Well, they do say that cats have nine lives … so why shouldn’t the musical?
Theatrically speaking, the first life of CATS was its 1981 London production that was replicated for Broadway a year later.
The 1998 video of that iteration can be deemed the second.
We’ll regard the 2016 Broadway revival that was semi-successful (and a clone of the original) as the third.
And for CATS’ fourth life, let’s not forget the 2019 film.
No, let’s definitely forget that film. It was so misguided that it seemed to kill CATS from any future productions now and forever.
Nevertheless, we now have a fifth life for CATS, and fifth time’s the charm at The Perelman Performing Arts Center.
Will there ever be sixth-through-ninth interpretations? Frankly, this production will be a hard act to follow. The imagination behind it is staggering and, to say the least, audience-pleasing. Even the ballads resulted in theater-shaking “Whoos!”
Apparently, the young Perelman audience had never been informed that during the end of the last century, CATS had become a joke.
Paul Rudnick made sport of it in JEFFREY on both stage and screen. Ditto John Guare in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION.
In the film version of LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! a vacationer is seen packing for his trip and puts in his suitcase CDs of EVITA, MACK & MABEL and FUNNY GIRL.
Then he picks up CATS, and, after a long second, tosses it aside.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE made “It’s better than Cats” into a cliché that people still say – semi-sarcastically, of course – when giving something oh-so-faint praise (or no praised at all).
To be fair, many smash-hits endure suffer scorn after becoming extraordinarily successful. There will always be fervent theatergoers who turn against a blockbuster once the hoi polloi embrace it.
Martin Charnin – conceiver, director, and lyricist of ANNIE – once wrote in a song, “If you want to clear a room, just sing ‘Tomorrow.’”
Until this production, that was true of “Memory,” too.
Then there are those audiences that catch a show after it reaches legendary status and think “Nah, that wasn’t so hot.”
Yet another reason that CATS suffered the slings and arrows of outraged musical theater mavens is that in 1997, it surpassed their beloved A CHORUS LINE as Broadway’s longest-running show.
And CATS didn’t just squeak by as, say, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF did by besting LIFE WITH FATHER by all of 18 performances. CATS eventually outlasted CHORUS LINE by more than three years.
(Many Broadway fans breathed a sigh of relief when THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA leapfrogged over CATS. This wasn’t because they loved PHANTOM more, but because they loved – if that word can even be used – CATS far, far less.)
Nobody apparently told any of this contempt-laden history to co-choreographers Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles or co-directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch. The last-named is the one who came up with the arguably brilliant idea to stage the show not with humans playing cats, but with drag artists engaged in a PARIS IS BURNING-like competition.
That this CATS is so successful brings up two stories.
Story One: Back in the ‘50s, a director named Philip (no last names, please) went with friends to Fire Island. Through the entire weekend, he won each and every game played, from tennis to golf to Monopoly. One weekend guest said in amazement, “Is there anything that Philip can’t do?” to which one of Philip’s frenemies said, “Yes. He can’t walk down the street in women’s clothes without getting arrested.”
Story Two: Now to 1965, when the recent jukebox musical A SIGN OF THE TIMES was set.
Young Ohio natives Cindy and Matt have been romantically linked all through school. But now she’ll go to New York and he to Vietnam.
When he returns, Cindy expects he’ll want to resume their relationship, but he says he’s fallen in love with someone else.
And out comes a fellow soldier.
Cindy’s reaction? She’s thrilled for both of them and they all hug.
In 1965? Matt would insist that he and his army buddy were roommates.
And Cindy would believe him.
But – and here’s the point – the SIGN OF THE TIMES audience went wild with applause and cheers when the gay twist was revealed. No, it wasn’t believable for the era, but the audience wanted to show today’s liberal approval and endorsement of people who are finally allowed to be themselves. We want to endorse a world in which people can dress and feel the way they damn please.
Would that the unlucky Philip No-Last-Name had repeatedly experienced such tolerance from the Metropolitan police.
And that’s one reason why this CATS is getting its cheers. That this love fest of acceptance opened during Pride Month was particularly apt, too.
Yes, many huzzahs are for the cast (an exemplary one). Nice to know that Andre De Shields, only 18 months from 80, can still securely hold a note when asked to do so.
Yes, part of the wild applause is for the music. Admit it: Andrew Lloyd Webber nicely outfit T.S. Eliot’s poems with terrific melodies. Never mind “Memory”; is there a more beautiful song than “Old Deuteronomy”? If there can be such a thing as ominous fun, “Macavity” achieves it. And how about the unmitigated joy of
“Mr. Mistoffelees” which got the crowd to clap in unison?
Rachel Hauck’s set is not much more than the necessary runway, but, as you’d expect from a drag show, Qween Jean’s costumes are extraordinary and expensive-looking. And yet, whatever the substantial cost of this production and its 24-member cast, it may very well amount to less than what these performers have spent during their lives on gym memberships and dance lessons.
One cavil involves Grizabella. When she emerges late in Act Two to sing “Memory” just before (spoiler alert!) she dies and goes to heaven, she’s dressed in a spectacular dress that makes her look like a billion. No, that should happen at the end of the show when she returns for her next cat life.
Nevertheless, what can one ultimately say about this production?
It’s better than CATS.
