Oh, the places `Seussical' will take you.

Byline: Richard Leinaweaver For The Register-Guard

Once again there's a stage

full of fish, cats and Whos;

an elephant, grinches

and mean kangaroos;

What else could it be?

But one more chance to see

"Seussical the Musical."

Actor's Cabaret of Eugene first produced "Seussical" in September 2004 with a cast of 33 singers, dancers and creatures of sea, sky, land and imagination. The '07 version nearly doubled the number of the performers, with most roles being reprised by ACE's original cast members.

The Dr. Seuss books, some three dozen of them written by the late Theodore Geisel, seem aimed to that crossover age where first the book is read to children and then in months or years, the kids are reading it to themselves. There is whimsy, chaos, order, ethical examples, warnings, kindness, danger, warmongers, politicians and happy endings - just like the real world, well, except for the happy ending.

Seussical creators Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Monty Python's Eric Idle included all of those elements, along with lines from many of the other Dr. Seuss books.

Gaylord Walker reprises his role as Horton the elephant, the nicest guy in the show. Horton hears voices, but no one is there. And then he zeroes in on a speck of dust on a head of clover (a metaphor for the insignificance of our own small planet in the larger universe?). That speck is the home of an even tinier race of people called the Who, led by ACE veterans Bruce McCarthy and Maida Belove as Mr and Mrs Mayor. The Whos seem to be in constant jeopardy, so Horton adopts them as their protector.

This is where the worlds and the realities divide: At one moment we are on the people-sized Earth with Horton and others; the next we are on the tiny speck with the Whos, both acted of course by actors of similar size and shape. The Whos seem to be costumed mostly in yellow shades as an identifier, but the stage space is so small and the cast so large that they often could not be isolated completely from the big people.

In fact, the large cast, dressed in more than 100 fanciful, brightly colored costumes, were the set's decoration. One has to wonder if the design of the show and the increase in cast size are for the performances scheduled for the larger stage of the Hult's Soreng Theatre in November.

That might also explain why some of the performers wore microphones in a theater so small that even untrained voices could be easily heard ... unless the recorded accompanying music was played too loudly. Codgers bringing their grandchildren to this delightful experience needn't worry if they forget their hearing aids.

A group of mean monkeys soon steal the clover from Horton. Horton becomes surrogate nanny for Mazie's unfortunate egg, gets sold to a circus, gets put on trial for disturbing the peace and "loitering on an egg."

Tyler Holden plays The Cat in the Hat, impressively balancing his duties as narrator and chief mischief master. Walker's Horton won everyone's heart with his reprises of "after all, a person's a person, no matter how small," and his tender tutoring of young Jojo (Joey Carlson) in the song "Alone in the Universe."

Other solid performances were by Michelle Sellers (the party-loving Amazing Mazie); Erica Jeans as the constantly in motion Gertrude McFuzz, with her one feathered tail; and Marc Innocenti as the Nazi-like Gen. Gengus Kahn Schmitz. The monkey-like Wickersham brothers were delightfully bizarre with their well choreographed antics and their unisex bare bellies.

Seussical is billed as a family show. Its colorful, high energy antics and simple themes can be enjoyed by adults, but more so if they're in the company of their children or grandchildren.

Richard Leinaweaver, a professor emeritus of theater arts, reviews theater for The Register-Guard.