CATS - Review

Open Air Theatre, London

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber 

Based on 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' by T. S. Eliot

Directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie

Gary Wilmot

A star was born at CATS this week. With the show’s leading lady unable to perform, understudy Taziva-Faye Katsande faced the assembled press for the show’s opening night. Katsande didn’t put a foot (paw?) wrong from the getgo, with her Grizabella proving to be nothing short of sensational. As her voice rose to belt the immortal "Touch me!" from Memory, the audience broke into spontaneous applause before the song had even finished, then rising as one to give a spectacularly deserved show-stopping standing ovation at the song’s conclusion.

CATS has always been a beautiful show - but played under the moonlight of the Open Air Theatre allowed Sami Fendall’s simple set design to take on an ethereal beauty. Where John Napier once designed an impressive garbage dump for his cats to play on, Fendall offers us a more astral vision,  lunar-themed with incomplete circles and rocks, around which the felines gather and dance. Drew McOnie’s reimagined choreography proves not only respectful to Gillian Lynne’s brilliant original, but importantly allows the magic of Eliot’s verse and Lloyd Webber’s music to be shared through the medium of his company's exquisite dancework.

A show that hailed from an era of brave and innovative writing - who today would have the cojones or the talent to set a book of vintage poems to music? - this production has been (mostly) immaculately cast. 

Charlotte Riby kicks off the featured roles with an enchanting Gumbie Cat before Jaydon Vijn oozes testosterone as a gloriously provocative Rum Tum Tugger. There is a hint of déjà vu from producers Lloyd Webber Harrison, with the gender swapping of Old Deuteronomy who’s now played by Melanie La Barrie. A similar switch was made in LWH's recent Starlight Express, where Jade Marvin was cast to play Momma, replacing the originally created Poppa. To be clear, La Barrie is great but she lacks gravitas. The role did not need tinkering with.

The show’s first act may well be gorgeous but after the interval McOnie elevates the whole production to a Heaviside Layer of sheer genius. Gary Wilmot makes his entrance as Gus the theatre cat (and of course as Growltiger) bringing a carefully crafted fusion of frailty, pathos and swashbuckling humour to the role. Wilmot is a rare talent and an inspired casting choice. Skimbleshanks the railway cat is kept immaculately on track by Matthew Caputo, while Macavity, the mystery cat, is impressively performed (accompanied by some stunning pyro effects) by Diante Lodge. Jet Yau takes Mr. Mistoffelees to the next level with a jaw-dropping breakdance routine, and a mention too to Elliot Broadfoot whose Bustopher Jones kicks off the evening’s comic moments. In an understated role that denies him a song of his own, Jack Wilcox’s Munkustrap was key to the show’s fluidity, deftly supporting a number of key routines.

Alex Parker wielded the baton over his lavishly furnished 12-piece band, making fine work of Lord Lloyd Webbers synth-heavy score. This show’s choreography may well be strikingly for the moment, but CATS’s score truly is now and forever ! 

CATS at the Open Air Theatre is a personal best for McOnie. This show ranks alongside Trevor Nunn and John Caird's Les Miserables from 1985 and Richard Eyre's Guys And Dolls from some three years ealier for sheer groundbreaking originality. Setting his sights high, McOnie smashes his target, in a production that drips with carefully rehearsed and immaculately drilled vision.

Drew McOnie has taken CATS, one of modern musical theatre’s finest gems and re-worked it into a completely new piece of exceptional theatre. Touring from the autumn, don’t miss it!

Runs until 19th September, then on tour

Photo credit: Mark Senior

CATS - Review

London Palladium, London

*****

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Based on 'Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats by T.S.Eliot

Directed by Trevor Nunn

Kerry Ellis

Back in 1981 CATS re-wrote the rule book of musical theatre. Not just for being the first show immediately recognisable by an image that was to become an iconic brand (those flaming cats eyes with their dancers for pupils - shrewd work, producer Cameron Mackintosh), but for being one of the first through-danced musicals, a concept never before tackled in England. CATS' plot (if there is one) is implausible. Rather, it took the genius vision of a young Lloyd Webber to set this quirky anthology of Eliot verse to music. The rest is theatre history as the show went on to smash box-office records on both sides of the Atlantic.

That CATS in 2015 works at all is down to the show's (now pensioner) creatives and an exceptional cast. Disbelief is quickly suspended and in a production that eschews masks and puppets, the feline transformation is achieved solely through the human skills of the companys' voices, movement and facial expression. At all times the audience can see that these are just people, albeit gloriously costumed and made up, but people nonetheless who with catlike tread and stunning choreography achieve a fabulous illusion. 

Eliot's words are marvellously crafted. They truly don't write 'em like that anymore and his 1930's gems are just steeped in Bloomsbury and a time when trains had First and Third Class carriages, a magical glimpse into an England past. No other writer other than perhaps Matilda's Tim Minchin displays the maverick and eccentric yet profoundly perceptive wit that Eliot masters. Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, played under the experienced baton of Anthony Gabriele and ranging from the haunting minor key harmonics of the Jellicles’ motif, through to the torch-song triumph that is Memory, has evolved into a modern classic.

Legendary choreographer Gillian Lynne neatly re-works her original routines to accommodate the Palladium’s traditional proscenium setting, with modern day dance maestro Bill Deamer adding his talent to staging the coolly jazz-themed Gumbie Cat tap number. John Napier's design has similarly been tailored yet still remains a fairytale setting (beautifully lit) of over-sized trash. (The eagle eyed in the audience will spot that the bashed up car’s number plate has been updated to NAP 70, Napier’s age when the show re-opened last year.)

But CATS, then and forever, has always been about the actors. As well as some fresh young talent, many feline-hardened veterans from the show’s various former and touring productions have been press ganged into service at the Palladium. Excellence is everywhere, but particularly memorable amongst the cattery are Benjamin Yates’ Mungojerrie, who delivers impossible athleticism with an almost Russell Brand styled insouciance whilst Joseph Poulton’s Mistoffeles and Ross Finnie’s Skimbleshanks are both visual delights. (That junk-yard train gets me every time.) A nod too to Callum Train’s Munkustrap who virtually MC’s the show with a breathtaking agility and of course few West End musicals are complete these days without a Strallen. Zizi’s Demeter duly and demurely delivers.

It is however Kerry Ellis’ name that tops the bill at the London Palladium and with good reason. Her poise as faded galmour-puss Grizabella is as poignant as it is perfect. Where the rest of the cast are shod in dance shoes Ellis, fur all mangy, is forced to totter around the stage in impossibly tawdry heels, defining Grizabella's tragedy in poise and presence. And then she sings.

On its own, Memory is one of Lloyd Webber’s biggest selling singles and much like Grizabella herself, it’s a tart of a song that everyone over the last thirty years as had a piece of. The audience knows it, loves it and their expectations as Ellis, along with Natasha Mould’s Jemima tackles the opening bars, are sky high. Ellis doesn’t just meet those expectations however – she smashes them. And as her Grizabella desperately pleads for affection with the shockingly simple words “Touch me”, this queen of London’s musical theatre quite simply takes the Palladium’s roof off. The moment is electrifying and unforgettable. It has been far too long since the West End was last treated to an 11 o’clock number of such jaw-dropping magnificence.

There is no more to add. As world class musical theatre CATS, with Kerry Ellis, is un-missable.

Now booking until 25th April 2015