Cats

[Zone Fighter]

I just got back from a wonderful production of Cats. It was this year's summer musical at the Pinewood Bowl, an out door theater here in Lincoln which has been doing summer musicals since just after WWII. Last year they asked the audiences to vote for this year's musical and Cat's was most asked for.

I saw Cats before at Lincoln's most expensive theater years ago, but this was a better production. The cast really had fun with it. About 30 minutes before the show one of the cats was spray painting graffitti on the set and stage hands would chase him away. He'd come back of course. About 10 minutes before the show began several of the cats came out amoung the audience. They're were cats grumming themselves, cats streteched on on the ground, cats fighting. I saw one cat sneak up on a man and kiss him on the cheek. Another knocked the hat off a boy's head. They'd rub up against people and take their seats if they stood up. All the cat behaivors. While the show was still being planned there were articles in the local paper about how the cast watched real cats to learn how to behaive and went to a cat shelter to promote adopting cats.

My cousin's husband almost always has a role. He was the wizard in The Wizard of Oz and the other roles the wizard plays. In this he was Asparagus aka Gus, the Theatre Cat. Which was appropriate.

We've got a lot of good singers and dancers in this town.

Tonight's show was the final perforamce for this summer. Later in the year one of the universitys is putting on Big River and Man of LaMancha. The first is my father's favorite, the second is mine. Part of the theater students course work.

[Xenorama ™]

that sounds like a lot of fun. i've got this in my rental queue (thankfully, i can fast forward or skip that stupid "Memories" song) and i'm looking forward to watching it. the book is a lot of fun as well.

[Zone Fighter]

The song is "Memory". "Memories" is a complety different song. It is true that Memory doesn't have anything to do with cats.

[Zone Fighter]

There are some differences between the original London production and the Broadway production of Cats. Most productions now (including Pinewood Bowl's) are based on the Broadway version. In the original version Growltiger (Gus) and Gridlebone sing a song about a parrot. After some harsh criticism it was changed to a portion of an Italian opera. In the original version of "Macavity the Mystery Cat" when his agents are mentioned three names are given, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer and Gridlebone. Indicating that Gus's play about Growltiger is based on a true story and that Growltiger's girlfriend betrayed him, on Maccavity's orders. The later version drops Gridlebone, so she may have acted out of fear not malice and we don't know that the play is supposed to be a true story. (In the Pinewood Bowl production Mungojerrie comes to Macavity's defense during the fight with the other toms.) The original "Ad-dressing of Cats" (the final number) was longer, with an explination of why a cat should not be treated like a dog. I think the song makes less sense with out that portion. Deuteronomy sings, twice, "your memory I'll jog, a cat is not a dog" and then fails to explain the difference between cats and dogs in the shorter version.

There has been a show at Pinewood Bowl every year since 1949, except for 1975 (when the stage was replaced) and 1995 (I think the park was closed because the pinetrees had a disease). In 1991 instead of a musical play a variety show was put on. In 1996 it was a concert. The performances had been free, with "goodwill" donations collected at intermission. Donations were off so the shows nearly stopped in the 90s. Now there is an admission fee and they still ask for donations to fund the next year's show. Also they have more corporate sponsors. There's a concessions stand which is staffed by volunteers so all the sales go towards the show. However, there is no rule against bringing in your own food and many people do. Sometimes there are t-shirts forsale.

I've been to most of the 1970s and 1980s shows. I purposly did not attend the blasphemous Jesus Christ Superstar in 1990. missed Into the Woods in 1994 and did not go to the concert in 1996. I'm not sure why I missed Brigadoon in 1997 or State Fair in 2000. I have seen every show since 2001, Cinderalla (a musical comedy in which the ugly step-sisters were played by men wearing dresses), West Side Story, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor (R) Dreamcoat, Fiddler on the Roof, GREASE and Cats.

Besides my cousin's husband (who is a lawyer the rest of the year) many other people are regular cast members or regular members of the orchestra. There are also several new people each year. And they always like to find something for children. With Cats the children, mostly students at a local dance academy, played kittens. The kitten which encouraged Grizabella by singing part of Memory back to her was an 8 year old girl. She had a surprsingly strong singing voice. Grizabella had the strongest voice. The weakest voices were Deuteronomy and Mistoffeless. Mistoffeless was a good dancer though. Cats has no dialogue, only singing, and there isn't much of a plot so there is a lot of dancing to draw out the show. There is so much going on on stage its actually hard to take it all in. For example, the kittens are almost always playing off in a corner while other action is going on on center stage.