View from the Green Room: All the thinks you can think

REVIEW: Seussical the Musical at Garter Lane 

There’s a real feel-good spirit about David Hennessy’s Stage School. The Garter Lane foyer is packed with families who are just buzzing to see Seussical and they’re not disappointed. Despite the bias of adoring parents and grandparents – and why not? – this is a first-class evening of musical entertainment. 

David Hennessy Stage School's production of Seussical is funny, tuneful, colourful and as jam-packed with talent as the munchiest doughnut you could ever imagine.

Seussical is one of the best musicals for children that I know. It’s a story that taps straight into a child’s imagination where ‘All the Thinks you can Think’ make perfect sense. The story is connected by images and songs rather than a straight-forward plot. All the big Dr. Seuss characters are here. 

Horton the Elephant who discovers a speck of dust that contains the invisible Whos, including Jojo , a Who child with a whoooge imagination who is sent off to military school for thinking too many ‘thinks.’ 

So if you can have a bird called Gertrude McFuzz that has only one feather and an elephant left to hatch lazy Mayzie LaBird’s egg in the Jungle of Nool and they all meet up eventually at the Circus McGurkus, you’re not surprised at the twists and turns the story takes.

This is a show that really appeals to a young audience with some stand-out numbers, such as ‘Here on Who’, ‘It’s Possible’, ‘Amazing Gertrude’ and that great ballad ‘Alone in the Universe’. 

Anchoring the show are splendid performances by Green Room Award Winner for Best Youth Performance 2025 Caoimhe Scanlon as the Cat in the Hat - her facial reactions are fascinating and her grip on the show as its narrator is lock tight. Orlaith O’Connor (Charlotte McInerney on alternate nights) is JoJo, the show’s sympathetic heroine who sings and acts with style all night.

Phoebe Boylan (also Kitty Dwyer) is an amazing Mayzie, Megan Cronin O’Shea (also Leah Bardin) is a suitably abashed Gertrude in search of a decent set of feathers, while the exasperated Mr. and Mrs. Mayor - Dylan Ryan and Lily Hayley - struggle with their amazingly imaginative daughter JoJo. ’Ahhh… kids today!’ 

Sophie Tubritt gives a rock-performance as the Sour Kangaroo who has Horton arrested as the ‘biggest blame fool in the jungle of Nool’ because he tries to protect the invisible Whos and cares for Mayzie's egg. Ahhh…

Chloe Byrne struts her stuff as square-basing General Genghus Khan Schmidtz, who bosses her helmeted army of four-year-old tot soldiers, while Jake Tubbritt is a warm Grinch and Josh Cowman the kindest of turtle judges.

There are strong performances from The Wickersham Brothers – Casey Stafford, Evan Walsh and Zach Smith – while The Bad Girls (Cara Regan, Grace Laffan, Lily Drohan, Olivia Dower, Nicole Kavanagh and Shanice Cullinane Hulett) bring a jungle-full of singing and dancing energy to the show.

Alex Brophy is a delight as Horton the Elephant – the kindest, sweetest mastodon that ever shook a trunk or grunted a roar. Alex sings with ease and there’s a gentleness to this performance that is captivating.

Seussical is a delightful musical that reassures us that small people matter, that all the thinks you can think is possible, and that when the powers of friendship, loyalty, family and community are challenged, good is triumphant. This is a magical show of turtles that sit as judges, cats that sing, elephants that hatch birds and ostriches that...well...ostrich.

All in the zoo of the new where the cat in the hat tells all.