CATS broadway revival!!!- Page 3

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:02pm

Roxy...I know that all too frequently people say nasty and unkind things about you on this board. I usually feel bad when anyone is treated with disrespect. I understand opinions are like @sshole, we all have one.

Have you ever heard the quote:
"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt."
or
"If you don't have something nice to say then shut the FU@K up!"

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:03pm

Wow, just when you think Roxy can't get any lower.

That's an enchanting and lovely story, Brian. Thanks so much for sharing it.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:23pm

Darn. Sucks I missed the pirate ship. The pictures look really cool. And I'm sure this London remounting will be done on the cheap to turn a quick profit.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:31pm

Image of ship is on website that only posts their logo...


Here is a link to the page that has the picture of the ship set and pirate costumes

[ggersten]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:33pm

We saw Cats in May or June 2000 before it closed (based on the original closing date). We made a special trip for our five year old who loved the VHS tape, and the cassette recordings - and I promised her we would take her one day to see Cats on Broadway. Shortly after that promise, we read the first closing announcement. I had seen a touring production in San Francisco from high in the balcony and was bored. I watched the VHS tape and was mostly bored. But, I did like the music and individual dances.
But, at the Winter Garden theatre, the show was magical and inviting and a great night. I was not bored at all! My daughter was besides herself with joy from the moment we got there, to when, the cats started crawling through the theatre to the very very end. And the Growltiger sequence was definitely there! (Saw it a few years later on a touring production and was bored out of my mind again).

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:39pm

Brian, that's a beautiful story. What a wonderful thing you did, and what a memory to treasure.

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:57pm

My first cousin, Michael Barriskill, played Mr. Mistoffolees on Broadway in 1989, and so the show has always held a special place in my heart. I played Old Deuteronomy in a regional production 8 years ago. It's a fun piece - you go for the costumes, the music, and the dance. I would love to see it come back, as I never saw the original version on stage. And it certainly deserves a home back at the Winter Garden, should it be available if/when the London revival paws its way over here.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 1:59pm

I'm beginning to think I saw an odd performance (the second time) where the set transition didn't happen and they just edited part of the sequence. I know there was no big pirate ship on stage. And I loved that transition the first time I saw it. Who knows? Live theatre. Anything can happen.

Great story, Brian. A lovely memory.

Updated On: 6/27/14 at 01:59 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:01pm

The first time I saw Cats was on tour and I thought it was fun, but wasn't wowed by it. Later, I saw it in London with my father and the difference the atmospheric staging made was HUGE. It was magical and breathtaking. It was very clear to me how the show became a massive hit so quickly.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:06pm

The Broadway set was great. It felt like "installation art." Completely immerseive. The whole experience was like (very expensive) fringe theatre. From concept to material to performances.

I can't imagine it contained behind a proscenium.

Updated On: 6/27/14 at 02:06 PM

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:17pm

CATS "behind a proscenium" would be like watching the puppies and kittens behind glass at the pet store as opposed to being in there playing with them.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:20pm

Please, dear God, let it not be so.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:41pm

I worked on the B'way production of Cats for a good long while, up until it closed. The pirate ship for the Growltiger number was NEVER cut. It was always there. As a matter of fact I have a lovely picture on the entire cast, crew, box office folk, and ushers that was taken about a few weeks before the show closed, and given as a framed gift to everyone for closing. Everyone is standing on the pirate ship.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:52pm

Then I want my money back from 1995! So disappointing.

I even had to describe to the friend I was with exactly what had happened the first time I saw it (sky tipping forward, etc.). I assumed they cut it. It was just a bad night.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 2:59pm

"However, I know that's a big part of the selling power with its iconic look so it's not gonna happen."

I don't see a revival happening--but as to this statement above, the same could very easily be said about Les Miz, Phantom (especially) and to a much lesser degree, Miss Saigon. CamMac has had no issue with getting rid of those iconic stagings for what seem to be inferior versions--why would this be different?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:01pm

"The Gus / Growltiger segment was my favorite part of the whole thing. The only cat I thought deserved to be the chosen one over the Memory kitty. "

Oh dear--didn't ALW hire Yazbeck to add a rap song to Starlight Express? I picture something similar.

I actually prefer Growltiger on the original London cast without the fake Puccini opera bit, but the pub song (using a different Eliot poem) instead, though I'm not sure how long that version was used.

