Posted: 7/14/16 at 9:26pm
CATSNYrevival said: "I can't with this. How ridiculous."
Would you care to elaborate? I'm genuinely curious, as a CATS non-afficianado.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 9:29pm
ZAKtheWEST said: "Well I really enjoyed the first ten minutes of cats. The man next to me however was not in a good metal place. He was using his phone, I didn't say anything during the overture and about halfway through the opening number he was still recording so I asked him to put it away. He told me to shut up and that I should leave if I knew what was good for me. I didn't say anything. An usher eventually shined a light at him and he put his phone away. We get to the first applause and I am clapping. He looks at me, call me a faggot and starts shoving me. I got up. Found the house manager. He post dated my seat.
Theatre etiquette has hit an all time high!"
Wow, that's terrible. I'm sorry.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 9:48pm
ZAKtheWEST said: "Well I really enjoyed the first ten minutes of cats. The man next to me however was not in a good metal place. He was using his phone, I didn't say anything during the overture and about halfway through the opening number he was still recording so I asked him to put it away. He told me to shut up and that I should leave if I knew what was good for me. I didn't say anything. An usher eventually shined a light at him and he put his phone away. We get to the first applause and I am clapping. He looks at me, call me a faggot and starts shoving me. I got up. Found the house manager. He post dated my seat.
Theatre etiquette has hit an all time high!
"
Seriously, what the hell? So sorry you had to go through that.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 10:09pm
ZAKtheWEST, I'm pissed on your behalf. That is unacceptable and I'm sorry that happened to you.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 10:21pm
PThespian said: "There are a lot of people who love it. Enough to have kept it running for 18 years. I know. I was working there for quite a few of those years and saw the audience's reactions every night.
Even though I love the show I'm in no more of a position to say that this revival is amazing than you are to say it stinks."
Obviously, I adore Cats in case you missed my avatar and user name. This just isn't the revival of Cats I imagined. Perhaps it was foolish to wish for a replica production, but I'm familiar enough with the show to know that I would not be pleased sitting in the theatre and watching a version of Cats that cuts the Growltiger number and moves Pekes and the Pollicles to the Growltiger spot in the second act. That sounds dreadful. As you say, people love this show. So do I but I love what it was. I don't have to love this.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 10:49pm
This is just my own ignorance showing, what's whizzer? A critic I'm assuming?
Posted: 7/14/16 at 10:49pm
This is just my own ignorance showing, what's whizzer? A critic I'm assuming?
Posted: 7/14/16 at 10:50pm
This picture of the set was posted on instagram
https://instagram.com/p/BH3RG0VDMer/
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:00pm
Hm. Love that they at least made the set extend into the audience, but still not enough to get me into the theater.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:01pm
Whateverjsays said: "This is just my own ignorance showing, what's whizzer? A critic I'm assuming?
"
He's a user on this forum who usually attends first previews and writes great, concise reviews.
Updated On: 7/14/16 at 11:01 PM
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:07pm
I'd believe Whizzer over Brantley or Isherwood! Seriously. He is the Pauline Kael of theatre reviewers...you might sometimes disagree, but he always justifies his opinions. He's one of the best things on this whole board!
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:10pm
Awesome. Thank you! I saw on Twitter a lot of people posting at intermission at how great it was. I'm definitely excited to read reviews, I'm seeing it in a few weeks
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:18pm
To anybody who attended, and stage-doored...would you please let me know if Leona came out to sign/take pics
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:27pm
Surprised to see it's actually the CATS fans that are tearing the show to shreds!
I do think it was a bad idea to reunite the original teams (minus one) though, because neither presenting a reinvention or a recreation but rather somewhere in between is probably going to disappoint everyone.
Posted: 7/14/16 at 11:53pm
ZAKtheWEST said: "Well I really enjoyed the first ten minutes of cats. The man next to me however was not in a good metal place. He was using his phone, I didn't say anything during the overture and about halfway through the opening number he was still recording so I asked him to put it away. He told me to shut up and that I should leave if I knew what was good for me. I didn't say anything. An usher eventually shined a light at him and he put his phone away. We get to the first applause and I am clapping. He looks at me, call me a faggot and starts shoving me. I got up. Found the house manager. He post dated my seat.
Theatre etiquette has hit an all time high!
"
I'm sorry ZAK...Not acceptable by any means...
Posted: 7/15/16 at 12:01am
Mr. Nowack, without seeing it, you hit the nail on the head! It is neither a reinvention nor a recreation, but lies somewhere in the middle!
