Sydney serves up a delightfully mild winter evening for opening night of the 40th Anniversary Australian tour of 'CATS'. The programme boasts a full roster of local talent, with a couple of international cats swinging into town.
A fully arranged Theatre Royal stage stands waiting, a conglomeration of oversized discarded items, from hubcaps and champagne bottles to cat food tins and tyres. The set is one large part of the visual feast fever dream that the production provides. The set offers something new with each glance, and provides some surprises throughout the show.
The initial lighting is magical, setting the scene for a show so wildly wacky you wonder if you dreamt the whole thing. 'CATS' is, by nature, indescribably chaotic, a sensory overload of colour and costumes and words, oh so many words. By the third song, you wonder how anyone on God’s green earth could remember all those words. And yet every member of the cast recites them in perfect unison as if they have been reciting them all their lives.
As the show unfurls its tale, one truth pricks up its ears. 'CATS' must be one of the most physically demanding of all musicals. The entire cast is present in most scenes, always moving with precision and control, power and prowess. The dancing is elite-level gymnastics which is often synchronised. The lyrical content has been explored, and the acting is happening on multiple levels across the stage simultaneously. All done under a full furry face of makeup. To be in this musical, you must really love performing at high level.
Image © Daniel Boud
The costumes are more than just identifying markers of the cast, as they often don props and extensions for various scenes. The tap dancing beetles are a particularly memorable highlight.
The casting is superb, as if each cat was born for the role, and the cast have absorbed their characters to a tee. Todd McKenney’s performance as Asparagus, the ageing theatre cat, is immersive, even hobbling in moments that almost no one would see. Tom Davis’ Skimbleshanks is delightfully endearing and Claudia Hastings’ White Cat is hypnotic, while Des Flanagan gives his all as Rum Tum Tugger. Jake O’Brien and Savannah Lind’s dance segment as Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer is fantastic, with Lind’s vocals perfectly articulated, but Axel Alvarez’s dance performance as Mr Mistoffelees towers as a spectacular moment in time.
Olivia Carniato and Mia Dabkowski-Chandler serve a decidedly seductive rendition of ‘Macavity’, but it is Gabriyel Thomas who tackles Grizabella’s role with force, delivering a hair-raising performance of ‘Memory’ that erupts the crowd. The vocal might of the full company is seen in the finale, before the cats slink off as quick as they came.
If anyone is ambivalent towards 'CATS', this would be the production that turns it from an afterthought to a firm favourite.