[Pasdechat]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:10pm

as far as I know, the pub song was replaced by the opera song in all productions outside the UK, as ALW suspected that the British pub culture was needed to get this song. in the most recent European tour however (2012 I think it was), they used the Billy song again, even in a German translation. ALW commented this decision by saying he actually prefered this song over the opera song.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:10pm

“Growltiger” was a lot of fun in the theater, but I always skip it on the OBC.

Not that I ever listen to the OBC of CATS.

Shut up.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:15pm

"EDIT: I should clarify, the pirate ship and extended flashback sequence were gone, but Gus the Theatre Cat was still in it."

That seems very odd to me. I saw the tour in the mid 90s and it was certainly there (With the opera bit--I think the pub song Ballad was only ever in London,) as even on tour I remember being impressed with the set.

I saw one of the last tours maybe... 8 years back? Troika and it was there as well though the set was hardly elaborate at all. As mentioned elsewhere Pekes and the Pollicles was cut that time, however. (I thought that budget tour was actually OK but I admit I took my four year old nephew who was *blown away* by everything he saw, so I basically appreciated it for his reaction, which was probably the only way I could revisit Cats, as much as I obsessively loved it as a kid.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:19pm

"I always kind of loved "The Ballad of Billy McCaw," though I suppose it really didn't have much to do with anything. But I was disappointed when I saw the show to find it was no longer in."

I love it too--it's a lovely bit of music. It is very random--I have no idea how it fits into anything really, and it kinda goes on and on (as a drunken pub song should.) I also appreciate that it came from another upublished Eliot poem, granted not one that has anything to do with cats.

I didn't realize that current productions still sometimes use it. From Wiki:

"The "Growltiger's Last Stand" sequence was also revised for the Broadway production. In the original London show, the "last duet" for Growltiger and Griddlebone was a setting of an unpublished T.S. Eliot poem, "The Ballad of Billy M'Caw". For Broadway, the Ballad was replaced with a pastiche of Italian opera (reminiscent of Puccini's Madama Butterfly). This new version was subsequently incorporated into most productions of Cats worldwide (a notable exception was the Hungarian production at the Madách Színház). The Ballad remained in the London production until some time in the early 1990s when it was replaced with the Italian aria pastiche. "Billy M'Caw" was re-instated for the UK Tours following the show's closure in London. Lloyd Webber has said that he is pleased with the reinstatement of "The Ballad of Billy M'Caw" as he didn't care for the "Italian aria" version.[20] In the video version, the entire scene featuring Growltiger was cut due to John Mills' (Gus) old age. The licensed version of Cats includes both songs, giving individual companies a choice as to which to include."

I will say I MUCH prefer the Broadway version of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer and am glad it's always used now.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:22pm

"I wonder if it had more to do with building that giant ship for the one number in the video. I'll bet it was a budget thing more than anything else. "

Really? I doubt that. Those videos were done on a budget for sure (I wish they had just filmed stage productions--I hate musicals restaged on soundstages for video.) But RUG had money, and they used mostly setpieces from various productions--they could have VERY easily brought in the touring set at the least. I doubt it would have made much of a dent in the budget.

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:26pm

Is this the beginning of the end of days? Lindsay, Shia, now CATS?

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:26pm

You don't think they were on a budget for that video? They shot the thing on 16mm (horrible!) film to save money because they couldn't afford 35mm.

I'm not saying they didn't have money, but they definitely cut some very obvious corners.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:29pm

Didn't the seats in the theatre in London all turn? I know they do at the special CATS Theatre in Tokyo (which is still running I believe.)

Playing catch-up, Besty, I really appreciated your early posts pointing out that in many ways Cats was pretty experimental. I get why at first any people thought of it as a joke, and then many resented it for a myriad of reasons, some valid (the marketing phenomenon, which I am pretty sure was the first on quite that level, the fact it ran and ran and ran, the true start of the "Brit Invasion," etc.) But even if one doesn't actually like it, I think it has to be acknowledged what a brave concept it was in many ways. Of course ALW didn't have the reputation--good but mostly negative--he has now, which Cats helped bring about.

[Pasdechat]

Posted: 6/27/14 at 3:34pm

the seats in London didn't all turn, It was either only the front five rows or so, or the stage itself that was moveable. I recall it only did it during the ouverture, though, and maybe the Jellicle Dance number at the end of act I.