I'm just getting back from the show. At times this area in the middle works, and other times it doesn't. I know you're all waiting for Whizzer, so I'll try to be brief and let him get to it the bulk of it, but I thought I'd share just a few thoughts about tonight.
No surprise, but it was a very excited sold out crowd which filled the room with a great energy. I walked around during intermission to see what the set was like around the theater. They have painted the ceiling of the orchestra black and added their own lights which looked to be really cool and immersive. I was in the mezzanine and they extended the set a bit with lights, but no paint. It was definitely a little off putting, but I'm sure it would have cost MAJOR $$ to paint the entire theater black.
The highlight of the show for me is still the dancing. Blankenbeuhler mostly captures the tone of the original while putting his own spin on it. The best is definitely Mr. Mistofolees, which has some really cool changes.
Overall, if you hate CATS, this certainly won't change your mind!
I did stage door. Leona Lewis, who gave a serviceable "Memory", came out after about 45 minutes. She walked straight out of the stage door and then proceeded to her left signing and taking pictures for anyone who asked. She unfortunately did not pay attention to a large part of the crowd on her right. The rest of the cast came out during those 45 minutes and couudn't have been more grateful and nice to all.
Please feel free to ask questions if you have them. I apologize that this was all a bit scattered!
Updated On: 7/15/16 at 12:01 AM
Posted: 7/15/16 at 12:41am
Just got home. I didn't really know much about the show, I had never seen it before and the only song I knew was Memory. I loved it. I thought it was a bizarre, beautiful exercise in tone. The costumes and the lighting were, in particular, excellent. The dancing was fantastic. Not all of the numbers worked for me, for example the train number kind of dragged. Leona Lewis was fine for most of it, but she really sold me when she sang Memory in the second act.
Posted: 7/15/16 at 1:06am
This is somewhat of a sidenote but it is actually bothering me that the cast and creative team have not been added to the website.
Posted: 7/15/16 at 1:15am
RW3 said: "This is somewhat of a sidenote but it is actually bothering me that the cast and creative team have not been added to the website."
How's that impacting your life to the extent that it's actually bothering you? You can find all of that information on IBDB or PlaybillVault.
Posted: 7/15/16 at 1:24am
Cupid Boy2 said: "RW3 said: "This is somewhat of a sidenote but it is actually bothering me that the cast and creative team have not been added to the website."
How's that impacting your life to the extent that it's actually bothering you? You can find all of that information on IBDB or PlaybillVault.
Have you thought about the people who don't know about those websites? Also, for someone who has designed websites before, it is pretty sad that a cast and creative team for a show that has been announced for some time still isn't on the website.
"
Posted: 7/15/16 at 1:38am
RW3 said: "Have you thought about the people who don't know about those websites? Also, for someone who has designed websites before, it is pretty sad that a cast and creative team for a show that has been announced for some time still isn't on the website."
I'd wager that the majority of people unfamiliar with IBDB and PlaybillVault aren't going to care about the names of the individuals comprising the cast and creative team of Cats anyhow. They're just going to care that they're going to see Cats.
Posted: 7/15/16 at 1:38am
Let RW3 be bothered. It's highly unprofessional of them, in my opinion.
Posted: 7/15/16 at 3:18am
caringtype1 said: "Just got home. I didn't really know much about the show, I had never seen it before and the only song I knew was Memory. I loved it. I thought it was a bizarre, beautiful exercise in tone. The costumes and the lighting were, in particular, excellent. The dancing was fantastic. Not all of the numbers worked for me, for example the train number kind of dragged. Leona Lewis was fine for most of it, but she really sold me when she sang Memory in the second act.
This is the musical that most people forget where it came from when their hate comes out.
It really is not about cats, and it amazes me when this fact is ignored.
The animal used here serves as the means for the poet as an analogy of traits to analyze the humans of his time; their professions, status, behaviors and how they are perceived and were treated by others.
This is more performance art than theater, it is a modern cantata. But the hype really seems to have some audiences taken the show at face value. This is sad in my opinion, I wish more collections of poetic works could have some sort of narrative and performed to music, if not song and dance. Up until today, I can't think there is any other musical like it in structure and presentation.
I wonder if within our lifetime we will see another musical based on poetry that is as successful as this one.
The work may seems simple but I like how much it represents modern arts in performance. It will always seem innovative to me.
Updated On: 7/15/16 at 03:18 AM
