Forty-five years after its debut, this inventive new version proves there’s far more to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical than dancing felines and Jellicle songs.
Andrew Lloyd Webber arguably began to run out of memorable melodies around the time of Whistle Down the Wind in 1996, but he was at his prodigious peak when Cats took up residency at the New London Theatre in 1981 for what ended up being a 21-year run. In fact, as proven by the new Regent’s Park Open Theatre production, it features so many catchy tunes that it’s hard to know which one to hum as you leave the venue.
There’s the haunting Memory as well as the majestic Old Deuteronomy, the high-energy Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat, the rousing Mr Mistoffelees, Jennyanydots tap-dancing to The Old Gumbie Cat and the entire cast belting out Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats.
“Jenny who and Jellicle what?” you may well ask. Let’s face it, Cats is one seriously strange musical, featuring weirdly-named feline characters from TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats brought to life through song and dance – the lyrics coming from Eliot himself as well as Richard Stilgoe and original director Trevor Nunn, and choreography, in this new incarnation, by Drew McOnie.
McOnie, who worked his magic for the Regent’s Park revival of Jesus Christ Superstar which is now wowing the West End ahead of a UK tour, is also on directing duties. Nunn’s original production leaned into the whimsy of having moggies holler and hoof, and there’s still lots of that here. But there’s no revolving front stalls section, no glued-on whiskers, no faux fur, and no attempt to ground it in the real world, as the 2019 film adaptation did to disastrous effect.
Like Superstar, the show will be making its way around the country and there’s plenty to keep the grandkids entertained on a family night out – like the cheerful Bustopher Jones (Elliot Broadfoot) camping it up in a hooped skirt and Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer (Danny Nattrass and Briana Craig) as Cockney cat burglars.
But McOnie delves into the darker side of a twisted fairy tale in which the felines are basically assembling to see which one of them will die first and former glamour cat Grizabella forlornly skulks around like a ghost. On press night the role was played by Taziva-Faye Katsande, whose rendition of Memory would have blown the roof off if the open-air stage had had one.
Mystery cat Macavity (Diante Lodge) is downright sinister, with horns for ears and spikes on his back that make him look like HR Geiger’s alien from the Ridley Scott film. Sami Fendall’s costumes are stunning, her crescent moon set strikingly simple, while McOnie’s choreography is slinky and sinewy, the dancers remarkable as they twist their bodies to suggest cat-like movement.
Cats is still bonkers, of course, but in all these capable hands it’s brilliantly done.
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