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My CATS ExperienceI traveled to London to visit my Grandmother during the summer of 2001. On the plane ride there I looked through my in-flight magazine, and happened upon an ad for the musical Cats. For some inexplicable reason, I wrote down the phone number. I told my Grandmother about it, upon my arrival in London. She got very excited and said that she had always wanted to go, but never did. So off we went to the New London Theatre, two days after I arrived.
Once we got there, I made my Grandmother take a picture of me in front of the Theatre. On the way to our seats, I bought a "programme." We finally found our seats and I looked around. We had floor seats; eight rows back from the stage. Very, very good seats. Four rows back there was an aisle that the cats used a lot, so we got a good close look at them.
I was amazed about how small the stage was. It looks big on the movie, but it is really very tiny. It was about three and a half feet tall so the cats could jump up and down. The stage was round, and built on a huge disk that rotated. The first few rows were also on the disk, but you couldn't tell until the entire thing started to move during the Overture. There was a huge junk pile to the right of us, and completely blocking the view of an entire section of the theater. There were also massive pieces of trash scattered around. The balcony started right above us, and there were old ropes and things hanging down. It was cool because everything was to scale, cat-sized. It all must have been about fifteen-times larger than life. I looked through my program before it started, and I noticed that three of the characters were played by the same people as in the movie. There was Jason Gardiner as Alonzo, Jacob Brent as Quaxo/Mistoffelees, and John Partridge as Rum Tum Tugger.
Act 1It seemed to take forever to start. Finally the Overture began, and the stage with rows attached began to rotate. It surprised almost everyone in the audience. It turned until the huge junk pile was at the back of the theater and everyone could see. The cat's eyes really did light up all over the place like they did in the movie. Then 'Jellicle Song for Jellicle Cats' began. It seemed different somehow, even though it was all exactly the same. I loved being able to watch where I wanted to instead of in the movie where you have to look at what they show you. The interaction with the audience was also very different. Of course you can't have that in the movie. In 'The Naming of Cats' instead of getting into a formation and staying in it, the cats spread out over the theater. Almost all of them went into the audience, and only a few stayed on the stage. Etcetera (Sarah Jane Honeywell) came up and was right next to us. My grandmother and I were on the aisle, and it seemed like she was reciting the poem just to us. 'The Old Gumbie Cat' was the same, even down to her fat costume. When the cockroaches came out, the dance was much longer. Some of it had been cut in the movie. Now I can tell what she says after Pounce tries to stab her, and after she's finished walking in front of everyone. It sounds like "squadrant" or something. I could never make it out before, but she says "squad salute." John Partridge played the Rum Tum Tugger, and he's the one in the movie. But he was much funnier and TALLER live. During his song he kept going out into the audience and bothering people. He pretended to kiss someone on the head. The poor girl looked very embarrassed. Then he draped himself across three people's laps and sat there for a little while. At the end, right before Griz came out, the other cats were getting annoyed with him and wanted to fight. He said, "bring it on," but then Griz came out and everyone turned their attention away from him. Tugger bounced his chest off Munkustrap, like a football player would. When Bustopher Jones (Gareth Snook) came out he was polishing his spoon on someone's head. I would have loved to be in the first four rows so that the cats would have interacted with me that much more. They would enter and exit right by those people, and during the dances they would stare right at them. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer (Adrian Edmeades and Lynsey Britton) were much better in the movie. I'm not complaining, because they still did the acrobatics and things that I could NEVER do, but they just weren't as good. They were definitely as into it as Jo Gibb and Drew Varley, though. Now I know why one second Jerrie was on one side of the stage and the next second he was on another. An entire verse was cut out. I'd never realised that before. I loved 'The Song of the Jellicles.' It's one of my favorites, anyway, but it was much cooler live. You could see more of what was happening. And Victoria's (Emma Kerslake) mating dance was exactly the same, except it was Alonzo, not Plato. The woman who played Grizabella, Chrissie Hammond, had an amazing voice. She about blew us backwards in our seats, I'm sure she didn't need the microphone at all. She did a good job playing Griz.
IntermissionDuring intermission I went and bought a T-shirt. On the front it says 'CATS - London' and on the back it has the yellow cat's eyes. The program that I bought before the show is just like a magazine. It has all kinds of articles that talk about anything except Cats, and then there are about ten pages with the cast list, etc. So I bought a souvenir program that talked just about the musical. Intermission was really short. I expected it to be longer. It was very different how the cats came back. Old Deuteronomy (Dave Willetts) stayed there the entire time, so he didn't get a break. Everyone else just kind of crept quietly out onto the stage. They came from all kinds of different places. Some of the cats went right by people's elbows without them even noticing it. Everyone was still talking and didn't even realize the cats had come back. When Coricopat and Tantomile (Oliver Tydman and Helen Harper) came out they stared right at someone for about seven seconds, maybe. That's a lot longer than you'd think, if you count it out, especially if someone is staring at you for all that time. Eventually it got quiet again.
