"Cats" reviews

[brdwybound04]

Break a leg to all involved with this production, I hope this reincarnation has another 9 lives in it! Post reviews as they update!??

[Demitri2]

Does the OP want us to choose a singular performer's cat role for each singular repetitive question? I hope not since I'm stuck between Rum Tum Tugger and Rumpleteazer and choosing just one over the other is giving me a headache. And since there are over twenty cats in the show will you be posting this question another fifteen times?!?!?! Seems only fair I guess....meow!

[brdwybound04]

I wonder if this revival will still be running by the time the supposed Tom Hooper film version is released...

[South Fl Marc]

This is the first review I've seen and it's bad.

"Showstoppers like “Magical Mister Mistoffelees” and “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” get dutiful, but not rousing, interpretations. And although Brit songstress Leona Lewis is blessed with a divine pop belt perfect for the classic 11 o’clock number “Memory,” sadly she does not have the acting chops to put across Grizabella’s tragic arc. Her Griz really needs a lot more… well, grizzle."

http://www.thewrap.com/cats-broadway-review-andrew-lloyd-webbers-hit-is-back-for-a-10th-life/

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Mixed-to-positive, bad review for Lewis

Emma Brockes, Guardian: Lewis has a beautiful voice, but when she performed Memory, she was not Grizabella the mangy old cat, but Leona Lewis, pop star and seller of 20m records, just as, a few years ago, when Catherine Zeta Jones played Desiree in A Little Night Music (also directed by Nunn) she busted out of role to sing Send in the Clowns with the zip of the Incredible Hulk busting out of his shirt. Perhaps this doesn't matter. A song sung on these terms can still be highly enjoyable, although in this case I found the performance of Memory rather stressful, particularly the crescendo at the end and the bits when Lewis listed dangerously to one side while doing some Acting. It was a relief when the story moved on.

Ouch

David Cote, TimeOut NY: Today, Cats feels experimental only in the sense of writing a show as if Oklahoma! and Company never happened. Lloyd Webber's ability to craft a coherent book musical has always been shaky (School of Rock being a late-career exception to the rule). Cats is an attenuated high-concept revue that grows tedious by its second act. A bunch of cats slink out one night, introduce themselves and, by the end, two of them go to kitty heaven. Now and then you may catch a word not normally heard on Broadway: "ineffable" or "perpendicular."

[ClumsyDude15]

I have a question - were the reviews for the original particularly good? 

[morosco]

Variety:

Memories could be fatal to this revival of “Cats” — specifically, the memory of Betty Buckley as Grizabella, singing “Memory” as it’s meant to be sung, with heartbreaking beauty and exquisite pain by a great stage performer. Leona Lewis, the British pop star anointed by Andrew Lloyd Webber himself, isn’t in her league. Happily, nothing as catty can be said of the rest of this fabulous revival of the 1981 musical phenom that padded its way around the world on little cats’ feet.

http://variety.com/2016/legit/reviews/review-andrew-lloyd-webbers-cats-returns-to-broadway-1201827376/

[icecreambenjamin]

I saw the show yesterday.  I knew the song Memories, but I really had never heard the score, so seeing this was like seeing a new musical.  I thought it was absolutely horrendous.  Probably the worst musical I have ever seen.  Memories was butchered by that wailer and the show was dated beyond saving.  How sad to see so many resources go to waste on this.

[¿Macavity?]

Ouch... Wow, this hit me right in the heart. Never seen the show, love the poems, love the score, love the pictures that I've seen of it...but those are all of the original. Maybe my first trip to NYC can wait...

[bjh2114]

Jesse Green was basically a pan for Vulture:

 

"Unfortunately, in this production, the season-threeX Factor winner Leona Lewis brings to the underwritten role only a few unsubtle top notes, which she offers ritually, as if they were dead mice. No greater ambition seems to have animated the revival as a whole. Other than Katz’s spectacular lighting, the design and staging are at best equivalent to the original’s, even after decades of adjustments and second thoughts. (The license plate on the giant wreck of a car in the midst of John Napier’s junkyard set says NAP 70, indicating that this is the 70th iteration of his original design.) The addition of a flashing LED costume for Mister Mistoffelees’s big showstopper, well danced by Ricky Ubeda, adds nothing; the ascent to the Heaviside Layer on the giant tire is ho-hum. And though some elements remain impressive — the choral arrangements and massed singing are excellent — others have suffered from what can only be chintziness. The shrinking of the always synthesizer-heavy orchestration to eliminate five brass players is particularly unfortunate; transcendence never sounded so thin."

