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Seussical plays at the Scera

Originally published in the UVU Review on Sept. 29, 2008.

Media Credit: Jordy Kirkman

Seussical is exactly what it sounds like — a musical based on the ideology and stories of Dr. Seuss. Horton the Elephant is the only animal in the Jungle of Nool that can hear the Whos, who are living on a precarious speck of dust. The story is narrated by the Cat in the Hat, who plays Jiminy Cricket to Jojo, an imaginative boy from Whoville.

Still interested? If that last paragraph was difficult to swallow, you might not be able to sit through Scera‘s latest colorful, chaotic, possibly seizure-inducing musical.

If you’re willing to let the madness sweep over you, and to forgive a few sloppy scenes, Seussical can be a lot of fun. It’s certainly entertaining — A.J. Nielsen as the Cat in the Hat, in particular, adds a delightful, unharnessed hilarity to the show.

The production would be a great way to introduce children to live theater. They will recognize characters from the best of the Dr. Seuss books, and the music is full of cheeky maxims that they might be young and pure enough to believe.

However, if you’re childless and cold of heart, Seussical can still be a fun night. Many of the songs can be interpreted as thinly veiled satires of very grown-up issues. Take the song “Amazing Mayzie” from the first act. In this song, the bird Mayzie (played by BYU alum Makenna James) tells how she made her tail bigger and better by using pharmaceuticals. “Get the pills and you can have frills,” her backup singers croon. What else starts with a “T” and is commonly altered medically?

If you throw your imagination into the show’s topsy-turvy pool, it will most definitely make for an entertaining night.

What: Seussical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens When: Sept. 19 through Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. Where: SCERA Center for the Arts, 745 S. State St., Orem Tickets: $12 for adults, $10 for children, students, and seniors

Published in The College Times on March 24, 2008.

Unfortunately, for many people, graduation isn’t the end of high school.
Even though they move on to college and get jobs, they still might as well be planning club events and going to prom.

On television, the transition between high school and college is a complete and obvious change; but in real life, it sometimes seems anti-climactic and hard to recognize.

This leads to a pattern of denial, where graduates ignore the fact that their high school years are far behind them. This must be avoided at all costs. And here’s how:

1. Change your activities. If you were a drama geek in high school, find another hobby. Don’t eat lunch every day at your old favorite off-campus haunt. In the end, we are made up of what we do every day; and if your activities don’t change, neither will your mindset. You must live like you are officially not a high school student.

2. Have goals, not just hopes. In high school, it’s easy to say “One day I’m going to be a (insert dream occupation here).” But now, you’ve got to get past that and actually do some work to get to where you want to be. You no longer have an excuse to remain stagnant.

3. Never go back. Even if you made friends with the sophomores and you want to watch the football games, you must not allow yourself to be on campus again. Don’t date anyone who is still in high school. Don’t even associate with them. Ignore that the institution exists, if need be.

4. Associate with older people. Sometimes it’s hard to realize that you no longer need to sit at the kiddie table. You can stay up past curfew. You can smoke, drink and gamble. Convince yourself that you are an adult, and should therefore associate with other adults.

5. Move out of your parent’s house. Sure, it’s tough. Nobody wants to do his or her own laundry or buy groceries. But you can only grow up so much without moving out.

6. Change your wardrobe. An important aspect to moving on is looking like you have moved on. If you dress like a high school student, you are going to be treated like one. This doesn’t mean that it’s strictly collared shirts and nylons from here on out. You should make a physical distinction between yourself and the local high school students.

7. Get it out of your system. Even though it may seem that after graduation you should make drastic changes, give yourself some time to adjust. Don’t buy houses and have babies immediately. Give yourself a year or so to remove yourself completely from high school before doing anything too extreme.