CATS - Review by Rebecca Wilson | British Youth Music Theatre

CATS - Review by Rebecca Wilson

**** (4 Stars)

UK/European Tour

Is it a ‘Memory’ worth keeping?

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ground-breaking show is on the road once more! Based on T S Eliot’s cat poems, the show embarks upon a new tour all over the UK and Europe. Locations include Plymouth, Cardiff, Birmingham and Rome.

For those of you interested in performing, there’s a workshop with the performers themselves at each location, so check it out! It gives you a flavour of the casts’ job on stage. You will also appreciate how hard they work, as it is easy to forget they’re in full cat make up, 80s leg warmers and lycra cat suits. I must give recognition to the hard-working production team, as each outfit is marvellously hand-painted.

The innovative lighting design, by Harold Eaton, showed off fantastically the high energy, feline frenzy of the cast’s flawless performances. Performers include Sophia Ragavelas, Zizi Strallen and Filippo Strocchi. With the mysterious ‘Macavity’, ‘Magical Mister Mistoffelees’ and dazzling duo ‘Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’, the show is bursting with character and classy entertainment. Mixing heart-wrenching, goose-bump making songs such as ‘Memory’, made famous by the legendary singer Elaine Paige, along with sassy Rock ‘n’ Roll tunes including ‘The Rum Tum Tugger’, means it’s a show for all the family.

Chrissie Cartwright re-creates Gillian Lynne’s classic choreography and Trevor Nunn’s original direction to make this show a spectacle worth seeing.

So my answer is yes, this is most definitely a ‘Memory’ to keep hold of for generation to come.

CATS is currently on a UK/European Tour, full details here: http://www.catsthemusical.com/tickets/2013-ukeurope-tour/

CATS