Through Sun 11/20
Welcome to the Jellicle Ball, a treat for lovers of dance (and tolerators of felines).
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award winning hit Cats pounced onto the Conner Palace Stage at Playhouse Square last week. Often credited with redefining Broadway shows, this lightly plotted, motion-packed 1980s musical charmed audiences and set Broadway attendance records during its 18-year run.
Written before Phantom of the Opera, Cats hints of Webber’s subsequent use of mystic fantasy as it strings together a song/dance version of modernist poet T. S. Eliot’s works, primarily those found in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
So, what to expect? A fluffy-light plot brought to life by an ensemble cast of over two dozen extraordinary dancers who sing, act and sometimes talk directly to you (if you are in the front rows anyway). The plot? It seems that the stray cats who hang out in the junkyard at night have an annual Jellicle Ball, an event where one is chosen to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and start over. (You recall that all cats have nine lives, right?)
Presented in format close to an old-time vaudeville review, the show allows multiple cat characters a showcase that highlights their unique personalities. It’s hard to pick a favorite, so I won’t, but extra lights, bells and whistles are due to Ibn Snell for creating an athletic and graceful Mistoffelees in what is perhaps the show’s most extravagant number, “The Magical Mister Mistoffelees.”
Acrobatic tiger-marked thieves, Brian Craig Nelson (as Mungojerrie) and Taryn Smithson (as Rumpleteazer), paired impressively as they rolled and tumbled in true naughty kitten fashion in “Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer.” Cameron Schutza (as Old Deuteronomy) conveyed authority as he ruled (or tried to rule) the tribe. Other cats whose quirks and stories stood out were a top-hatted Jon Anker Bow as “Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town” and John Zaborsky as “Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat.”
I am not overlooking the most well-known song from Cats, “Memories.” This recurring song, sung by the poor outcast feline, Grizabella (Tayler Harris), ties the story together. In the final iteration, Harris movingly evokes tender feelings about what was good in past days.
John Napier’s scenic and costume design allowed the cats to flaunt toned bodies around a dark and mystic junkyard. In a similar manner, Natasha Katz’s lighting design pointed our attention and highlighted actions choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler (and based on Gillian Lynne’s original work).
A few other special effects enlivened the action, as when the evil criminal cat Macavity the Mystery Cat (Sam Buchanan) created a power outage or when all the cats joined to assemble a giant tire (which then ascended heavenward) from scraps in the junkyard.
Directed by Trevor Nunn, Cats relies on musical support provided by a large hidden orchestra conducted by director Jonathan Gorst. It’s fun to hear bits of floor-rattling organ music creeping into numbers and think “Ah yes, the Phantom of the Opera is almost born.”)
The nimble ensemble cast — most stayed onstage all the time (while quietly acting like typical cats) — also includes Sam Bello (Sillabub), Lexy Bittner (Cassandra), Michelle E. Carter (Jennyanydots), Erica Lee Cianciulli (Bombalurina), Reagan Davidson (Tantomile), Nora Degreen (Demeter), Allyson Duarte (Jellylorum), Dominic Fortunato (Pouncival), Sammy Fossum (Alonzo), Wilson Livingston (Coricopat), Brendan Moran (Tumblebrutus), Yuka Notsuka (Victoria), and Kade Wright (Munkustrap) as well as Clara Hevia, Kieran Macdonald, José Raúl Mangual, Tony Mowatt, Gracie Anderson, Luke Bernier, Ellie Chancellor, Max Craven and Rachael Haber.
BOTTOM LINE: If you love dance, the whole production is a delight. If you’re coming for a story, read Eliot’s poems first so you can understand what’s happening. If you want a complex, finely synchronized plot, this might not be the show for you. But hey! It’s a musical and you knew that before you came, right? Just enjoy a night in Webber’s junkyard watching some gorgeous cats.