Act 2'The Moments of Happiness' wasn't as boring as I thought it was going to be. I was watching how the cats were acting. The kittens were playing with each other and acting very cute. They were also bothering the adults. Jemima (Lindsey Wise) and Etcetera were usually together. There was so much going on, and I was trying to look at it all at once. J Especially during the dances. Then Gus (Gareth Snook) came out with Jellyorum (Rebecca Lock). She was a much younger cat than in the movie. Maybe his daughter. And Gus was wearing an old, patched blanket. He didn't have that in the movie. It was so he could take it off really fast and become a pirate. I finally got to see 'Growltiger's Last Stand!!' I wish they hadn't cut it out of the movie because it was so cool!! First, Gus became Growltiger, and Tugger, Alonzo, Skimbleshanks, Mistoffelees became the crew. The crew sang about Growltiger for a while, and then the Lady Griddlebone (Jellyorum) came out. She and Growltiger sang an operatic duet, and they made it very funny. He was supposed to be paying attention to her, but kept running around the stage singing towards the audience. She was lashing her tail and making faces at him. And at the end they were trying to sing over each other and just kept getting louder and louder. It was really cute. Then the Siamese came in with their tridents and cutlasses. There was a big swordfight and they made Gus walk the plank. Griddlebone got away. Then Gus came back and sang the last verse of his song. Then it was time for Skimbleshanks (Ross Finnie) to out, and then Bomby (Julie Barnes) and Demeter (Barbara King) came and sang about Macavity (Kenny Linden). The rest of the show was pretty much exactly the same. There were at least three people dressed up as Macavity, because he kept appearing all over the theater. One of them came out on the balcony right above our heads. One finally came out on stage, and did the fight/ dance with Munkustrap (David Ashley) and then Alonzo. It was so cool when Mistoffelees came out. They had brighter lights for the movie, so everything was well lit. But live it was pitch black except for the flashlight the cats had. Tugger sang about him for a while, and then Misto came down from the ceiling on a Christmas tree light rope. He had lights on his jacket, and sparkly pants too. He'd changed tails. The one he had was very short so he could do his dance. Every time he waved his arms around the lights would do something different. They would change colors or turn off or on or something. And when he pointed at places on the ground, fire and smoke came shooting out. His dance was a lot longer than in the movie. It looked MUCH harder, too. I don't know how people can dance like they do! He was amazing!! In the movie they cut out the 'conjuring turn,' which doesn't make much sense because they sing about it so much. He used Bomby as an assistant, instead of Cassandra . I remember reading somewhere that she tried to escape, but when I saw it she didn't. She was very willing. Then he brought Old Deuteronomy back and everyone was happy. At the end when Tugger is supposed to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you..." he said, "Ladies," then chuckled a little and pulled up his ruff. Then he said, "gentlemen," like he was annoyed they were there. Tugger did a lot of cute things. I wish he'd acted more like that in the movie, but then every performance is different. The whole show seemed to go by SO FAST!! Grizabella came out and sang "Memory," and then they were all ushering her up to the Heaviside Layer. Before I knew it, Old Deuteronomy was singing "The Addressing of Cats." And then it was over. The music for Skimbleshanks started again and the cats ran around the theatre encouraging people to clap along. A couple, I think it was Pouncival and Victoria, came up by us and went past. I could hear them as individuals singing. Alonzo went around the theater doing backflips, one after the other. For the end credits, each cat ran across the stage and did a flip or a leap or something. Even Old Deuteronomy did a leap. Some of them came out as more than one cat, like Gus. He came out with his pirate hat on, and his old blanket. And Jennyanydots came out with her other ears on. Then at the very end Misto and Griz were waltzing across the stage. Tugger came out and knocked Misto out of the way, acting like he wanted to dance with Griz. Then Tugger and Misto waltzed off the stage together and left Griz standing there. It was cute.
A lot of the show was different from the movie, and I expected it to be, but I was surprised at how much was the same. Some of the words were different. Here and there they cut out an entire verse, and they completely took out 'Growltiger's Last Stand.' It was really nice to be able to finally see it. They also cut out a lot of the dancing in the movie, and that explains the warps, like the one in Jennyanydots' number. A lot of the transitions to songs were different. Some of the characters had different names or personalities or were missing completely. The cast was much smaller. I can't believe that I have actually been to see Cats live. It's a dream come true for me! I've wanted to see it since I was little and saw it on Reading Rainbow. It was really a once in a lifetime experience, and I will never forget it. | |||||||
 Disclaimer: CATS is copyright Andrew Lloyd Webber and RUG. I do not own or claim to own any part of it. This site is only up for the enjoyment of others. The layout, name, and idea for this site do belong to me, however, so please do not claim them for your own. Purrs! | ||||||||
