‘Cats’: A Superb Rendition Of An Insane Musical

For over four decades, Cats has been a musical made by insane people. Based on a T.S. Eliot poem book and with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, its particular brand of musical theatre extravagance paired with its baffling story and strangely horny energy has been wowing and dumbfounding audiences across the globe for 45 years.

Cats first arrived in Sydney in 1985 at the Theatre Royal, and is credited with revitalising the musical theatre genre in Australia. 40 years later, the musical is back in the same venue with an all new cast of some of Australia’s best and brightest musical theatre talent at its helm.

Let’s get one thing straight: this new rendition of Cats is unlikely to make any new converts. If you love Andrew Lloyd Webber’s absurdist tale of the Jellicle Cats singing their Jellicle songs at the Jellicle Ball, you’re likely to find great delight in this terrific staging. But if you’ve found yourself particularly bothered by this musical’s strange structure and plotting in the past, I doubt this uber-faithful take on the material will change your mind.

As anyone who’s seen Cats before will likely tell you, trying to explain exactly what happens is remarkably difficult. It’s time for the yearly Jellicle Ball, where a number of cats in (presumably) London converge to be chosen by the elderly Old Deuteronomy (Mark Vincent) to ascend to the Heavyside Layer.

What follows is a procession of various colourful characters getting introduced by other cats, and then introducing themselves again in a number of impressively realised musical sequences that have fairly little interest in connecting together in that overrated storytelling device called a ‘narrative’.

A delightfully unhinged musical experience

Compared to the disgusting hairball that was the 2019 film adaptation, watching Cats on a stage is a much better experience. Few musicals have ever been so suited to their own format, furiously attempting to smooth over its own flaws by committing hard to the bit. Indeed, you’ll leave with a hurting head if you think too hard about it… What are Jellicle Cats? Is the Heavyside Layer heaven? Who are all these characters?

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. Cats is all about the craft of musical theatre and taking it to the utter heights of impressively extravagant choreography, and this Australian revival production achieves that in what’s sure to be a hit among Cats mega-fans with remarkable staging, music and performances.

The cast, under the stewardship of director Trevor Nunn and a talented team of creatives, are truly a rather exceptional bunch of performers. Cats is set up in a way that even the most minor of roles gets a moment to truly shine, and each individual setpiece is quite remarkable in this rendition.

There’s nothing quite like Cats

Of course, Cats is nothing without a good Grizabella singing her heart out on the utterly spell-binding Memory, and you can rest assured that Gabriyel Thomas absolutely nails this song. Thomas really sells Grizabella’s isolation as she appears throughout the show, making the final culmination of emotion in her final ballad all that more powerful.

Most other characters and performers get their time to shine, Todd McKenney as Asparagus, Leigh Archer as Jennyanydots and particularly Des Flanagan as the most raucous character in the show Rum Tum Tugger.

However, I left especially impressed by Alex Alvarez’s turn as Mr. Mistoffelees at the climax. Though he also plays Quaxo, the sheer physical talent he brings to the role of the show’s resident magical cat is unreal. With an ability to do seemingly endless pirouettes and command attention without even singing, it makes the song Magical Mister Mistoffelees one of this show’s most compelling moments.

These individual moments of brilliance perfectly showcase why people love Cats. Rarely are musicals afforded such a lethal overindulgence of camp sensibilities – it’s a musical so camp that it almost stops being so, thereby making it even more camp somehow!

You’ve probably already got an opinion about this musical. Maybe it’s a joy to watch in your eyes, or you think that it’s an utterly nonsensical work with a very light sprinkling of characters and narrative (I fall somewhere in the middle). But there’s no denying that for better or worse, there’s truly nothing else like Cats. And if you’re planning to revisit it, even with very few surprises for fans or critics alike, doing so in the best possible setting at the Theatre Royal is a damn fine way to do it.

Cats is playing at the Theatre Royal until September 6th before touring Australia. More info at catsthemusical.com.au