CATS in Houson

OK......I saw the "New" production of CATS. This is the first of the School and Community theater productions of CATS that will begin in january. I hated it. For me it was just the cast. The firt song...The choreography was redone...Bad idea...It was not as difficult....but it looked very sloppy. The cast was very out of breath and i was not impressed. This was one of the worst ensembles i have ever seen.

At the end of almost every song they would do this really cheesey reprise. I was like "i need to throw up". KEN PAGE was amaing. That was the highlight of my day. It was such an honor to see him in CATS. The woman who played Grizabella when the show closed on broadway was playing Grizabella here. I did not like her....she had that over done vibrato that sounds so awful.

During Mistofoles...They wanted to release baloons into the audience. Instead of releasing them from the ceiling like a normal show would do....the brought black trash bags into the audience and threw them around to get the baloons out. That just looked tackey.

The set looked good and the lighting was amazing. I still cant get over the fct that i got to see KEN PAGE as deuoronomy!!!! Also, the orchestra sounded so fake. At first i thought it was pre recorded until they messed up. It sounded like an orch of synths. Ugghh.....

The Kitten adoption went well!!! We sdopted 4 cats!!! It was a huge attention grabber. Everyone wanted to be with the cats. If anyone else is doing a production of CATS...get your local SPCA to do an adoption. It was great!!!!

So overall DO NOT TAMPER WITH GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so upset about how bad it was!!!!!

ummmm? anyone want to say anything?

im from houston and know a few people in the cast...ill report back how i feel and what i saw in a week or so...thanks for the info!

---

Because it was a new director and a different production. Unless you want to see unoriginal carbon copies everywhere. Jesus don't be so ignorant.

---

Just to clarify for folks not familiar with Houston, this is not a "school and community production." It is being done by Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS), one of the most respected regional producers of musicals in the country.

I've been a subscriber for almost 10 years, and their productions are normally top notch especially since they moved to the Hobby Center 3 years ago. I won't see this show until the 18th. I hope some of the problems wickedfreak describes are worked out by then. This is one of the reasons I set up my subscription to be near the end of each run.

Zack

---