WORST Performance Ever... (Cats tour)

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 2:08am

I just got back from the performace at The Grove of Anaheim's Cats 25th Anniversary Tour. The show was supposed to start at 8, however we were told to stay in the lobby. At 8:10, they finally gave the announcement:

"We regret to say, but due to the technical difficulties and to ensure the safety of our dancers, tonight's performance of Cats will be shown in a concert style."

Gosh.. way to go... A boring show without dancing? That was just stupid. Anyway, we watched the show with some 100 other ppl (while auditorium can hold about 1200... others just left)with sad and lonely clappings after the tunes, just QUITE DEAD moments where audience didn't know whether to clap or not, and bunch of stuff. The cats who weren't singing just SAT around the theatre, doing some random hand motions... It wasn't the performers' fault, but still, how can a show get sadder than that?

It was sad... At least we got another tickets for Saturday for free...

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 2:14am

WOW. That's all I can say.

[noahrp3]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 2:19am

That sucks. I'm going Tuesday night. I hope this doesn't happen to me. Where did you sit? Do you know what the tier 4 and 5 seats are like?

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 2:34am

Tier 4 and 5 are Great! The problem with the theatre is that there aren't that much height change between the rows so you might have problems seeing because of the head in front of you...

Anywhere you sit, you'll have a great view as long as there aren't any big heads in front of you.

[DefyingEDCT]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 2:47am

explain "concert style"

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:10am

The beginning was just sad. All the cats were either sitting on the rocks or standing. No voice parts or anything, so it was just pointless seeing the overture play but the cats were just staring at you.

The whole time, the cats were just on their knees, sitting, standing, or walking (only when they sung). No jumping, twirling and spinning, etc. It was just sad.

From what I remember, the first act ended up being only 45 minutes, and second act was around 1 hour. The show started at 8:45 (after delays, etc) and ended at around 10:30. Isn't this show around 2 hrs and 30 min.? I havne't seen the show before, so can anyone correct me?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:45am

did they play the full score? like w/ all the dance breaks? also, what was the reason for it? was it ever explained? "technical difficulties"?

[emo_geek]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:51am

what sort of tech can't stop you from dancing?

[Mimi Imfurst]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:56am

things that could prevent dancing:

A giant hole in the stage.

The Stage was burnt in a horrible stage fire.

Someone under the stage hammered nails from the bottom up and were sticking out of the top.

All the dancers broke their legs all at once

A man in a wheel chair choregraphed that evenings production

The stage was flooded


PS- maybe the tragedy was buying tickets to CATS to begin with.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 5:10am

maybe there foots fell asleep?

[Mimi Imfurst]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 7:57am

maybe their feet went on strike.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 10:14am

well isn't this the tour with the inflatable sets? perhaps the compressers broke and they turned into an overglorified moon bounce.. just picture it "the rum tum utgger doesen't *bounces off set* shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

[sweeneyfan]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 10:33am

A dance show done concert style? Did they at least dress up? Hmmm trying to picture FOSSE without dancing, done concert style... ahh , yes...the CD!

When the tour of 42nd Street Revival came to Baltimore there was a box office workers strike, which the stage hands and costumers honored, so imagine that show with no costumes or scenery... actually,it was pretty good...

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 11:10am

That's CRAZY....

So...seriously what kind of tech keeps an entire cast from dancing?!?

[Katurian2]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 11:17am

That sounds like a nightmare to sit through. Dancing is really the only reason to actually sit through Cats in the first place. 42nd street without the sets? Strange.....I can't even imagine.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 11:30am

I remember hearing about that production of "42nd Street" in Baltimore.

I, too, thought there might have been problems with the inflatable sets for Cats!

[Feathah]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 1:10pm

I feel so bad for the performers! I just can't imagine seeing a concert-style performance of Cats. They couldn't even do a little dancing? Like fewer flips but some twirling or something? Seems so strange!

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 12/21/05 at 10:12pm

Yeah... watching it live made me feel really bad for the performers...

[morosco]

Posted: 12/21/05 at 10:17pm

"All the cats were either sitting on the rocks or standing"

Sitting on rocks?

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/21/05 at 10:33pm

I could imagine doing FOSSE in concert, b/c the music is so great. But who wants to sit and watch CATS without being distracted from the music by dancing drag queens in lycra?

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 12/21/05 at 11:08pm

I'm sorry I don't see what the big deal is. It's live theatre and things techniacally happen. You have no clue what goes on backstage and all the trap doors, wires, lights and ropes that are keeping things in place. Things happen all the time. It's not cool that it happened but it did. It sucks, but you got free tickets right? I'm sure if people walked out and didn't want to sit through it they would have been refunded. I think the theatre faced with a huge problem put forth a good effort and said "let's give these people SOMETHING." So they gave what they could, the score. It would have been even more dangerous to try to do parts of the dance in a different place than choreographed, ESP in a tour where you don't know the stage. I know of dancers falling into the pit anf getting concussions because of a stage being 6 inches shorter than normal. You generally don't wanna play around with that.

Yeah it sucked hardcore, but there's nothing to be done. I'd rather see that than have an dancer put their careers and possibly their lives in danger for a 2 hour show that's not that great anyway.

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 12:15am

SO what was the technical difficulty?

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 12:24am

Erm, that's sad. Just....SAD.

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 1:14am

Jazzy, don't go all high and mighty on this. You don't know what kind of experience anyone here has in the theatre. I'm sure everyone can imagine all the things that could go wrong with the show. But honestly, with a show like CATS where it's about the dancing, to put on a concert version of the show is a little ridiculous. No one paid $40+ a seat to see people standing around singing in cat suits. They paid to see those people dance. I think that's the main point, not that there were technical difficulties. Not trying to pick a fight, but it wasn't about the technical stuff, I don't think.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/22/05 at 1:21am

Im sorry...lol that's all I have to say. I would have left and definitely asked for a refund, but on the other hand Im sure it was quite the..experience lol! :)