Cats theatre review
Reviewed in The Calgary Herald on March 28, 2006
Cats at the Jubilee Auditorium on Tuesday night. Attendance: 2,319 (sellout).
Nick Lewis
Calgary Herald
Albert Schweitzer once said, “There are two means of refuge from the miseries
of life — music and cats.” For those who subscribe to that philosophy,
attending the musical Cats is a bit sacrosanct.
Maybe that’s why Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 production is the second-longest
running musical on Broadway, after his Phantom of the Opera. The $2 billion
U.S. Cats has earned in that time from ticket sales is about the same as the
box office take of the three Lord of the Rings films.
Cats returned to the Jubilee Auditorium for the fifth time since 1987, and the
newly renovated theatre was filled with attendees who had clearly seen it
before and came back for more.
There’s no real plot to Cats, just a series of introductions to new characters
through song-and-dance numbers. As a story, it’s about as deep as the upcoming
Snakes on a Plane, but with creepy looking cats playing the parts of snakes,
and more creepy looking cats playing the part of Samuel L. Jackson.
But I’ve seen Cats three times now, and this touring ensemble of performers is
the best yet. Their feline agility and mannerisms, flashes between curiosity
and nonchalance, are dead-on, and when the material allows them to shine, they
certainly do.
Jeremy Hays as the Rum Tum Tugger is excellent, as are Cesar Abreu and
Josephine Rose Roberts as Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer, respectively. Claire
Blakeley as Grizabella does a great version of Memory, and Bruce Warren is good
as Asparagus/ Growltiger.
Then again, as skilled as these performers are, Webber’s source material is
still fairly weak, and quite often, boring. The cast of Glengarry Glen Ross
could perform Scary Movie 3, but that wouldn’t make it any more watchable.
Cats plays eight more shows at the Jubilee until April 2.
