Hey sburger , when is your production date?  Maybe we can swap ideas as we go along.  -Dana

 

I think that, essentially, Seussical works best on one basic set through the whole performance - or perhaps a change for act two. There's no reason why details in the set can't change, but I'd probably still be inclined to keep the idea that the whole show occurs on Jojo's mind; and therefore I like the idea that everything sort of grows from the one initial setting.

 

From the times I've seen it, I've always felt it has worked better on a unit setting with lots of levels, steps and ramps to give a few different nooks and crannies for action to occur in. I also saw a production that I LOVED which set the whole play in a giant "pop up book" style set, with flats hinged together to turn like pages.

 

The show is supposed to be zany and wacky, and so be inventive with the design - flats with doors could be painted to have the doors blend in, which could work for secret entrances for all of the characters to pop out of. Doors - or, even, trapdoors if you build them into platforms, and are not as difficult as they sound - can have three dimensional set pieces mounted on the back of them. Double sided flats - and trucks with a flat or something else as a divider - could revolve to reveal new settings.

 

The cat's hat could simply be a flat with profiled edges to give that stylised shape, with red and white stripes painted on. If it can be a flat with a door, then paint the door to blend in with the rest of the flat; and that could work as a secret entrance for the Cat (and other Seuss characters). If you have it onstage the whole time (which could work if you use it for the entrances of a few different characters), the brim could be painted on the stage floor rather than profiled. You could even be tricky and have Horton's nest on top of the hat - which could simply be a two dimensional cut out with a stock staircase, or else an A-frame ladder behind it.

 

Hopefully my ideas can be helpful (and not too wacky or ambitious!)