‘Fabulous felines’ leave audience spellbound
Cats is running at Hull New Theatre(Image: Deborah Hall/Hull Live)
I’ve never owned a cat – those who do tell me it’s the cat who’s boss – and in Wednesday night’s performance of Cats, at Hull New Theatre, you definitely felt the fabulous felines were the ones in charge.
From the opening moments, when the cat cast lined up front of stage and held the audience with their stares, that was it. We were being let into their world, make no mistake about that.
And what a world that turned out to be. Cats is a show I’ve been aware of since it first opened in London in 1981 – most will know of it because of the name, if not for its multi award-winning credentials.
As a forerunner to that stage launch, my English A-Level teacher would pull quotes from the air from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (a collection of poems we weren’t studying) as he was wont to do. Andrew Lloyd Webber was similarly inspired, making his mind up to set the words to music – and Cats was born.
A couple of hits from the show had also entered my consciousness many years back, it seems, but other than that, I was a newcomer to what Cats might offer. What this newly imagined and directed show delivered was a sinuous, slinky and superb display of dance, rousing song and music to stir the soul.
The costumes and make-up cleverly enhanced the rendering of the various stray and rebel cats of London by the polished cast who made each of the characters – who delight in such secret “Jellicle” names as Jennyanydots, Skimbleshanks and Rum Tum Tugger (cats have three different names, don’t you know) – stand out. Under the light of the moon, the Jellicle Cats appeared from the shadows of the mysterious and misty set to reunite for one special night of the year, the Jellicle Ball.
The audience were introduced to the characters one by one – we were enjoying learning about Bustopher Jones, the “twenty-five-pounder” who, clad in signature spats, spends his days eating in the pubs and clubs when the jolly mood was interrupted by a crash of thunder alerting the cats to the villainous Macavity: The Mystery Cat being on the prowl. We met him later, a presence to make you shiver and definitely not the kind of cat you’d want as a pet.
Hearts went out to aged stage actor Gus: The Theatre Cat, as he recalled his greatest theatrical triumphs and yearned to perform again, but it was Grizabella: The Glamour Cat, shunned by the rest of the cats and wanting to return to the pack, who captivated everyone with the iconic and melancholic ballad, Memory.
That was one of the songs I’d been anticipating and it was a corking rendition. I was also pleasantly surprised to have my own teenage memories stirred by the song Magical Mr Mistoffelees; I’d forgotten I knew it from the 80s hit it became and that it was a Cats number.
It was Old Deuteronomy’s task to instruct us human spectators, in The Ad-Dressing of Cats, that for all their unique qualities and differences, hopes and aspirations, “cats are very much like you”. I left the theatre pondering which of the cats I was most like – and also what secret names our neighbourhood moggies might go by.
Cats is running at Hull New Theatre until Saturday, October 24.