For any Who

It’s silly. It’s super. It’s Seussical, and there’s not a kid or a kid-at-heart who won’t enjoy this musical conflation of the two famous Horton the Elephant stories.

The Fair Oaks Theatre Festival accommodates a younger-than-usual crowd with an earlier curtain, but this production really is fun for all ages. As Horton the Elephant, Joe Hart is delightfully, deliciously deliberate, while Deane Calvin’s Gertrude McFuzz (a bird with a less-than-fulsome tail and a crush on Horton) is in fine feather. Lots of dancing, singing and extremely funny stuff keeps the show moving at a frenetic pace, and a couple of scene-stealing turns by the awesome Corey D. Winfield (the Sour Kangaroo) and the energetic Wickersham Brothers (Colton Archey, Jerald Bolden and Rashad Jahi) are great fun.

Ray Keller’s Cat in the Hat is a wily beast, and Christopher Carlson (JoJo) was the perfect naif to team up with the feline mischief maker.

With a family-friendly setting in the Veteran’s Memorial Amphitheatre (not to mention popcorn from the concession stand), Seussical is a good time for any Who, large or small.