 

http://www.vulture.com/2016/07/theater-review-the-persistence-of-cats.html

[everythingtaboo]

I feel bad for CATS. That first revival of a legendary show - see RENT or A CHORUS LINE - will always get stuck in that "damned if you do" from critics who either want a museum piece, to those critics who hate that nothing was done to update it. 

[RJ14]

Ouch these reviews....

No offence but i chuckled...

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

With only three other musical revivals currently slated for this season, it already looks like Cats will be the one production left out for Best Revival of a Musical next year.

[bjh2114]

What a stupidly bold prediction, and I say this as someone who detests this show. It's July. 1) One of the other revivals could be FAR worse. 2) Another revival or two could announce a transfer or late opening.  3) The MAJOR reviews haven't even come out yet tonight.

 

Now I'm not saying that you might not be right.  It's very possible.  But it's ridiculously ballsy of you to make that assumption after like 5 reviews on JULY 31ST.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

I think even if the reviews for Cats were any good, it would still be the most likely production to be left out because it really is more of a re-mounting of the original production (with some tweaks and additions). Of course, we don't even know how the other musical revivals this season will turn out yet, and there could be at least one more announced for later in the season.

[CukorLover]

bjh2114 said: "What a stupidly bold prediction, and I say this as someone who detests this show. It's July. 1) One of the other revivals could be FAR worse. 2) Another revival or two could announce a transfer or late opening.  3) The MAJOR reviews haven't even come out yet tonight.
 

Now I'm not saying that you might not be right.  It's very possible.  But it's ridiculously ballsy of you to make that assumption after like 5 reviews on JULY 31ST.

 

Isn't Jeffrey one of the kids who writes for BroadwayWorld?

 

"

 

[everythingtaboo]

so bored by the dismissive comparisons to Hamilton that are lazily plugged into reviews nowadays. 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

CukorLover said: "bjh2114 said: "What a stupidly bold prediction, and I say this as someone who detests this show. It's July. 1) One of the other revivals could be FAR worse. 2) Another revival or two could announce a transfer or late opening.  3) The MAJOR reviews haven't even come out yet tonight.

Now I'm not saying that you might not be right.  It's very possible.  But it's ridiculously ballsy of you to make that assumption after like 5 reviews on JULY 31st."

Isn't Jeffrey one of the kids who writes for BroadwayWorld?""

You're right! Thanks for noticing me!

[LizzieCurry]

icecreambenjamin said: "I saw the show yesterday.  I knew the song Memories, but I really had never heard the score, so seeing this was like seeing a new musical.  I thought it was absolutely horrendous.  Probably the worst musical I have ever seen.  Memories was butchered by that wailer and the show was dated beyond saving.  How sad to see so many resources go to waste on this."

Really? They changed the title of the song, huh?

[CindersGolightly]

Memories! All alone in the sunlight!

[Whateverjsays]

The Huffington Post just dropped their review, Leona finally got a fairly decent review. However, I don't understand how/why the connected it to the Presidential elections ....

"

’s undoubtedly coincidence that Cats arrives on cats’ feet just after the national political conventions have concluded.  Patrons seeing it this week and in the weeks to come may find themselves reminded of those congregations.  Truth to tell, they’re more likely to see the Democrat Convention echoed rather than the Republican Convention.

The diversity of the former outshines the divisiveness of the latter—the many unison dance routines being a visual metaphor for cohesion and promise.  And it may be that when Grizabella, a woman, is selected to rise to new heights, more than a few spectators will flash on the Democrat’s 2016 nominee ascending to her next vaunted level."

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/11290354

[icecreambenjamin]

LizzieCurry said: "icecreambenjamin said: "I saw the show yesterday.  I knew the song Memories, but I really had never heard the score, so seeing this was like seeing a new musical.  I thought it was absolutely horrendous.  Probably the worst musical I have ever seen.  Memories was butchered by that wailer and the show was dated beyond saving.  How sad to see so many resources go to waste on this."

Really? They changed the title of the song, huh?

 

I told you.  I knew nothing about this show.  I had heard the song a couple of times, so sorry if the title is wrong.  I honestly went in a completely blank slate.

 

[gypsy101]

I think Babs sang "Memory" on her album "Memories" so that might confuse some people.

[RW3]

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/cats-theater-review-915947?utm_source=twitter

[LizzieCurry]

Rum Tum Tigger.