#1
Posted: 11/25/07 at 2:33am
I wanted to post this immediately just because words really cannot express what I just saw and what I just experienced. There's been a regional theater production around this area that's been getting a lot of buzz lately because of the way that it was directed and staged. Positive buzz (no clue), negative buzz? (probably)...it was the dumbest interpretation of a musical I have ever seen...and one of the most confusing.
They staged Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of CATS....or shall I say HUMANS - The Musical.
Why humans? I'll tell you.
First off upon entering the theater I was looking at the headshots of the cast and it listed all of the characters' names. Then down below.....were the Jellicle Kittens. That's right. The Jellicle Kittens. They added children...18 to be exact...although I believe they rotated children out...they used 9 I believe in the actual show...but I was like...omg...here we go.
Upon entering the theater we notice a set. A very colorful set. No nothing like the trash heaps and the clutter and the junkyards of yore. No we are introduced to THE JELLICLE SCHOOL. A very colorful classroom filled with blocks of play things and just set up to look what looked like a kindergarten classroom.
I was thinking to myself, if they are not cats then how are they going to justify the entire show? Well apparently as the show started, the OVERTURE/POWERPOINT PRESENTATION opening tried did just that:
Miss Grizabella (yes I said Miss) is a teacher at the Jellicle School who is also run by HEADMASTER Deuteronomy. Apparently she had an affinity for all things feline, so much so that she had an obsession with T.S. Eliots Book of CATS. When she taught, her good students (think student of the month) were named after Jellicle Cats from the book she was so fond of. Each appeared on the powerpoint presentation with their Jellicle name underneath them. (next is where I laughed the hardest)
Through the years she kept in touch with all these good students (on the powerpoint it showed greeting cards that said ITS A BOY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! and such). She got in touch with them all, to tell them all that she was dying.
So on one glorious evening the students came back to the Jellicle School to see Miss Grizabella (as they knew she was dying) and to reenact the scenes from the book she was so very fond of.
The students came prancing in a mish mash and a mess of things. And they all came in hugging Miss Grizabella and excited about what was to come. I'm not good with the names but I'll just tell you what they looked like. They were all dressed as humans but with suggestions of what might be a cat (ie pink beanie with pointy ends) One looked like Rick James (with long flowing hair). Another a Red Hot Chili Pepper. Three were dressed in 40's waitresses outfits. A couple were goth rockers. One hippie. One dominatrix and a schoolgirl uniform. The rest were indecipherable. But the best was yet to come.
Miss Grizabella: The teacher of it all apparently. She looked like that evil old witch from the soap opera Passions on NBC. I was waiting for her little mini man to come out the entire show. For most of the show, she sat on the sidelines reading the book and mouthing the words as the numbers were going on onstage. Occasionally she would wander around...sometimes nostalgically...sometimes for no reason. But the director sabotaged this role because he split it into two people. YES there was a YOUNG GRIZABELLA (DRESSED LIKE DOROTHY BROCK). Apparently a ghost of what Miss Grizabella used to be. So wherever she went, the young version followed. I felt at one point that they were humans playing Cats doing Follies. In any case, when it got to the big showstopping number "Memory" Miss Grizabella was "too ill" to belt out the end so YOUNG GRIZZY took over as they mirrored each other onstage. Then they held hands and walked upstage.
I don't want to go into a mish mash of numbers or explain them because I don't even know what it is I just saw. The whole thing was an utter disaster.
I have to say though I did get quite a chuckle out of it. I wanted to see how they were going to send Miss Grizzabella off to the "Heavyside Layer" at the end of the show. I figured that because she was a "teacher" that she was stereotypically just going to retire to "Boca Raton". THAT was going to be her "Heavyside Layer". So as the cats sang, I kept singing "up up up up to boca raton." I kept expecting a huge bus to come rolling through the aisle way to take her way to Florida. I couldn't stop laughing...seriously.
So that was how they justified it. I think Cats is already a confusing show as it is, trying to throw ANOTHER plot line into the show was stupid. Most, if not all, of the audience didn't know what the hell was happening. A guy behind me was like this is NOT Cats. They lost the story. I felt like the show had no point. Grizabella wasn't an outcast, she was already beloved from the moment she stepped onstage, so there was no clear division between the others and her. It was just one giant free for all.
The sound was bad (muffled), choreography was uninspired. EVERYTHING was just like it fell apart. I don't know how anyone saw this from the creative team and said great! we have a show. I feel awful for the performers because it wasn't their fault. But they tried to make due with a vision that should have been sacked during the preliminary round. And to make matters worse, it was a reputable Equity house. I just couldn't figure out what they were smoking when they decided the concept.
And then I thought to myself how in the world did they get this by RnH Theatricals?
