With a cast of 29, a live orchestra, full sets, and ornate costumes that could only have come from the imagination of Dr. Seuss, Ithaca's fall production of Seussical was a mammoth undertaking.

Staging the show was remarkable enough, but getting the recent Broadway production to Ithaca College proved a challenge in itself. Ithaca was one of the first colleges to produce Seussical after its Broadway run. The process began when actor Eric Jordan Young '93 invited Ithaca director and associate professor Susannah Berryman to see the show shortly after its Broadway premiere. Young was a member of the original cast. Berryman was taken with the show's score and its characters but confused by its over-complicated direction. Still, she saw tremendous potential in the musical and pursued Seussical with another Ithaca graduate, Larry Lees '01. Lees works at Music Theater International, one the world's premier theatrical licensing organizations. He made arrangements to grant Ithaca one of the show's first collegiate licenses. The resulting production under Berryman's direction thrilled audiences at the Hoerner Theatre through nine performances last November. "The response from the community was tremendous," said Lee Byron, chair of Ithaca's theater arts department. "For our student matinée performance, we had 500 elementary students from around the region. We just didn't have enough seats."

Byron credited Seuss's famous characters for the show's popularity among young audience members. But Seussical's appeal for those in the cast, crew, and theater department ran deeper. "There's so much there," Byron said. "People are now recognizing that Seussical has a remarkable score, great characters, and a beautiful story."

The family-oriented production also gave Ithaca College Theatre an opportunity to give back to the community. Ithaca teamed up with the Family Reading Partnership to collect used children's books at the performances. The books were distributed to low-income families throughout the Ithaca area.