Everyone has grown up with the whimsical wordplay of Doctor Seuss. His work transcends time with a nostalgic and jubilant appeal that attracts all. Now, his readers can expect to be entertained as they watch his characters’ antics and quirks come alive onstage in the upcoming eighth grade musical.

   Focusing on classic characters while blending stories to form a coherent script, “Seussical” is an amalgamation of all of Seuss’s greatest hits. It features elements of “Oh, The Thinks You Can Think,” “Horton Hears a Who” and “Green Eggs and Ham.”

   Directors Carrie McRobbie and Katie Linza are having a blast with the invigorating characters of this production.

   “[The characters] are very broad, a little over the top,” Linza said. “It’s really fun to bring those characters to life.”

As Seuss intended, the air of juvenile ridiculousness is truly embodied in the characterization in the script. The character that best exemplifies this is The Cat in the Hat.
“Cat is super optimistic, and she kind of has to bring the energy, and I feel that that’s something I enjoy doing,” eighth-grader Aadya Kumar, who stars in the play, said.

  To help display the inherently odd combination of slapdash fantasy and variety show, the musical centers around Jojo, a normal child approached by Cat. Cat subsequently pushes the boundaries of reality and makes Jojo’s thoughts come to life. Eighth-grader Shaan Parikh portrays Jojo and tries to bring a bit of a flair to his character.

   “I try to be a little bit oblivious to the real world,” Parikh said. “All the roles are really different from each other.”

   In addition to the aforementioned characters, there are a great deal of charmingly fanciful roles. A musical based on Seuss’s work relies on this, as these roles often take center stage to convey a theme of naivety in conjunction with a relevant humor. Seussical will run from Dec. 14-16 at 7 p.m.