It's a show that got lukewarm reviews when it hit Broadway in 2000.
But almost immediately after its year-long run in New York City, Seussical the Musical gained steamed on tours across the U.S., Canada and Britain.
And it has been an especially popular piece for regional and children's theatre companies - as well as for schools.
In Coquitlam, Centennial secondary staged the whacky cartoon play in 2011, with Aliya Boulanger playing the lead role of the Cat in the Hat. Tickets for the matinees for feeder schools sold out in 12 minutes, the director said.
The following year, Gleneagle secondary took on the funny show starring Ed Ross as the eccentric Cat and Jennifer Gillis as Gertrude.
This year, Port Coquitlam's Archbishop Carney regional high school will give Seussical a go, with the charismatic Luke Trainor portraying the Cat. "He's the omnipotent character and it's a role I really wanted to be involved in," Trainor said.
Asked why the Grade 11 student was picked for the free-spirited role, drama teacher Charles Harris didn't miss a beat. "Have you met Luke?" he asked. "I mean, I don't want to say he's being typecast."
In truth, Trainor is musically gifted, Harris said, which gives him the ability to easily master the unique rhythms of speech penned more than 60 years ago by Theodor Seuss Geisel.
Harris said most of the 35 cast members in Carney's Seussical are proficient in music and/or acting. For example, Trainor, who lists guitar, piano and drums as his instruments, was also James "Bud" Anderson in Carney's production last year of Father Knows Best; in 2012, Trainor was part of the Jets gang in the West Side Story.
And Vivian Ko, a Grade 9 student who will appear in her first musical (portraying Jojo, the thinker), already has her Royal Conservatory of Music piano 10 under her belt; she also plays the flute in the school band.
"I really wanted to be part of this musical because of the music," she said. "Of course, the stories are so great, too. I feel like it's something that people of all ages can relate to."
Harris, a father of three kids under the age of eight, confirmed he chose the show because of its broad appeal. "It's Dr. Seuss. How do you not love Dr. Seuss? It's still on T.V. and the Grinch movie is a classic."
Written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Seussical the Musical is a mishmash of Dr. Seuss's most famous books, but mainly based on Horton Hears a Who!, Horton Hatches the Egg and The One Feather Tail of Gertrude McFuzz.
For the Carney production, students and alumni will be joined by the Maple Ridge Concert Band to form a 24-piece orchestra.
Tickets at $15 for Archbishop Carney's Seussical the Musical, which runs May 21 to 24 at the Terry Fox Theatre, are available by calling 604-942-7465 or emailing [email protected].
