Seussical

""Oh, the things you can think,

think and wonder and dream

far and wide as you dare""

A 2000 Broadway musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss with music, lyrics, and book by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (of Schoolhouse Rock and Ragtime fame). It draws a lot of its plot from Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg but also includes characters and elements of The Cat in The Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Green Eggs and Ham, and many other lesser-known works. Though its Broadway run was a notorious flop, it was drastically cleaned up and has become an extremely popular show with amateur/community theaters.

"Horton: You called my name and you set me free. One small voice in the universe...
 * All Musicals Are Adaptations
 * Arc Welding: Arguably. It puts a lot of Dr. Seuss' many many stories into a single continuous setting, and a good number of them figure into the main plot. See Continuity Porn in the YMMV subpage.
 * Ascended Extra: Jojo.
 * Beautiful All Along: Gertrude, although she comes to realize this herself, and for practical reasons as well.
 * Cameo: The Grinch (the show is set after the events of How the Grinch Stole Christmas).
 * Cassandra Truth: Horton.
 * Crowd Song: "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think", among others.
 * Cut Song: The original Broadway version and CD have a song called "A Day For The Cat in the Hat," in which the Cat tries to entertain Jojo while his parents are attending a conference with his teacher. The song was cut for the touring production, which also featured a rewritten script that made the Cat Jojo's guide throughout the whole play.
 * Dark Reprise: Of "Alone in the Universe".
 * Determinator: Gertrude, as revealed in "All for You".
 * Just to give you an idea, while looking for Horton, she:
 * Was shipwrecked
 * Slogged through some swamp
 * Was attacked by bees and dogs
 * Trudged through snow in subzero conditions
 * Tripped and fell off of a hill and landed on a jagged shoal (spraining her toe in the process).
 * Was ran over.
 * At some point during all this, she took seven weeks (almost two whole months) and found the clover with the speck of dust that holds the Whos' world. Keep in mind that this was in a field of clovers that were all identical.
 * Disney Acid Sequence: "It's Possible," "Havin' a Hunch"
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The popular Mayzie has a very large tail. Gertrude goes to medical means to get a larger tail that ends up being really impractical and getting in her way.
 * Not to mention she has to take pills and her tail gets LONGER Something Else Also Rises indeed
 * Some think that the plight of the Who's, who are too small to represent themselves, is representative of a position on abortion (taking Word of God ('s wife) into account, this may be Misaimed Fandom), or of underrepresented labor workers. The idea itself could probably be fitted into any number of political agenda's, just as with the original Horton Hears a Who.
 * Actually, they're the Japanese. Theodore Geisel (ie Dr Seuss) used to be a politcial cartoonist for PM during the war and made some terribly racist cartoons towards the Japanese. After the war, he went to Japan, made friends with some locals and had some Creator Backlash towards his previous work and wrote Horton Hears a Who!. It serves as an allegory of Hiroshima and the post-war occupation.
 * Eleven O'clock Number: "The People Vs. Horton the Elephant".
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's the works of Dr. Seuss as a musical.
 * Gender Neutral Narrator: The Cat in the Hat.
 * General Ripper: General Ghenghiz Khan Schmitz - although he gets a bit better later on.
 * Girl Next Door: Gertrude
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: It's heavily implied that Maizie's egg was the result of a one night stand with an owl.
 * Not to mention the whole Magical Abortion of giving up the egg to Horton.
 * Greek Chorus: The Bird Girls.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: The Mayor's wife is Beebe Bluff (RIP)
 * "I Am" Song: "The One-Feathered Tail of Miss Gertrude Mc Fuzz".
 * Incredibly Long Note: Schmitz, at the end of his song.
 * Interspecies Romance: Horton and Gertrude, an elephant and bird.
 * Irrelevant Act Opener: There's a short song at the top of Act II that just recaps the events of the first act.
 * However, it could be subverted if you wait too long, because it cuts into "Egg, Nest, and Tree," which moves the plot forward at a mile a minute.
 * Kangaroo Court: Literally.
 * Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Of Dr. Seuss' books. And whatever improv the Cat decides to throw in.
 * Mix-and-Match Critters: An elephant bird.
 * Mr. Imagination: Jojo.
 * Mood Whiplash: Twice, once by the Cat and once by Horton, as Who is being destroyed and as Horton is being attacked by Hunters, everything stops for a blase, cheery rendition of "How Lucky You Are".
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: General Ghenghiz Khan Schmitz and 'The Sour Kangaroo'.
 * The Narrator: The Cat in the Hat, according to him.
 * Oblivious to Love: Horton, big time.
 * Parental Bonus: Hell yes.
 * Promoted to Love Interest: Gertrude McFuzz to Horton, who wasn't even in the same book as him.
 * "Somewhere" Song: "Solla Sollew".
 * Sound Off: Parodied at the end of "The Military".
 * Stalker With a Crush: Gertrude.
 * Villain Song: "The Military Academy" for Schmitz. And, if you include Mayzie as a villain, "Amayzing Mayzie".
 * "Biggest Blame Fool" for the Sour Kangaroo, and "Monkey Around" for the Wickersham Bros.
 * You Are Not Alone: Both Horton and JoJo are feeling ostracized and lonely near the beginning of the show, then they manage to talk to each other and finally find the friend they've been looking for:

JoJo: One true friend in the universe...

Both: Who believes in me."


 * In the finale, there's a quick reprise of this with Horton and Gertrude.