LJWorld.com

An enthusiastic full house greeted Friday's opening-night performance of Lynn Ahrens' and Stephen Flaherty's "Seussical the Musical" at Lawrence Community Theatre. The show is another of the theater's stage-filling extravaganzas, with a cast of 21 and all the color, music and dancing you could want.

At the center of the action are The Cat in the Hat (Amanda Thomas), JoJo (Jayke Workman, a fourth-grader at Raintree Montessori School) and Horton the Elephant (Knute Pittenger). Thomas makes a fetching feline, puckish and always a bit mysterious as she struts and prances and commands the local inhabitants. Workman handles his big role and its songs with assurance, radiating an endearing gamin charm. And Pittenger in a floppy gray costume plays the loyal Horton with touching elephantine awkwardness and tenderness.

Credit director Doug Weaver for giving this show an ensemble feel despite its size. And the show wouldn't work without loads of dance, both in the swirling production numbers, in individual performances like those of The Cat and Mayzie, and in the nifty ensembles of the Bird Girls (Sommer Brecheisen, Emma Cook and Maggie Gremminger) and the simian Wickershams (Quinn Wasson, Mario Bonilla and Carrie Burkhead). LCT stalwart choreographer Barbara Wasson delivers the goods here.

Clara Kundin plays Gertrude McFuzz, the plain-Jane, one-tail-feather bird who longs for Horton to notice her. She gives the character a sweet innocence and vulnerability as she tries to measure up to the flashy Mayzie La Bird, and ultimately realizes she must rely on more worthwhile qualities. Sarah May Shaffer sizzles as Mayzie, stealing scenes as she sings, dances and displays a ton of stage presence. And Amy Reinert's timing, energy and voice make us admire her Sour Kangaroo in spite of its acerbic nature.

The bright orange and yellow Whos, ably led by veterans Jeff Blair and Ann LaPoint as Mr. and Mrs. Mayor, careen about the stage as their little planet undergoes various threats. At times they're cadets in the military school of General Schmidt, played with mock menace by Barry Landon. Sixth-grader Sally Spurgeon, who starred as Helen Keller in LCT's "The Miracle Worker," appears as Yertle the Turtle, and also contributes a nice vocal solo as judge in Horton's trial.

Jack Riegle's folding-panel flats provide a colorful background, giving us the Jungle of Noor, Whoville and the Circus McGurkus. An elevated platform surrounded by gaudy palm trees also furnishes a vantage point for characters temporarily out of the action. Lighting design by Ron Chinn and Alicia Ellingson emphasizes the bright vividness of Whoville and the Jungle of Nool, and the cool dimness of McEligott's Pool.

Mary Baker's musical direction is crucial in a show that is virtually all music: You could count the lines of spoken dialogue and not run out of fingers. She also doubles on keyboards, leading musicians Andrew Algren, Valance Penn and Jill Troupe. Annette Cook's costume design gives the production the color and texture it needs, and the cast members could tell you the time Mary Ann Saunders devotes to creating effective hair and wig treatments.

It's a feel-good show: Virtue is rewarded, difficulties are overcome - and everything rhymes. The cast members are putting their hearts into it, and the audience knows it.