Seussical with a Female JoJo
The question you're answering.
Ok...do to a lack of boys in my Junior High program I had to cast a female in the role of JoJo in Seussical Jr. Now, I have everything worked out and it works...except for one line in the People vs Horton that originally reads "Now just for a moment young Jojo looked grim, the fate of the whos rested squarely on him."Has anyone else been in this situation? What did you change the line to? Obviously the rhyme sceme is off if I just change him to her. I have all of the other gender references changed, but this one has me stumped. Any suggestions?
7 Answer
Of course, never change anything in lines, sex of a character, or anything else without written permission from MTI. That is part of your contract and we are setting an example of proper professional behavior to our kids.
Just have the girl act as a boy.
When my theatre group performed Seussical, my daughter played JoJo due to a lack of boys. She was wonderful. The vocal range fits well with a young girls voice.She just tucked her hair up under the baseball cap.
Connie...my FAVORITE solution!! Lets the actor use his craft...BRAVO!
We had a female JoJo last year who was fantastic!! We actually kept the line "looked grim" and the Cat used it comedically and took a pause after "rested squarely on..........HER". It didn't matter that it didn't rhyme because of the comedic pause. Seussical is a great show!!
Some of the best Jojos have been girls Scott! It isn't perfect, but "looked like a blur" would work for a rhyme with "squarely on her!" Lets see what others have to offer. This show is a jewel, right? CR
When i did Seussical JoJo was double cast. One was a boy and one was a girl and they alternated performances. I REALLY wish i could remember what we changed that line too. I think it was something with rhyming
"Now just for a moment young Jojo looked sad, the fate of the whos looked really quite bad"
I believe that was the line actually.