The Reviews Are In: Seussical the Musical Is Fantastic!

The reviews are in and it’s official: the Hendrick Hudson High School Starboard Stars’ Drama Club spring musical, Seussical, was a smash hit!

Clare Carey and Erica Denler collaborated with a cast of students – including some from Blue Mountain Middle School and Buchanan-Verplanck Elementary School – to bring life to the fabulous, family friendly Broadway show that made its debut back in 2000. The show is a delightful mashup of many published Dr. Seuss favorites – the Cat in the Hat and Horton the Elephant play prominent roles. The production, which ran during the weekend of March 6, 7, and 8, was dogged by bad weather that eliminated some of the special programming the producers had hoped to present – both to the individual Hendrick Hudson schools and area senior citizens and pre-schoolers. Despite that, the cast and crew pulled it off.

Carey, who does double duty as Director of Food Services for the district as well as advising the Starboard Stars, is an alumna of Hendrick Hudson, and played May Peterson in the 1979 Hen Hud High School production of Bye Bye Birdie. Much to her surprise, a group of more than 20 cast members from that show turned up on opening night for a surprise visit.

Amy Benjamin, a recently retired English teacher, was the catalyst. Benjamin learned that Carey was directing the show and called Jack O’Daley, who had staged managed Benjamin’s shows back in the day and now lives in North Carolina. The emails began flying and the result was a gaggle of Birdie alumni from as far away as Arizona, Kansas, Florida, Massachusetts, and more. When Carey began recognizing faces as her former cast colleagues entered the auditorium, her first thought was, “Is this my Make-a-Wish? Did the doctor tell you I’m dying?” She quickly added, “I was just so overwhelmed that these people would do this. I told the Seussical cast later, this is how incredibly important it is to be part of a show like this.”

The Birdie group met for breakfast the next morning, too. Carey and her 1979 cast mates reminisced about how much bigger the auditorium seemed back then, and how much has changed – the microphones, the lighting, the wardrobe. To play the part of May Peterson, “I wore my mother’s dresses and my grandmother’s fur,” she said, laughing.

Carey, who has two sons and lives in the district, was thrilled to work alongside Erica Denler, the high school’s chorus teacher. “She came to me and said ‘I think we would make a really good team.’ She was right. Erica is the whole package. I have such respect for her program.”

Working with elementary and middle school students was not a challenge at all, Carey says. In fact, “I think the high school kids benefited most from it. Their whole demeanor changes when the younger kids come in. They take on a mentor role.”

Weather was a huge factor in the group’s ability to rehearse and prepare. The pit band, in particular, “lost all of their technical time,” Carey said, “But their performance was incredible.”

Carey, who is known as a down-to-earth, plain-spoken person, still seemed a little shell-shocked more than a week later. “I hate surprises. I even read the last chapter of a murder mystery first just so I know what I’m getting into,” she said. Still, the entire Seussical experience was simply wonderful, in her view. “I wish everybody could do what I do – to watch these kids grow throughout the year. There’s nothing else like it.”

For a Seussical Slide Show – Click HERE.

Photo Caption: Clare Carey, front row in turquoise jacket, and Hen Hud cast-mates from 1979, reunited at the March 6 performance of Seussical at Hendrick Hudson High School.