The show was simply amazing! Cats has always been my favourite musical, ever since I discovered it one day while googling for images of felines. One of the images was a man dressed as a cat, with face make-up and a tight suit – who I would later come to know as the Rum Tum Tugger. I became obsessed with the show, listening to it religiously and finding all the different versions; London, Broadway, Germany, Vienna, it didn’t matter. I just wanted more Cats!
I remember the day that I bought the DVD. Sitting in my living room, putting it on the TV and watching it. Time flew by. It felt like only half an hour had gone, but I had been sitting there for two hours watching it. I remember being so happy that I was giddy and wanted desperately to get more involved with the fandom. Aside from writing short stories nothing was able to satisfy that need.
Until last night.
Last night the need was satisfied. The hole was filled. I had to travel all the way up to Crawley from Poole, thus taking a three-hour train journey. I arrived, went to the hotel and met up with my friend, Aimin. We chatted and after a while met up with Lizzi, then went to the theatre. When we got there, I found myself spending copious amounts of money on a programme, a t-shirt and a mug before going to take my seat.
My seat was in the front row and I was sitting next to Aimin. We were on the left part of the front row, seats A-25 and 26 (I was the latter). We were both quite giddy, but perhaps myself more so as I had never seen this show before and, as already pointed out, seeing it live was something I had wanted to do for years. The lights went down low. The announcement came out that a lady named Lauren would be understudying Bombalurina tonight. I gripped Aimin’s hand and she gripped mine. We both watched as the music started.
The overture was simply magnificent. It gave us a taste of the musicians who were playing that evening and it sounded wonderful. Just as in the movie version of the show, eyes flashed up all across the stage, the background, everywhere. I distinctly remember thinking to myself that I was staring with my mouth open, grinning and jaw gaping… yet I didn’t care. I was blown away already. It finally hit me when Demeter dashed across the stage… I was going to see Cats.
All of the actors and actresses were marvellous. Be it the ballet dancing from Mistoffelees, the back flips and acrobatics from Bill Bailey or the sheer charisma of the Tugger, it was perfect. The director really was an unsung hero of the show as his tiny additions here and there made the show even better. There is no doubt in my mind that some of the interaction between the chorus was improvised, but it also stands to reason that they were told to perform a lot of it.
‘The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles Together With The Marching Songs of the Pollicle Dogs’ was awesome. Munkustrap sang the song extremely well and the background performances were very nice. Jennyanydots and Skimbleshanks continued to make me smile broadly as they started off refusing to join in with the kittenish performance, then ended up being a big part of it.
‘Growltiger’s Last Stand’ is a must-see. The transition from ‘Gus The Theatre Cat’ to this song was marvellous and the performances from the leading seven was marvellous. Gus played the part of Growltiger, removing his rags and putting on an eye patch during the blackout. Jellylorum played the part of Griddlebone, wearing a very nice white suit, making her possibly the most attractive of all of the females on stage during the whole show. Munkustrap, Tugger, Mistoffelees, Skimbleshanks and Alonzo played the part of Growltiger’s crew (including a very nice touch – a parrot beanie baby on Munkustrap’s shoulder).
They all sang with that infamous Long John Silver pirate voice and it was perfectly apt. Although I did notice something – Growltiger and his crew were all wearing clothes on top of their fur, but Griddlebone wasn’t. Does that mean that she goes around the ship naked? If so, it would account for the lecherous looks that the toms gave her, along with attempts to feel her up throughout the song.
Another thing that should be mentioned was the wonderful transition from ‘Skimbleshanks’ to ‘Macavity’. Instead of finishing the song and having the glass crash, they started singing the third verse again, which was quickly interrupted with the crash sound effect. It was such a simple piece of direction but it was much stronger than the other way of doing the transition. Simply wonderful.
The actor who played Mistoffelees was a wonderful dancer. His ability seemed to be second to none as his dance routine during his song was much longer than usual; much more drawn out and very impressive. He got the most applause per song, being given three rounds of applause (once when he finished the dance routine, once when he made Old Deuteronomy appear and one more time at the end of the song). He made us all perfectly jealous.
The Rum Tum Tugger winked at me. The Rum Tum Tugger then blew a kiss at me… or so I thought. It turns out that he was flirting with both myself and the girl I was sat next to (Aimin) as later on in the second half he gave her the signal to meet out back for sex. A fairly universal signal, i’m sure – very difficult to describe but most certainly very amusing. I can’t deny it – she got the Tugger.
But I won.
Because I got Bill Bailey, Alonzo and Jellylorum. Oh yes.
During the first half of the show, Bill Bailey spent a lot of his time around my area, so I spent a lot of my time watching him be amazing. I’m sure he noticed me watching him every now and again, but managed to stay in character (even if Tugger kept breaking the fourth wall). However, at the end of the Jellicle Ball, just after he had performed many tricks, flips and simply wonderful dance moves, he stopped to pose with the other cats for applause. This is when I looked him directly in the eyes, caught his eye line and grinned widely, giving him a great applause and mouthing ‘awesome’. My response? His small grin turned into a huge grin as he looked right back at me.
In the second half, right at the end, Alonzo managed to grab my attention. His facial expressions had been amusing the whole way through, but I don’t think many people actually noticed them. It was only during the Ad-Dressing of Cats that he really grabbed my attention with a response to the line ‘a cat is not a dog’, an over-the-top smug laugh, which made me giggle quite loudly. I was staring right at him, and he caught my eye and grinned. I watched him throughout the rest of the song and, while he did look out across the audience throughout most of it, every now and again he would reward me with a little grin for watching his performance so diligently.
The most amusing part came at the end of the show. Aimin and I took it upon ourselves to give a standing ovation, which immediately grabbed the attention of the cast on-stage. We got grins from quite a few people, and remained standing and applauding throughout the entirety of the curtain call – this sparked quite a lot of people behind us to do exactly the same thing. As all of the cast was on stage one final time before darting off down the wings to leave and get changed, Jellylorum gave me the universal ‘call me’ sign. I grinned widely and nodded – unfortunately she failed to give me her number so I was unable to do so. Perhaps next time I’ll give her mine.
But it doesn’t end there. After the show, the girls and I trekked around the theatre to the stage door in order to catch the actors and actresses on their way out. Everyone who came out was nice enough to sign our programmes, as well as a particular threesome who apologised for taking so long to come out! These three were the people who played Tugger, Jenny and Rumpleteazer (we discovered that Tugger and Teazer were dating!). They were very apologetic for keeping us waiting but we told them that we didn’t really mind and we were just happy for their autographs!
But we failed to find Bill Bailey, until fate gave us a lifeline – the suggestion that one cast member was at the bar with his friends… it couldn’t be, right?
I think the photo says it all. An extremely happy actor who has just been told how wonderful he was, is and forever will be… alongside a sleep-deprived eighteen year old who can’t believe his luck and isn’t quite sure where he is, but is somewhat aware that he is being kept awake by giddiness.
This was simply one of the greatest experiences of my life. I have no doubt that it would have been no matter where you sat… but the fact that I was sitting in the front row gave it that extra bit of magic. Truly this memory will live forever.
