Review of Touring Production 2004
"Cats" is based on the poems of T. S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" with music by Andrew Lloyd
Webber. Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe provided additional lyric material for the show.
On May 11, 1981, Cats opened at the New London Theatre in the West End. Eight years later it celebrated its first
important milestone: after 3,358 performances Cats became the longest running musical in the history of British
theatre. Cats played its final performance on its 21st birthday, May 11, 2001.
In 1982 Cats opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City and continued to live up to its motto "Now and
Forever." On June 19, 1997, Cats became the longest running musical on Broadway. It ended its 18-year run on
September 10, 2000.
The touring production of "Cats" is at the Aladdin Performing Arts Center this week. It is a good show for the whole
family. The choreography was great as usual.
They had some good singers and dancing was good. One of my favorite numbers is "Mr. Mistoffelees" and Shane Hall
was very good in the number.
“Gus, the Theatre Cat” and the “Growltiger’s Last Stand” number was cute and the actor singing the role was good, he
has a strong operatic voice. As always “Skimbleshanks,” the Railway Cat number was great, a nice dance number.
“Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer” (played by Mario Martinez and Jenny Florkowski - understudy) another cute number.
Martinez is a very good dancer and should go far in his career. It seemed that they changed the "Macavity" number and
some of the other music seemed more upbeat. It has been a while since I last saw "Cats."
Of course the most impressive number in the show is "Memory" and Anne Brummel who played Grizabella was great.
The audience gave her a very warm round of applause.
The orchestration in the opening number was a bit off it seemed. But overall it was a nice touring production of "Cats."
The children in the audience really like the show. One little girl’s eyes got so big when one of the cats came over to
her. I saw some children leaving the theatre humming and dancing around. Take the whole family to see the show!
