Cats
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Cititour.com Review
The fur is flying again on Broadway, but will the new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster musical “Cats,” at the Neil Simon Theatre, play “now and forever” – or even match the original production’s 18-year run at the Winter Garden?
It’s hard to tell. The show, which has been fairly faithfully reproduced by original director Trevor Nunn, has the same love-it or hate-it qualities it always did. For me, the plusses, led by Gillian Lynne’s extraordinary choreography (here slightly revamped by Tony winner Andy Blankenbuehler and danced by one of the finest ensembles ever assembled for Broadway), don’t outweigh the minuses, especially the thin plot and often nonsensical lyrics based on T.S Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” But there’s no denying that “Cats” can be an enchanting entertainment for children, tourists, and the more musically open-minded.
In many ways, “Cats” follows the tradition of the British music hall, by presenting specialty number after specialty number, although the star performers here are not top-hatted vaudevillians, but humans-dressed-as-felines prancing around an old abandoned junkyard. (The sets and costumes, both nicely evocative, are also by original designer John Napier. What has been gussied up is the show’s lighting design, by the great Natasha Katz, which earns its share of deserved oohs and aahs.)
As for those performers, they are a slightly mixed litter. The undeniable standout is Ricky Ubeda, a former champion of FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” whose jetes and pirouettes during “Magical Mister Mistopheles” are marvelous and miraculous. Christopher Gurr brings the perfect mix of pathos and pretentiousness to Gus the Theatre Cat (who also now gets to recites “The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles”), while Jess LoPretto and Shonica Godden are a terrific terpsichorean team as those capering cat-burglars Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer.
Quentin Earl Darrington brings suitable gravitas to the role of the aptly-named Old Deuteronomy; Tyler Hanes offers sizzle and swagger as the rock-star-like Rum Tum Tugger; Eloise Kropp taps her paws out as Jennyanndots in “The Old Gumble Cat”; Jeremy Davis is appealing as Skimbleskanks, The Railway Cat, and Andy Huntington Jones (as Munkstrap) has great presence, especially as he leads the company in the “Jellicle Songs” sequence (which still goes on way too long for its own good).
But then there’s the whole “Grizabella” question, which is likely to be this production’s most divisive element. The role’s originators, Elaine Paige (in London) and Betty Buckley (in New York), are two of musical theaterdom’s hardest acts to follow, and the British pop star Leona Lewis, try as she might, simply falls short. Yes, she has an intriguing, often powerful voice, and manages to interpret the lyrics to the show’s megahit “Memory” with care and elegance, but she never fully captures the sadness of the character, the “old glamour cat” bemoaning her lost youth. (It really doesn’t help matters that the show’s lighter make-up design and Napier’s new costuming make Lewis look suitably young and beautiful). This Grizabella really seems as if she went out clubbing but got slightly lost on the way, rather than waiting for a new life to begin.
As for “Cats” itself —we all know it could have nine lives. We could do worse (and better) than this one.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.catsthemusical.com/broadway
Cast
Richard Todd Adams, Aaron J. Albano, Giuseppe Bausilio, Callan Bergmann, Claire Camp, Christine Cornish Smith, Quentin Earl Darrington, Jeremy Davis, Kim Fauré, Sara Jean Ford, Lili Froehlich, Daniel Gaymon, Shonica Gooden, Francesca Granell, Christopher Gurr, Tyler Hanes, Jessica Hendy, Andy Jones, Eloise Kropp, Kolton Krouse, Jess LeProtto, Leona Lewis, Harris Milgrim, Madison Mitchell, Nathan Patrick Morgan, Megan Ort, Georgina Pazcoguin, Emily Pynenburg, Arianna Rosario, Ahmad Simmons, Corey Snide, Emily Tate, Ricky Ubeda, Sharrod Williams
Open/Close Dates
Opening 7/31/2016
Closing 12/30/2017
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 7/14/2016
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
877-250-2929
Theatre Info
Neil Simon Theatre
250 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
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