Gary Wilmot is Gus in Cats [Mark Senior]

CATS
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
3.5 stars

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats, based on TS Eliot’s 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, follows a tribe of Jellicles as they gather by moonlight for their annual ball.

Their de facto leader, Old Deuteronomy (Melanie La Barrie), will choose one among them to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn.

The plot is so thin that this cat extravaganza, expertly directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, unfolds more like a series of dance and music sketches featuring different felines than a fully realised show. There is no real narrative arc or tension, and the end result is a visual spectacle without the satisfaction of a story well told – it’s hard to believe Cats ran in the West End for over 20 years from 1981 to 2002.

On press night, the understudy, Taziva-Faye Katsande, played Grizabella, the outcast glamour puss, and was given the opportunity to shine with her rendition of the hit song Memory.

Other highlights include the dance duet by cat-burglars Mungojerrie (Danny Nattrass)
and Rumpleteazer (Briana Craig) and Jet Yau’s breakdancing as the magical Mr Mistoffelees.
Jaydon Vijn as cool cat Rum Tum Tugger, Dianté Lodge as sly, elusive Macavity and Elliot Broadfoot as the portly Bustopher Jones are also memorable.

Sami Fendall’s costumes and wigs are suitably gorgeous. Her set, Corten steel shaped as a crescent moon, and Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting come into their own after sunset in the second half.

It’s beautifully choreographed and performed, but for me, the “scrap-book-like” delivery, McOnie’s own admiring description, is what makes it feel insubstantial as a musical.

Still, Regent’s Park is the perfect setting and the production should delight old fans and win new ones.

Until September 19
openairtheatre.com