Musical - Cats

Well, this is exciting that it makes my 5th visit to see this musical, the third one in London.  I heard last year that Andrew Lloyd Weber and the original team were putting it back on in the West End for a 12 week run at the London Palladium.  It was at the time the longest West End Musical when it closed on it's 21st Birthday in 2002 at the New London theatre.   It had done a few UK tours since then (a couple of which I had seen) but this was it's first time back in London. I was slightly disappointed that Nicole Scherzinger was cast as Grizabella, not because I thought she wouldn't be good, but because I thought she would over shadow the production.  Not long after it opened in December, the run was extended with Kerry Ellis taking over Grizabella so I decided to go see it after the change.  In fact I went to see it the day before it closed (Friday 24th April 2015) when someone else was doing it for the last two nights!  And she was magnificent... "TOUCH ME!"

It ended up being a sisters outing when they both said they would come up me  which was kind.  We were up in the balcony which involved a funny dash up to the top as they were saying 1 minute till starting when we arrived and got our tickets!  The set looked as impressive as ever and I liked the way it reached up to the circle to allow the cats to interact there.

I had heard there were some updates for this production.  I was pleased that the costumes and make up and choreography seemed the same as they are what make it I think.  I'd heard there was a rap, which turned up in Rum Tum Tugger which was slightly disappointing as I had so enjoyed his Elvis-ness the last time I'd seen it.  But the rapping and rude boy ness wasn't terrible.  I didn't notice any other changes so I'm interested to do some research to see what else I can find out.  I had hoped the Pekes and the Pollicles or Growltiger's Last Stand would be improved but they weren't great.  It was interesting that for a show I like so much it can have such low bits (those two the lowest, addressing and naming of cats, the others) and yet I can like the show so.  My favourites this time were still Jellicle Ball/Jellicle Cats, Mr Mistofellees, Skimbleshanks, with Jellicle Ball probs being the top this time; the music really filled the auditorium and there poss seemed some extra guitar?

The big news was that with sisters encouragement I was finally brave enough to go meet Old Deuteronomy  on stage at the interval.  I think it's amazing that he sits there for the whole interval.  An interesting quirk of the show.  I was too scared to do so when I was 5.  Admittedly it wasn't a life affirming experience; he seemed quite bored by the whole thing!  Reading in the programme, he had been Old Deut (as he signed himself) before it closed originally and all the UK tours so he must have done a lot of stage sitting!  Interestingly a lot of the cast had done the last UK tour which is the one I'd seen so I must have seen a lot of them.

They had some cool stuff in the front of house which we got to see on our epic trip down to the stage.  Catselfies on the way out after!

I wrote quite a few extra things after I started googling and reading things on the web, but somehow those bits didn't save.  I can't remember all of them, but I did spend a long time on the cats wiki and here is the information they give on the updated production...

The most prominent alteration is the re-branding of the Rum Tum Tugger into an urban street cat, replacing his solo in the self-titled song with a rap number.  Growltiger's Last Stand has been changed to a much darker, soft shoe shuffle number and the lover's duet cut entirely. The Gumbie Cat's dance break has been replaced by a longer and more technical tap number, as well as new music.
For the first time in a British production of Cats, Pouncival and Carbucketty are both ensemble, however the kitten named Pouncival resembles chorus cat George. As an easter egg for fans, the swings appear in the press photos dressed as characters who do not appear in this production - including Babygriz, Electra, and Pouncival.
The most obvious costume alterations have been made by the Rum Tum Tugger and Grizabella. Grizabella's costume has been subtly altered to resemble something Nicole Scherzinger would wear in her solo career - a corset and lace-up stockings worn under a fur coat which has been made lighter and more stream-lined. Rum Tum Tugger now wears a backwards ball cap, his hair in dreds, a vest top and harem pants with lots of gold necklaces. Growltiger and his Raffish crew have also had new costumes, now in shades of dark charcoal. There have also been tweaks to the designs across the ensemble, with less blocky, primary colours having been used. This is most apparent in Bombalurina and Jemima's costumes.

