The musical Cats was an instant phenomenon when it opened on Broadway in 1982. The London hit arrived on these shores ready and able to captivate audiences for the next eighteen years. Well,....most audiences anyway. There were also those who responded with a yawn and even a cat-nap during the show. Personally, I remember having mixed feelings about the felines on parade, those that had been recruited to crawl, leap, lounge, and levitate around the reconstructed interior of the Winter Garden Theater. As some of the antics were thrilling and some boring, I wondered what my reaction would be to this first Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s now almost-legendary musical based on T.S. Eliot’s collection of short poems, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” Forgive me for being cute, but I am giving it four meows, which I guess is like giving the show the highest rating in cat-dom.
The Neil Simon Theatre has been picked to be the large garbage dump site where you will undoubtedly notice that the designer John Napier has made (as he did originally) all the refuse and litter larger than life and as seen from a cat’s perspective. It has been brilliantly conceived to cover the theatre’s side walls as well the stage. Also recreated are Napier’s stunning costumes some of which should find their way onto haute couture runways by next Fall. But what impressed me most with this production was the phenomenal dancing in a show that is more of a full-length ballet with songs rather than the reverse as I had remembered.
To this end, and assuming you may not have a working knowledge of Eliot’s odes to cats, their charms and idiosyncrasies, talents, and temperaments, you will fast enough become fans of such cat-abouts as Mistoffolees, Cassandra, Grizabella, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer and the others who do get to run and down the aisles. Otherwise their acrobatic carousing and cavorting on the stage is often breathtaking.
I might be wrong but I suspect that the original choreography by Gillian Lynne has been greatly enhanced by choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and is now more excitingly performed by this extraordinary company.
If Webber’s melodious and mirthful score sounds like the return of an old friend, it is the misty-eyes ballad “Memory” that gives the show an added lift as interpreted by British pop star Leona Lewis. Her tough-as-nails version is unique enough to re-define the aging and spent Grizabella and interesting enough to invite comparison to the more poignant interpretation by Betty Buckley who originally played the role. Those already familiar with the show will hopefully be surprised as well as pleased by the additional glam and glitz given to some numbers, but it all adds up, under the full moon and the magical lighting of designer Natasha Katz, to a purr-fectly thrilling festival of Cats.
