Posted: 8/15/16 at 7:05am
I was so happy to return to "Cats" after all these years and found the production to be incredible! It was Leona's performance which was just plain bad. She cannot act: at all! During intermission everyone was talking about how bad she was. I still say if you can sing "Memory", you've redeemed yourself and boy could she sing it! She gave me chills and I have never heard it sung like that before. She's even more amazing than that preview clip we saw on this website.
On a side note, I was talking with one of the ushers who said Jessica Hendy played the part in the original run and she's the whole package. She can not only act it but she can sing it as well. He said audiences are disappointed to see she's out, but they are loving her performance and leave very happy.
From what I heard Leona isn't in it for very long, so a return visit is in order as soon as she leaves. I do hope a new recording will come out but I doubt it. It would be nice to have her rendition preserved on tape since you can only hear her and don't see her!
On a side note, I missed the cats being cats. They used to act like cats more by grooming themselves and the others and well just being cats. Now, I saw it happen maybe twice for a moment. In the original production, you saw cats, but now I saw people dressed up as cats. Forgiving that, the production is outstanding and the smaller orchestra did not hurt the show in any way. It sounded spectacular!
