By Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Eric Idle. Based on the works of Dr. Seuss. Directed by Carole Higgins. A Carousel Theatre Company production. At the Waterfront Theatre on Friday, November 30. Continues until January 5

Because this Carousel Theatre production of Seussical the Musical is so colourfully and engagingly staged, kids won't mind that the script doesn't tell its story very well.

Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) have structured this entertainment mostly on the Dr. Seuss story Horton Hears a Who!, in which an elephant detects cries for help coming from a speck of dust. The voices belong to microscopic people called Whos. Even though Horton can't see them, he can talk to them. At first, he's the only one who can, and some of the other animals–notably the Sour Kangaroo–accuse him of being nuts.

At least 14 of Dr. Seuss's tales get stirred into this adaptation, and that's too many. The least successful–and most tangled–narrative thread was invented by the musical's makers, about a romance between Horton and a bird named Gertrude McFuzz (whom Seuss did create). There's no reason for kids to care about this odd inter-species affair.

Moment to moment, though, most of the show works–partly because the performances are so strong. Always a brilliant comic technician, Allan Zinyk has been allowing more emotional transparency lately. His Horton is heartbreakingly innocent. Matt Palmer is slyly inventive and in fine voice as the Cat in the Hat, who provides a running commentary. And young Lucas Testini displays impressive confidence, as well as singing and acting talent, in the role of JoJo, who is the son of the mayor of Whoville. I also enjoyed Alison MacDonald's warm-hearted Gertrude McFuzz, Rebecca Talbot's vampy Mayzie la Bird, and Sarah Gay's full-voiced Sour Kangaroo.

This mounting looks fantastic. Alison Green's vividly coloured set captures Dr. Seuss's loopily surreal illustrations, and Heidi Wilkinson has created fabulous props and puppets. When we meet the Whos for the first time, they are played by actors dressed all in black so that their bodies disappear–except for their heads, which sport wildly coiffed orange wigs. The performers wear little puppet bodies around their necks like bibs and manipulate the arms with rods. It's hilariously weird.

In her costuming, Barbara Clayden has wisely left room for the audience's imagination. Instead of giving Horton literal elephant ears, for instance, she gives him a grey toque with earflaps–and a sweater with floppy sleeves that he can use to make a trunk.

As Horton makes clear, at its heart Seussical is about friendship ("An elephant is loyal, one hundred percent") and respecting difference ("A person's a person, no matter how small"). This musical would be stronger if these simple messages were less obscured and the music itself were more memorable, but it's still high-quality family entertainment.