The Kelly Critics is a joint program of the Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh CLO in which students of high schools entered in this year's Gene Kelly Awards review other school's musicals.

North Catholic finished their show season with "Seussical" in the performance of a lifetime. The story is about the reliable elephant, Horton. He hears a Who on a tiny speck of dust and vows to keep the Whos safe. He may try to always protect them, but it is harder than he thinks. His friends think he is crazy and they try taking the Whos away. He ends up stuck with an egg in a nest in a tree, wondering what has happened to the Whos, who he lost.

"Seussical" seemed as though it jumped right out the books by Dr. Seuss. The brightly colored background mirrored the original books. I was shocked at how well the set designers were able to make it a true Dr. Seuss-looking show with just a single background.

Aside from the background, one character stood out from the rest, The Cat in the Hat played by Matthew Harvey. When you think of the Cat in the Hat coming to life, he is what you would think of, energetic, funny, and able to draw you into every little thing he does. Besides being Cat in the Hat, he also had to play minor characters, so when the Cat wasn't on stage, another character played by Matthew was.

One interesting thing I noticed was that the stage crew was on stage while the show was going on. They were able to bring set pieces on and off the stage without distracting because they posed as Thing One and Thing Two. I thought that was a novel idea and showed just how clever the director was in bringing in all sorts of Dr. Seuss characters.

Singing was a major part of "Seussical." With normal musicals there is a song every once in a while. In "Seussical" there was a song every minute, it seemed. The caliber of singing from the whole cast was superb. Long rehearsals and singing practice paid off.

The show was filled with immense talent from the main characters to the rest of the ensemble. You could tell at the end that all enjoyed themselves, including the performers on stage.