Back to me.  One thing I remember I wrote about was the floating tyre.  When Grizabella went up to the Heaviside Layer, she and Old Deut were on the giant tyre.  It was really impressive how high it went seemingly magically and reminded me of Chitty at the same theatre.

Musical - Return to the Forbidden Planet

Writing up to date as we went to see this last night, 3rd April 2015 (although now by the time I have finished and posting it's 26th April!)!  I had been to see it while I was at uni fairly on the spur of the moment when I was at home in the holidays in Malvern.  I didn't remember much about it, except that I loved it and wanted to go again the following night but didn't.  I remember loving the music (mainly rock 'n' roll hits) and being impressed with the performers who sang, acted and played loads of instruments on stage the whole time.  The only other things I remembered were that it was set in space and Brian May was recorded and appeared every so often on tv.

So there was quite a lot that was new to me last night.  I had had the dates in my phone for months for when it would be in Oxford and John generously bought us both tickets to go.  It turned out the story was based on the Tempest and that a lot of the dialogue was Shakespearean-esque, though I recognised a lot from Romeo and Juliet so I don't know where the rest was from.  When we entered the (less than half full) auditorium there were several cast as astronauts walking around the stage and they came down in to the audience. It started with the lights on with one of them giving funny safety announcements and then we had to practise 'reversing polarity'.  The words jogged something in my memory but I have no recollection of the whole audience doing actions.  And as seemingly everyone in the audience immediately did it, we felt that lots of people knew the show well.

It started really well with Wipeout.  The sound filled the theatre and they played really well and moved in time together cleverly.  Then it went in to a funny no gravity situation that was very effective.  Sadly those were the main highlights of the show.  I was equally impressed with the performers and loved spotting who was playing a new instrument - such variety: guitars, drums, keys, saxes, trombones, trumpets, various singers.  The story was definitely ridiculous.  I was excited for Great Balls of Fire, the only one I specifically remembered, but it didn't wow me as much as I hoped.   That is, until...

The encore...WOW!  It definitely made me want to start a post specifically about encores!  This would be right up there in the top 3.  This was when they really went for it and played music like crazy.  This is what must have made me think it was so good!  Most of the performers started to strip off part of the astronaut suits.  It was quite creepy to see the robot guy as only half a person!  And to me delight they redid Great Ball of Fire super duperly and I was able to do a standing ovation.  What a way to rock the end of the show!

Thank you John for taking me -  I won't make you go again!
  

Theatre - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime

A 'cultural' outing with friends organised at New Year very pro-actively for Saturday 21st March.  I had read the book back in 2004 when everyone was reading it on the tube and there were posters on all the stations (same time at the Da Vinci Code).  I had enjoyed it then, and heard good things about it as a play, although when it came to the evening I realised that all I remembered was that the boy was autistic, there was a dead dog, he got the tube on the northern line and the chapters were numbered in prime numbers.  So it was quite enjoyable just from a learning the story point of view.  It was also amazing in terms of theatre.  The set was like the inside of a huge black box.  There were lots of lights on it, looking a bit like going in to the abyss in Star Tours.  They lighted up cleverly at different points to make different staging.  And I wasn't sure how it would transfer from book format to play, but they had a teacher reading Christopher's writing which worked well. There were some stand out set bits including the opening of the pit to be the tube line, walking down the escalators that came out of the wall, and Christopher spend a long time building a train track and then the train suddenly started moving!  Lots of people gave it a standing ovation which was well deserved.  After the curtain call, Christopher came back to explain Pythagoras' theorem which was a joke that had been made during the show and was funny and well received!  Various chairs in the auditorium had covers on them and little cards saying that Christopher had designated them prime number seats.  It said if your name added up to a prime number then you could go and get a prize and John was brave enough to do it.  It turned out both our names are prime numbers!

Clearing up at the interval!

It was at the Gielgud Theatre where it had moved to after the roof of the theatre fell in on the night i went to see Cats.