In any case, it made me think. What shows out there absolutely do not work reimagined?
Talks amongst yourselves.
They staged Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of CATS....or shall I say HUMANS - The Musical.
Why humans? I'll tell you.
First off upon entering the theater I was looking at the headshots of the cast and it listed all of the characters' names. Then down below.....were the Jellicle Kittens. That's right. The Jellicle Kittens. They added children...18 to be exact...although I believe they rotated children out...they used 9 I believe in the actual show...but I was like...omg...here we go.
Upon entering the theater we notice a set. A very colorful set. No nothing like the trash heaps and the clutter and the junkyards of yore. No we are introduced to THE JELLICLE SCHOOL. A very colorful classroom filled with blocks of play things and just set up to look what looked like a kindergarten classroom.
I was thinking to myself, if they are not cats then how are they going to justify the entire show? Well apparently as the show started, the OVERTURE/POWERPOINT PRESENTATION opening tried did just that:
Miss Grizabella (yes I said Miss) is a teacher at the Jellicle School who is also run by HEADMASTER Deuteronomy. Apparently she had an affinity for all things feline, so much so that she had an obsession with T.S. Eliots Book of CATS. When she taught, her good students (think student of the month) were named after Jellicle Cats from the book she was so fond of. Each appeared on the powerpoint presentation with their Jellicle name underneath them. (next is where I laughed the hardest)
Through the years she kept in touch with all these good students (on the powerpoint it showed greeting cards that said ITS A BOY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! and such). She got in touch with them all, to tell them all that she was dying.
So on one glorious evening the students came back to the Jellicle School to see Miss Grizabella (as they knew she was dying) and to reenact the scenes from the book she was so very fond of.
The students came prancing in a mish mash and a mess of things. And they all came in hugging Miss Grizabella and excited about what was to come. I'm not good with the names but I'll just tell you what they looked like. They were all dressed as humans but with suggestions of what might be a cat (ie pink beanie with pointy ends) One looked like Rick James (with long flowing hair). Another a Red Hot Chili Pepper. Three were dressed in 40's waitresses outfits. A couple were goth rockers. One hippie. One dominatrix and a schoolgirl uniform. The rest were indecipherable. But the best was yet to come.
Miss Grizabella: The teacher of it all apparently. She looked like that evil old witch from the soap opera Passions on NBC. I was waiting for her little mini man to come out the entire show. For most of the show, she sat on the sidelines reading the book and mouthing the words as the numbers were going on onstage. Occasionally she would wander around...sometimes nostalgically...sometimes for no reason. But the director sabotaged this role because he split it into two people. YES there was a YOUNG GRIZABELLA (DRESSED LIKE DOROTHY BROCK). Apparently a ghost of what Miss Grizabella used to be. So wherever she went, the young version followed. I felt at one point that they were humans playing Cats doing Follies. In any case, when it got to the big showstopping number "Memory" Miss Grizabella was "too ill" to belt out the end so YOUNG GRIZZY took over as they mirrored each other onstage. Then they held hands and walked upstage.
I don't want to go into a mish mash of numbers or explain them because I don't even know what it is I just saw. The whole thing was an utter disaster.
I have to say though I did get quite a chuckle out of it. I wanted to see how they were going to send Miss Grizzabella off to the "Heavyside Layer" at the end of the show. I figured that because she was a "teacher" that she was stereotypically just going to retire to "Boca Raton". THAT was going to be her "Heavyside Layer". So as the cats sang, I kept singing "up up up up to boca raton." I kept expecting a huge bus to come rolling through the aisle way to take her way to Florida. I couldn't stop laughing...seriously.
So that was how they justified it. I think Cats is already a confusing show as it is, trying to throw ANOTHER plot line into the show was stupid. Most, if not all, of the audience didn't know what the hell was happening. A guy behind me was like this is NOT Cats. They lost the story. I felt like the show had no point. Grizabella wasn't an outcast, she was already beloved from the moment she stepped onstage, so there was no clear division between the others and her. It was just one giant free for all.
The sound was bad (muffled), choreography was uninspired. EVERYTHING was just like it fell apart. I don't know how anyone saw this from the creative team and said great! we have a show. I feel awful for the performers because it wasn't their fault. But they tried to make due with a vision that should have been sacked during the preliminary round. And to make matters worse, it was a reputable Equity house. I just couldn't figure out what they were smoking when they decided the concept.
And then I thought to myself how in the world did they get this by RnH Theatricals?
In any case, it made me think. What shows out there absolutely do not work reimagined?
Talks amongst yourselves.
"Isn't it strange that we spend most of our time learning to do what they put people in asylums for." - Jane Fonda on Acting
