In 1991, a Touring Company of "CATS" came to Salt Lake City. About five friends and I decided to go, figuring that it had to be pretty good to run on Broadway for as long as it did; and even if it was just about a bunch of uh, CATS singing and dancing and coughing up hairballs, that was cool.

So we went and saw it. And were pleasantly surprised. I'm much more of a dog person than a cat person, but I had a really good time. They transformed Capitol Theatre into a junkyard with a giant tire, garbage all around, and had ramps extending down into the aisles so the performers could run down into the audience and make you really uncomfortable. It was surprisingly moving, for being just a loose collection of songs about cats, that didn't have much of a plot and was really pretty silly.

So we liked "Cats". Liked it enough to buy the CD, which I listen to occasionally. It earned it's reputation as a spectacle and has some great songs in it.

Last Christmas, my sister and her husband got a DVD player (we got one for our wedding a few months before that...), and the first two DVDs they bought were "Camelot" and "CATS". I don't quite get that, but hey, that's cool. Good for you. So they asked if we wanted to borrow them, and I'm not sure if we did or not, but we borrowed them anyway. So those two DVDs have been sitting at our house for over a month, waiting for us to catch up with schoolwork and internships and diseases, etc., so we'd have time to watch them.

Last night, we had time. We popped in "CATS", and settled back to watch what looks basically like the Thundercats singing about good times and bad.

My wife hadn't ever seen "CATS" before, nor heard the music. I saw it the one time, and enjoyed it. I don't think I'll be watching the DVD ever again. Here's what I liked about it:

The Music: They beefed up the orchestra quite a bit for the DVD--from approximately a 15-piece orchestra to a 70-piece orchestra. It really made a difference on certain songs, like "Memory" and "Macavity"...on others, you couldn't distinguish between the large and small orchestras. The singing was also exemplary--of course, for a recorded production, it SHOULD be.

The Cast: Elaine Page played Grizabella (the cat who sings "Memory"), and I believe she was the originator of that role back in 1982. Ken Page (no relation) played Old Deuteronomy, leader of the cats, and both did very well. Great performances from both of them. The other parts were also very good--no one else really stuck out as exceptionally good or bad, but with such an ensemble piece, it's hard to put a finger on any one cat. "Cassandra" was pretty tasty, though. (that's my sister-in-law's name, and that was pretty weird to type that. I'm referring to Cassandra the Cat, just so everyone's Very Clear on that)

Choreography/Dancing: The dancing was also exemplary--very entertaining, and although it's been ten years, seems to be about the same choreography as the show I saw live. Great movement, all very well executed. A great variety of dancing--everything from jazz to tap to ballet...probably a lot more than that, but I don't know Jack about dance.

Documentary: There was a thirty-minute documentary which was pretty good, but I wish it would have focused either on the production of the DVD or the original play--it did a half-hearted job of covering both. It was pretty funny to see which actors looked better as cats and which looked better as humans...and those unfortunate saps who looked dorky as both (Mister Mistofolees...).

The individual songs I liked best were "Rum Tum Tugger", "Macavity", and "Memory". They had the most passion infused into them by their performers, and the cinematography of those songs worked best with the songs. Great songs anyway, the DVD did nothing to diminish those.

Here are the things that I didn't like about the DVD:

The EXPERIENCE: The way they filmed "CATS" was just in a theatre, not with any more or less elaborate sets than what they used in the theatrical run. They changed the lighting a bit, but otherwise it was just a filmed stage play. By doing that, they try to give you the same experience as seeing it live, but it comes off as a cheap imitation. It's....hollow to have the performances obviously on a stage and as a staged production, and then have no audience, applause, catering to the audience, etc. I compare this to an American Playhouse performance of "Into The Woods" from several years ago, and the American Playhouse video was much more entertaining, because it had a live audience. There wasn't as much mugging for the camera, and you had a genuine relationship there. These are, after all, STAGE actors, by robbing them of their audience, I think there was something lost in the whole experience of watching the DVD.

Cinematography--the camera work for this was really annoying at times. This could be in comparison to seeing it live, where you can see whatever you want, whenever you want to...but it was jarring to go from wide views of the entire cast dancing to close-ups of their faces (or, several times, someone's gyrating booty)...it was like a combination of a cheap Music Video and a junior high dance recital, where the camera is always on Daddy's Precious Little Girl, and not on the production itself. This is too jarring, and just diminishes the experience of watching the DVD further.

Storyline--this is a further weakness of both the original material and the DVD--there's no real PLOT to "CATS". It's sort of a stage revue kinda thing, which is fine, but is less interesting to watch on a DVD than it is live and in person. My wife fell asleep (granted, she's been sick, but it was 8:00 at night!!) about five songs into the thing. There's just not a lot to hold it together. So if you REALLY like cats, or dance, you may have more interest than she did.

Cheesy Special Effects--There's a song towards the end where Mister Mistofolees, a magical cat, is dancing around and doing some tricks...the dancing is okay, but they've gone in and added lighting bolts coming out of his paws when he does certain magical little tricks. And the whole thing is very...underwhelming. There are a few other places where they've added digital effects to the obviously stage production, and it just serves to distance you further from the show.

They've also cut a spectacular sequence from the original show "Growltiger's Last Stand"...I hear they did it for political correctness reasons, but that's not confirmed. It had a rogue cat named Growltiger taking on a bunch of Siamese cats who had a pact to kill him, and was pretty exciting both musically and terpsichorically. But now it's been replaced by a piece called "The War of the Pekes and Pollicles" which is cats versus dogs. And that was pretty annoying. That's the only cut song I noticed--everything else seemed to be intact.

If you've already seen "CATS" on stage, and you REALLY REALLY liked it, you'll probably enjoy this DVD. If you've seen it, and you're a half-hearted fan, don't bother. If you've waited all your life to see "CATS", this is a decent representation of a really good show. If you (like my wife) don't really want to see it, you probably shouldn't, because there's nothing in it that will make you a fan.



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