The good news is, it's not so bad. The bad news is, it's not so good. That was more or less the critical consensus as Seussical: The Musical opened on Broadway last week after delays, rewrites, redesigns, and more attendant tongue-wagging than any musical since The Capeman. This theatergoer has a far more favorable take, but that's with the benefit of second sight: I saw an early preview of Seussical in Boston, and the ugly duckling on view there makes this version look that much more swannish.

We're in the Colonial, gilded and grand,
But what's on the stage isn't quite what they planned.
The costumes are ugly, the action confused,
The staging lethargic...the crowd, not amused.
And though it's a tuneful and sweet-tempered show,
You think: Oh, the places that this will not go!

The Seussical on display in Boston was, as it is now, a pleasant, eager-to-please musical comedy; but it was also a disorganized mess. Given the rights to all the Dr. Seuss characters and all the stories except the Cat in the Hat books and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty seemingly tried to shoehorn in every single one. As a result, the central story's central character, Horton the Elephant, was literally lost in the shuffle. Side trips included a needless visit to the Who boy JoJo's classroom, a witty but irrelevant Act Two production number ("You Fit Right In"), and a long, preachy detour to the land of the Lorax, a whimsical creature succumbing to environmental decimation. The Cat in the Hat (David Shiner), employed as the evening's emcee, was pushed into the action arbitrarily and without explanation, to little effect. Most damaging of all, the production--sets by Eugene Lee, costumes by Catherine Zuber--owed as much to Our Town as to the Seuss drawings, with functional, bare-bones props (e.g., a naked stepladder to represent the nest where Horton the Elephant famously hatches that egg) and outfits one step up from street clothes (Horton, played winningly by Kevin Chamberlin, was clad in what amounted to a gray velour jogging suit). To be sure, there was plenty to enjoy: Flaherty's bottomless bag of melodies, Ahrens' Seuss-sympathetic lyrics, and any number of expert performances, from Janine LaManna's adorable Gertrude McFuzz to the underused Stuart Zagnit and Alice Playten as a droll Mr. and Mrs. Mayor of Whoville. But the randomness of the storytelling diminished the impact of the main plotline, while the cut-rate-looking production values and rampant anthropomorphism suggested a desire on the part of the producers to do a Lion King on the cheap.

Then, sensing impending disaster, the Weisslers
(It probably cost them a couple of Chryslers)
Uncharacteristically bolstered the budget,
Scrapped most of the costumes, and didn't begrudge it.
Then, making the action a great deal less spotty,
They hired Rob Marshall to spell Frank Galati.

As out to the lobby the patrons were filing,
They mostly were laughing and humming and smiling.
But as it's an evening more gentle than manic,
Could Seussical possibly pull a Titanic?
Will people respond to the sweet charms it throws off
When, several blocks north, hard-hats take all their clothes off?

While unemployed blue-collar workers clad scant'ly
Are more to the liking of folks like Ben Brantley,
From Boston to Broadway, this wholesale revisal
Became truly worthy of Theodore Geisel.
The house is the Rodgers, the show is called Seussical.
Grinches may loathe it; I'm more than entheussical.