat tells us the story of Horton, an elephant who discovers a speck of dust that contains the Whos, including Jojo, a Who child sent off to military school for “thinking too many thinks.”

Horton must protect the Whos from a dizzying variety of dangers. He must also safeguard an abandoned egg left in his care by Mayzie LaBird. Though Horton faces hardships galore his friend Gertrude McFuzz never doubts him.

Gertrude is one of two lead female characters in the show. “She’s the love interest,” Xan Mattek said. “That’s who I play. She takes all these pills to make her tail grow,” doing everything she can to make Horton notice her.

“During all this time Jojo is going on her own adventures as well, so the Cat in the Hat is bouncing between Gertrude and Jojo,” said Courtney Wages, assistant choreographer, dance captain, and ensemble member.

In addition to Mattek, the cast is led by Austin Ragusin, Caleb Freeman, Abby Jolicoeur, Karen Blackmon, Kalene Blanton, Jackson Dorris, Haylee Couey, and Megan Ahern.  The Production Team is led by Co-Director Amy Baker Schwiethale. Music Direction is led by Phil Taylor. Stage Management is led by Katherine Donaghue and Erin Mittman. The show designs are by the Wichita State School of Performing Arts students and faculty.

“The lighting and the sound is all done by students. The props and the set are kind of a mixture. We borrowed a lot of stuff from Musical Theatre Wichita. And all the stage management and running crew backstage and the pit are all run by students,” Mattek said.

WSU School of Performing Arts alumnus, Daxton Bloomquist, is the guest director and choreographer.

Austin Ragusin who plays The Cat in the Hat said that Bloomquist gave him leeway with his character. “I’m sort of trying new stuff every time I go on stage. Daxton would be like, ‘Okay I want you to end up here but how you get there is up to you,’ but a lot of our ensemble spent a lot of time working, cleaning very specific set dances and then I’m just sort of making up my own way through their predetermined movements.”

Wages said that she worked closely with Bloomquist to bring the show to life. She said having someone fresh off of Broadway has given her and the other students valuable insight into what it means to commit to musical theatre professionally.

“Daxton has done Broadway, he’s toured, he’s done a cruise-line. He’s always wanted to direct and be on this side of musicals. He wanted to try everything. If anything he wanted everything really honest and energetic.”

Schwiethale, musical theatre program director and associate professor of musical theatre said, “The special thing with Seussical is that my student that graduated ten years ago has gone on to be in the Book of Mormon on Broadway and on the National Tour is back as our guest director and choreographer.”

“This is my eleventh year at WSU so this is my first time having two generations of students working on one project with me and it is very special and rewarding as an educator,” Schwiethale said.

Showtimes for Seussical are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Contact the WSU Box Office to reserve your tickets at 316-978-3233 or wichita.edu/fineartsboxoffice.

“It’s basically a bunch of Dr. Seuss books strung together by the Cat in the Hat,” Wages said. “He’s the narrator of the whole show.”

“It’s fun,” said Ragusin, who plays the Cat in the Hat. “Groovy is a good word for it.”

“The show opens and the Cat in the Hat appears, Ragusin said, “Through the first song all the characters that the audience will see throughout the show get introduced and he basically encourages the audience to think and to use their imagination.”

“And then it goes to the Jungle of Nool,” Mattek said. “Everybody becomes their character because in the opening, nobody is a Who or a jungle character but once we get to the jungle Horton is introduced and he finds the speck of dust and he finds the clover that the speck of dust goes onto and that’s kind of like the inciting incident.”

The quick-moving story is almost entirely musical and the whole show is done in rhyme. “There’s always a song going on,” Wages said. “There’s no dead space.”