‘Seussical’ Mindlessly Follows the Herd

In the infantilized world of new Broadway, a Dr. Seuss musical would seem to be a no-brainer. After all, the beloved children’s stories are not just magical but sophisticated and theatrical. The mentality is not just inspirational but subversive and satirical. Now that “The Lion King” is a pan-generational phenomenon and Jim Carrey’s Hollywood “Grinch” bagged a record $137.4 million in its first 10 days, shouldn’t dear Horton the Elephant, the Cat in the Hat and the versifying citizens of Whoville be singing and dancing for that desirable children-of-all-ages demographic in a great big Broadway show?

That, clearly, is the $10.5-million question that has driven “Seussical: The Musical” through at least four years, two corporate producers, two directors, two set designers, two costumers and an Internet fest of tryout gossip. By the time the delayed and revised show opened Thursday night at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, there was enough drama in the program credits--who gets named, who gets blamed--to suggest a little tragicomedy all its own.

It is a relief to report no discernible blood on the slick, candy-colored walls of the busily fanciful production credited to Frank Galati but reportedly completed by Rob Marshall. Alas, there also is little reason for anyone over age 10 to attend unless forced by a very young child or paid to do so. It seems that “no-brainer” is all too apt a description for the bright but bland and frenetic hodgepodge of Seuss stories that composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens have cobbled together to match their pop pastiche of a score.

Unlike “The Lion King” or the Dr. Seuss originals, this one has all the lilt of a hard-driving, well-meaning after-school special. It is mawkish and show-bizzy instead of clear-eyed and charming. The stage perks with an exhausting cavalcade of nonstop primary-color activities, but, ultimately, few of them are clever or original enough to keep us from feeling assaulted by hordes of sweet banalities. It is incomprehensible that Eric Idle, of legendary Monty Python irreverence, sat in with Ahrens and Flaherty years ago as an original co-conceiver. Maybe he thought it was a joke.

Not a joke, fortunately, is the able cast--especially Kevin Chamberlin as Horton the Elephant, whose simple, great-hearted loyalty is the connective tissue in the overlapping plots from Whoville and the Jungle of Nool. Chamberlin, who broke into Broadway consciousness last season as Mae West’s buddy in “Dirty Blonde,” manages to be utterly pachydermatous in just a puckered gray sweatsuit and a face that can turn a lack of expression into an expression of honest emotions.

As Horton, Chamberlin spends about half the show listening to a flower on which he swears Who-ville, the tiniest planet in the sky, exists in peril. He spends the other half perched on top of a blue ladder, sitting on an egg for an irresponsible vixen bird (Michele Pawk) who swore she’d be right back.

Janine LaManna is equally endearing in a breakout performance as plain-Jane bluebird Gertrude McFuzz. Ahrens and Flaherty say they never wanted an ears-and-tail concept, but costume designer William Ivey Long--a late replacement for Catherine Zuber--makes audiences work to figure out that the woman in the big caftan with the big soul voice (Sharon Wilkins) is the Sour Kangaroo, and the sirens in the nightclub glitz are birds.

David Shiner, best known from “Fool Moon” as a new-vaudeville mime, is only occasionally overbearing as the emcee, the Cat in the Hat as baggy-pants clown, who pops up like a mad hatter with rubber legs and an almost menacing smirk. Anthony Blair Hall is a likable whiz kid as JoJo, the Who-ville boy who cannot stop the pesky habit of thinking, while Stuart Zagnit and the always-pleasurable Alice Playton are his parents.

The cartoon set--credited by Eugene Lee but reportedly redesigned by Tony Walton--includes a rainbow frame with frond projections for the jungle and an ingenious insert for the little world of Whoville. Kathleen Marshall’s choreography is upbeat but unusually generic for her, though the balletic fish do manage a neat backstroke on the floor.

Ahrens and Flaherty, who won a Tony Award for “Ragtime,” supply an amiable, faceless assortment of songs that linger in an early ‘60s “Hullabaloo” range with winks of classic pop riffs, easy jazz and even a rag called “It’s Possible.” The opening song promises “All the things you can be when you think about Seuss,” but we were hoping for more.

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Linda Winer is chief theater critic at Newsday.

* “Seussical: The Musical.” Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St., New York, NY. (212) 307-4100.