SO, you might have seen in my Recommendations posting some recommended shows of mine. If you saw them, chances are you saw CATS on the list. Cats was on the list for 2 reasons: 1) because my mom loves that musical, and 2) most theatre-lovers love Cats. It was, after all the longest running musical until Phantom of the Opera beat it out (woot!). Not that I'm biased.

Speaking of which, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is coming to Pittsburgh August 29-September 20 of 2010!! Pre-sale tickets start in April, and I am SO SO excited because that it my favorite favorite favorite musical in the whole.wide.WORLD. (it is way better than Cats)

When I saw Cats this Friday with my mom, I was expecting about a 20 minute nap session during the "Gus the Theatre Cat" portion of the program - which, by the way, if you haven't seen the show, is the most RANDOM and BORING thing ever on stage. That is all I'm going to say about that. However, I did enjoy the show a little more than I did the first time around. Probably because I knew what to expect, maybe a little because I am now the co-owner of two kittens, and also because the dancing was truly phenomenal. 

Not as phenomenal was the singing, minus Grizabella ("Memory"). With a show like Cats, it is hard to find such an ensemble cast that are ALL triple threats:can dance, act and sing at an excelling level.  The felines on stage Friday night could certainly act and dance, but very few possessed the vocal capabilities to maintain an on-key note. Most of the meowers were way too busy dancing their butts off to pay attention to the fact that the vocals were failing.

The one exception was, of course, Grizabella, who rocked the song "Memory" so much that I LITERALLY got chills in my seat. It was the most amazing rendition of that song I've ever heard, and it made it worth sitting through the 20 minute snore-fest that was "Gus the Theatre Cat." For reals.

Coming soon to this blog: Spring show recommendations and Theatre Arts in the schools.