For Christmas two years ago I was given a season subscription to Broadway Las Vegas. It was pretty much the best gift ever because I love live theatre and I love road trips! Unfortunately, I only got to see one show before Covid shut everything down. The good news is that I was able to apply my remaining tickets to the new 2021-2022 season and I saw the first show, Cats, last night. I am not a big fan of the musical Cats because I saw it for the first time in London the night after I saw Les Miserables, which was a dream come true, and it suffered unfairly in comparison (and who can forget the trauma of watching the movie adaptation?). I have since learned to appreciate the show and I was really happy to be back at the Smith Center for the first time since the pandemic started! The story, such as it is, is based on a collection of poems called Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot and features music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Once a year the Jellicle Cats meet for the Jellicle Ball where Old Deuteronomy chooses one of them to ascend (in a giant tire) to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn. Each cat explains why he or she should be the one chosen in big song and dance numbers. My favorites are "The Rum Tum Tugger," "Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town," "Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer," "Macavity, The Mystery Cat," "Magical Mister Mistoffelees," and, of course, the showstopper "Memory." The entire cast in this production is insanely talented but my favorite dancers were Hyla Mayrose Perillo as Victoria, Zach Bravo as Rum Tum Tugger, and Paul Giarratano as Mistoffelees. Tayler Harris, as Grizabella, just about brought the house down with her powerful, yet vulnerable, rendition of "Memory" and I really liked Indalecio De Jesus Valentin's voice as Old Deuteronomy. The choreography in this show is absolutely brilliant, especially in "Song of the Jellicles and the Jellicle Ball," "Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat" (I loved the way they created the train), and "Magical Mister Mistoffelees," and I really like how it incorporates the mannerisms of real cats. This show will never be my favorite but I have to admit that I got caught up in the excitement of the people around me and I really enjoyed it. It has been a fun trip!
Note: After watching the stage version again I was reminded that the movie was such a missed opportunity.
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