Sponsored by Nuffnang
Last night I was invited to see Cats the Musical at the Capitol Theatre thanks to Nuffnang. I invited my friend and we took it as an excuse to ditch the kids and head out to China Town for dinner before the show.
Now I’m going to start with the fact that I didn’t know much about Cats before I saw it. Obviously I knew it was about cats but other than that, I knew that it had run on Broadway and in the West end for about 20 years, I knew it was by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and I knew it was an ongoing joke on the TV show- The Nanny. That’s it.
So if you haven’t seen it before here’s a rundown for you… the cats in the show are part of a group of cats called the Jellicle Cats. The show is set over one night, the Jellicle Ball, where each cat tells their story to Old Deuteronomy, who will then choose one of the cats to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a new life.
All the cats’ stories are poems by TS Elliot, from his book, Old Possums Book of Practical Cats, which I didn’t know either. Macavity the Mystery Cat was my favourite poem as a kid and it features in Cats.
Cats the Musical entirely consists of singing and dancing, so if you are a fan of big song and dance numbers this one is for you. There’s no dialogue except for the spoken word, chanting introduction. To be honest I like a musical that’s more plot driven, with dialogue as well as singing.
The absolute highlight of the night though (apart from escaping the kids for the night) was Delta Goodrem’s performance. Delta played the role of Grizabella, it’s a small role, but she was outstanding! She was responsible for singing the show’s signature power ballad, Memories, and she knocked it out of the ballpark. She may have only had 10 minutes of stage time but she was the absolute highlight of the show… so now I’m off to buy some Delta concert tickets!
To get your tickets to Cats head to http://www.catsthemusical.com/see-the-show
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