“It’s a musical, a Seussical? No, a musical-with girls on stage!” is sung by Brian d’Arcy James, who portrays Nick Bottom in the Broadway musical Something Rotten in the hit number “A Musical.” In fact, this year’s musical was a Seussical! And not only were there girls on stage, but there was also the Cat in the Hat!
The 2025 spring musical, “Seussical the Musical”, put on by the Socastee Performing Arts Program, ran from Feb. 20-Feb. 23. The story begins with Jojo, played by Harrison Garrett (8), who is met by the Cat in the Hat (Loren T. Christensen, 12) who opens his eyes to a world of imagination. Jojo’s and the Cat in the Hat’s plot then falls in line with Horton the Elephant, portrayed by William “Parker” Vile (12) who faces a challenge as the Jungle of Nule suspect him of going insane after discovering a small world on a speck of dust on a clover.
Show choir teacher Mrs. Farrah Beaudry, who had been producing the spring musical since 2014, decided on “Seussical” because it required a larger cast.
“We had done [a large cast] before but we wanted to do it a little bit different; a little bit more edgy, and we feel like it would give a lot of students an opportunity,” Mrs. Beaudry said.
In addition, Mrs. Beaudry decided on “Seussical the Musical” because it was a wonderful opportunity to revive the show.
“[“Seussical” was] actually a pretty big failure on Broadway. If you look at the history of the show, it didn’t last long at all,” she said, “But the music is fantastically written, just really well done…[and they] required you to use a lot of imagination because as you know as an author that was always Dr. Seuss‘ main goal for his audience: [to use their imaginations],” Mrs. Beaudry added.
Not only was Seussical more inclusive to a larger cast (involving more than 100 students this year), it also challenged the students involved on stage and behind the scenes.
Senior Breanna Latham, who portrayed Miss Mayor of Whoville, faced challenges with adjusting to her role.
“I had a hard time at the beginning connecting to the character of Mrs.Mayor, which was very frustrating because that has always been something very easy for me to do,” Breanna said.
Despite her role being hard to adapt to, Latham said this year’s production was much easier than last year’s production: Spongebob Squarepants the Musical.
“In Spongebob, I had about six roles, so I was constantly on stage or changing,” Latham said. “This show I had a lot more downtime to relax.”
Senior Gabriella Jones, who took the role of Gertrude McFuzz, said the long hours were worth it in the end.
“We made an amazing show with those long hours,” Jones said. To perfect her role, she also practiced two hours after rehearsals to sharpen Gertrude’s personality and voice. She gives kudos to being a member of the Socastee Singers since her freshman year.
Despite both actresses being seniors, Dr. Seuss always has a spot in their heart.
“I grew up on Dr. Suess, so you could say I’m a fan. One of my favorite books from Dr. Suess’ was ‘Put me in the Zoo’,” Latham said.
Jones adds that her “favorite book is ‘The Sneetches’.”
Mrs. Beaudry did not grow up with Dr. Seuss, but she viewed the musical as a wonderful opportunity to expand her students’ acting horizons.
“I thought this was really a great accomplishment, and I felt like every one of those kids played a very vital role that made the production successful,” she said, “[And] sometimes, you just have those kids along for the ride, but I felt like people actually like to help drive this time,” she said.
