Cats

Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the musical ‘Cats’ is based on TS Eliot’s book of poems ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’, which was a childhood favourite of ALW.  The story is completely told through music with poem, song and dance.

‘Cats’ is very much an ensemble piece with individual character cats coming forward to tell their story and disappearing into the crowd again.  The entire ensemble, who were on stage for the majority of the time, were totally engaged with feline movement from start to finish.  It is really difficult for me to pick out individual performances – not least because of the brilliant ‘cat’ make-up which changed faces completely and the superb costumes & wigs!

“The Prologue/Jellicle Songs” and “The Jellicle Ball” were truly amazing, leaving me and the rest of the audience stunned by the scale and length of these two huge production numbers alone.

I loved the pair of cats – Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser (Jamie Rogers & Becky Stewart) – who were full of mischief, in contrast to Bustopher Jones (Rick Hoddy), the posh gentleman ‘cat about town’.  Old Deuteronomy, the Jellicle patriarch, was brilliantly played by Elliot Broadfoot.

Laura Judge, in her role as Grizabella the glamour cat – in threadbare attire, was obviously a faded star.  Her delivery of “Memory”, the show’s best-known song, was simply stunning at the end of Act 1, and her reprise duet with Jemima, beautifully played by Lois Brook in Act 2 was one of the vocal highlights of the show. 

Asparagus, played by Rob Durkin and Jellylorum, played by Veronica La Via had the most beautiful duet “Gus: The Theatre Cat” in Act 2.

Highlights of choreography for me - as well as”Prologue/Jellicle Cats” & “The Jellicle Ball” - were “Mr Mistoffelees”, “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” and “Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat”.  

The action took place on an excellent permanent set of a rubbish tip – very stable for ‘cats’ climbing all over it.  Huge congratulations to Ed Stewart & the Construction team – it looked amazing.

Sound was well balanced and diction was perfect throughout.  Lighting was incredible – the whole show took place during the night and yet you could see everything, and special lighting effects were excellent throughout.  As mentioned before; make-up and wigs were truly effective and, with brilliant costumes by Alison Boardman and team, each ‘cat’ was as good as any professional version.

This difficult [and occasionally discordant in the way ALW writes] musical score was superbly played by Ken Gilroy and his excellent band.  They never overpowered the cast throughout the production, and everyone’s vocals could be heard with absolute clarity – which is so important when the whole story is told in song!

Choreography was outstanding and extremely well rehearsed, with even some tap included.  The cast were totally focussed in each musical number, and “acted” their way through the whole production from start to finish, never once slipping out of character even for a second.  Likewise, Paul’s direction and staging was brilliant – every attention to detail had been covered.

I was totally blown away by the whole performance.  The show, in its entirety, was absolutely stunning.  A standing ovation from the audience to finish with was well deserved.  Congratulations to everyone involved on a first class production – apologies for not mentioning every single cast member – for me this was a 100% team effort production...just brilliant!

 

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