CATS.......The Musical ( my review)!

As a lovely present from Mr Secret In The Cloud, tickets to CATS ! OMG! It was the penultimate show as it finished in the U.K. the very ne...

As a lovely present from Mr Secret In The Cloud, tickets to CATS! OMG!

It was the penultimate show as it finished in the U.K. the very next night so for me it was a case of seeing it now or never.
I never had the chance to see it first time round and I adore theatre, it's such a super way for escapism .
So, after a scrumptious meal in Gouchos we  set off to The London Palladium and took our seats. To be honest, all I knew of Cats was that it was based on T.S. Elliot's book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" and that it was about, er, Cats!
                                                                                                               

The cats have super,  exotic names such as Grizabella, Old Deuteronomy, Skimbleshanks and Rumpleteazer, with characters as diverse to match. It is pretty clear the cats are intended to be a satirical mirror to humanity’s own odd personalities.
From start to finish, it feels like I didn't blink! 
One thing that I had not anticipated was the sheer physicality of the show. The performers were outstanding; they glided and sprang onto stage with true feline grace and every dance number was just mesmorising. I had never before seen a musical so dedicated to dance. The cast are in excellent shape, and they radiate sheer joy during the dance numbers.  At a little over three hours, it isn’t a short endeavour, but the time flew by.

I later found out that this musical is in fact a revival of the original and it has been modernised in order to relate to our time. I remember thinking at the time that the character of Rum Tum Tugger, who was a moody rapper cat and wears plenty of bling, surely could not have been relevant in the 80s and of course, that is just one example of the modernisation. 
Of course, I had heard of the song " Memories" ( never really liked the song!) but Wow! this was just sha....mazing! Never heard it sang like the fabulous Beverley Knight sang it and have since downloaded it to my music playlist. 

Cats is a musical which can be appreciated from several different aspects. The costumes, stage, 
scenery, the big ensemble numbers, the fireworks, and the glitter cannons (yes, there are glitter cannons).  The incredible skill displayed through the singing and dancing of the truly talented cast. I think at heart, Cats is quite a simple and elegant story about a sweet cat ( Grizabella ) who has had a hard life and on a very special night of the year at the Jellicle Ball, she is chosen to go to cat heaven.

Cats is a sweet, heart warming musical which was running at the London Palladium and I am so sorry that it has finished as I really would have considered seeing it again. It has however moved onto Asia so if you are over there, get yourself along..........there really is nothing to dislike.




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