Seussical the Musical the New Off-Broadway Cast Recording CD

The new cast album of the kid-friendly musical Seussical, featuring the 2007 Theatreworks/USA company and recorded in summer 2008, is now available on the JAY Records label.

Following the short-lived, lavish and large-cast production on Broadway, the show was revised by authors Lynn Ahrens (lyrics and book) and Stephen Flaherty (music and book). They created a leaner, smaller-cast, 80-minute experience that has spread like kudzu throughout regional theatres, community theatres and schools in recent years. (A Broadway cast album also preserves the earlier score.)

The 75-minute disc presents the entire new version of the show, "with quite a bit of new continuity material, lyrics and some new scenes not heard on the original Broadway cast recording," Flaherty previously told Playbill.com.

This new Seussical recording features Brian Michael Hoffman as Horton the Elephant, Shorey Walker as The Cat in the Hat, Karen Weinberg as Gertrude McFuzz, Ebony Marshall as Sour Kangaroo, Michael Wartella as Jojo and Kelly Felthous as Mayzie La Bird. Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Amelia Morgan-Rothschild and Ellen Zolezzi play the Bird Girls, and Willie Lee-Williams, Ben Tostado and Josh Walden are the Wickersham Brothers.

The original 2000 Broadway production, much maligned by critics, has since become one of the most-produced titles in American theatre. Flaherty told Playbill.com, "This version of the show, which has been especially successful in 'Theatre for Young Audience' venues like Chicago Shakespeare and the Coterie in Kansas City, where it was first produced, is now a one- act, clocking in at about 75 minutes."

He said the show still features many "most, actually" of the Broadway songs "but has been much more tightly focused."

He explained, "Several subplots have been eliminated � [including] General Genghis Kahn Schmitz and the Butter Battle, the Whos' Christmas pageant with the Grinch, the 'Havin' a Hunch' sequence. Also the relationship of JoJo and the Cat in the Hat has been somewhat expanded and the Cat is much more omni-present. He (or she, in this case our Cat is the actress Shorey Walker) really guides us (and JoJo) through the entire evening."

Track Listing:

1. OVERTURE - Orchestra, Jojo
2. OH, THE THINKS YOU CAN THINK! - Cat In The Hat, Jojo and Company
3. HORTON HEARS A WHO - Cat In The Hat, Horton, Jojo, Bird Girls and Citizens of the Jungle
4. BIGGEST BLAME FOOL - Sour Kangaroo, Young Kangaroo, Wickersham Brothers, Bird Girls, Gertrude, Mayzie, Horton, Jojo, Cat In The Hat and Company
5. THE WICKERSHAMS DEPART/GERTRUDE’S FIFTEENTH OF MAY -Citizens of the Jungle, Wickersham Brothers, Gertrude, Mr. Mayor, Cat In The Hat and Jojo
6. HERE ON WHO - Horton, Mayor, Mrs. Mayor, JoJo and Citizens of Who
7. HOW TO RAISE A CHILD - Mr. Mayor, Mrs. Mayor and Jojo
8. OH, THE THINKS YOU CAN THINK! -(REPRISE) Jojo and Cat In The Hat
9. IT’S POSSIBLE (MCELLIGOT’S POOL) -JoJo, Cat In The Hat, Fish and Company
10. ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE - Horton and JoJo
11. THE ONE FEATHER TALE OF MISS GERTRUDE MCFUZZ - Gertrude
12. AMAYZING MAYZIE - Mayzie, Gertrude and Bird Girls
13. AMAYZING GERTRUDE - Gertrude, Doctor Dake and Nurses
14. MONKEY AROUND - Jojo, Wickersham Brothers and Horton
15. CHASING THE WHOS - Horton, Sour Kangaroo, Bird Girls, Cat In The Hat, Wickersham Brothers, Vlad Vladikoff and Whos
16. NOTICE ME - Horton Gertrude and Mayzie
17. HOW LUCKY YOU ARE - Mayzie, Cat In The Hat and Horton
18. HORTON SITS ON THE EGG - Bird Girls, Horton and Gertrude
19. EGG, NEST AND TREE/THE AUCTION AT SEUSSEBY’S - Sour Kangaroo, Hunters, Bird Girls, Auctioneer and Company
20. SOLD/MAYZIE IN PALM BEACH (HOW LUCKY YOU ARE REPRISE) -Horton, Mayzie and Cabana
21. MAYZIE AT THE CIRCUS - Circus Barker, Mayzie and Horton
22. AMAYZING - Horton and Mayzie
23. ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE - (REPRISE) Horton
24. SOLLA SOLLEW - Horton, Circus Animals, Who Family and Company
25. GERTRUDE’S RETURN! - Gertrude and Horton
26. ALL FOR YOU - Gertrude, Horton, Dr. Dake and Nurses
27. THE WHO’S RETURN - Gertrude, Horton, Jojo, Who Family, Wickershams and Sour Kangaroo
28. THE PEOPLE VS. HORTON - The Elephant Marshal, Judge Yertle, Horton, Who Family, Sour Kangaroo, Wickershams, Bird Girls and Cat In The Hat
29. YOPP! - Horton, Gertrude, Sour Kangaroo, Young Kangaroo and Cat In The Hat
30. ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE - (Second Reprise) Horton, Cat In The Hat , Gertrude and Jojo
31. FINALE: - Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! Company
32. CURTAIN CALL: - Green Eggs & Ham and Company
33. GO HOME!: - EXIT MUSIC Orchestra