Yopp! - "Suessical, the Musical" at DMTC's YPT


Final bows. Working from left to right, people I easily recognize: Blake Thomas (Thing 1); Bird Girls in the back row (Hannah Allen, Kimberley Casazza, Caitlin Humphreys, and Hannah Trost); Rebecca Rudy & Linnea Lampinen (front row), Kennedy Wenning (Mrs. Mayor, back row); Julia Soto (Sour Kangaroo) and Anna Miles (Mayzie LaBird), back row; Elliot Mende (Cat in the Hat, back row), Andrew Lemons (Horton, next to Cat in the Hat), Jocelyn Price (Gertrude McFuzz, back row), Andrew Lampinen (Vlad Vladikoff, back row), Mary Ellen Price (Thing 2, front row); Kat Holder and Joey Lemons (back row); and the four Wickershams (Cass Olson, Cody Craven, Wyatt Floerke, and Casey Bowman).



Bows for Julia Soto (Sour Kangaroo), Blake Thomas (Thing 1) and Mary Ellen Price (Thing 2). Back row, working from left to right: Hudson Shively (Jojo), Anna Miles (Mayzie LaBird), Jocelyn Price (Gertrude McFuzz), and Andrew Lemons (Horton).

Dr. Suess' books came out in the late fifties and early sixties, so I'm among the first generations of school kids to have had the pleasure to read his tales (I started elementary school in 1962). Dr. Suess' whimsical books reached instant, timeless, classic status immediately: they are as fresh today as the day they first appeared.

Very nice YPT show. Several standouts... Hudson Shively as Jojo. Wonderful presence on stage. Anna Miles was sassy as Mayzie LaBird: hope to see more of her flamboyance on stage! Cody Craven was excellent as General Genghis Khan Schmitz - very articulate and emphatic. Elliot Mende made a good Cat in the Hat: I especially liked the Yiddish imitation.

Sounds like Julia Soto has been training for R&B singing - excellent stage presence and singing! As an up-and-coming presence, Kennedy Wenning caught my eye. She was required to be formal for her role as Mrs. Mayor, but she played it excellently. Andrew Lemons is great on stage, although his voice suffered at the beginning of Sunday evening (he was over-taxed - he was also doing "Bye, Bye Birdie" this weekend at VAPAC).

I'm really glad that Jocelyn Price did the choreography. Some of the movement was very clever: the 'Perils of Pauline' part, which I almost didn't catch, because of the multifaceted layers of activity, with Jojo, the Thingys, and the Cat in the Hat at the top of Act II, really caught my eye. For choreography, it's important that the person doing it have close and intimate contact with dancers and the dance world, in order to retain the freshness required for good work. Teenage dancers seem very well suited for the task. Teenagers blossom, dancewise, from ages 12-15, and have the time required to hone their skills. Good job, Jocelyn! (If only we could get Erin Carpenter back to do some dance stuff...)

According to the Davis Enterprise, Emily Jo Seminoff (currently at Solano Community College) contributed much in the costuming of the show (Costume Design: Jenifer Price). Good job, all!