Leona Lewis as Grizabella
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 Theatre. 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 breathtakingly. 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.”
"Cats" (Opened July 31, 2016)
Neil Simon Theatre, 250 West 52nd Street
