Andrew Lloyd Webber’s cats are back and they could not inhabit a more feline-friendly space than this lush green corner of Regent’s Park. The trees swish around their nocturnal prowls and the brilliant moon on the steel crescent set shines down on their song and dance. The big cats up the road in London Zoo would surely approve?
Up to a point. These animals, directed and newly choreographed by Drew McOnie, are more balletic and graceful than those in the 1981 original and the production definitely reclaims the musical’s reputation from Tom Hooper’s film which many found to be a dog’s dinner (although some of us really didn’t mind it). Sami Fendall’s set glimmers and glitters while her costumes rise from earthy colours to flamboyant leotard and catsuit get-ups.
This perky crew don’t just sit and sit like the Old Gumbie Cat, they dance and dance and dance through the flimsy and patchwork story of “Jellicle cats” convening for an annual ball in which one will be reborn for another chance at life. Using TS Eliot’s playful 1939 collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats as its lyrical basis, Lloyd Webber’s musical is only slightly less strange in concept than his singing train carriages in Starlight Express, also recently revived. As with the poems, the musical is constructed as an introduction to each cat contender in a series of vignettes, which here resemble an elegant feline variety show at times, an old-school film fantasia at others.
That is partly the problem: it is a hodgepodge in style, although always very stylish. The musical’s sung-through nature does not lend itself to cohesive storytelling and the balance here is tipped too much in one direction so it seems like Cats: The Dance, with extended choreographed sequences and circus-like acrobatics. It results in some lovely expressive scenes but makes the structure even more disjointed, with less of a story to bind it.
Some of the cats are more characterful than others: Old Deuteronomy (Melanie La Barrie) plods around a little generically, Macavity (Dianté Lodge) is sufficiently mysterious, the criminal duo Mungojerrie (Danny Nattrass) and Rumpleteazer (Briana Craig) come as a classic variety hall double act. The highlight, without doubt, is Rum Tum Tugger with his eponymous song, which Jaydon Vijn sings with the hip-thrusting swagger of a young Mick Jagger, David Bowie and an alley cat on heat, rolled into one. Vijn brings such a lot of (c)attitude and personality that you wish the others could all be a little more Rum Tum.
Gumbie Cat (Charlotte Riby) is endearing when her eponymous number comes up but Gary Wilmot’s comic chops seem redundant for his turn as the old, nostalgic theatrical cat, Gus (why not cast him in a more playful role?). Mr Mistoffelees (Jet Yau) also comes on to showcase some street dance, spinning on his head.
Taziva-Faye Katsande, an understudy stepping in as Grizabella, builds to a storming final rendition of Memory, the signature song of the show. Her vocal abilities are faultless but her characterisation is less polished and you are left wondering who Grizabella is, exactly, and what has got her back up.
They fall out of character and become a preening, prowling chorus, too much of an ensemble. Some of the movement between cats has a slow, ritualistic quality which verges on corny and slows the pace considerably. By the end, you well and truly know how to address these cats but you would also quite like them to curl up and take a nap now.
At Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, London, until 19 September. Then touring the UK and Ireland until 19 June 2027.
