Sophisticated Pets: Feline Edition
Written By Carrie Edelstein
Feline repawter at large Houdini Strauss has been wallowing in his sorrow over the box office bombing of “Cats” the movie. He meows, “There are no jokes about James Corden’s portrayal of my species. He was brilliant. And if I could don high heels like Taylor Swift did as she dangled from a chandelier singing ‘Macavity,’ I would learn human speak just to attempt to perform as eloquently as she did.”
While the rest of us might not agree with our favorite feline repawter– perhaps mom, Mary Strauss included– there is no doubt the Broadway version of CATS is a classic, and not to be missed at least once in a lifetime. The record-breaking musical spectacular by Andrew Llyod Webber will return to the Fabulous Fox April 7-19, 2020. No amount of hissing will change the fact that the once longest running show on Broadway has been seen in more than 30 countries and translated and performed in 15 languages. In addition to “Macavity,” one of the most treasured songs in musical theater, and in Webber’s repertoire, is "Memory.” The show has won seven Tony Awards® including best musical.
Brandon Michael Nase as “Old Deuteronomy” and the North American Tour Company of CATS. Photo by Matthew Murphy
Being the sleuth he is, Houdini uncovered two fun facts about the show: the original “Old Deuteronomy” lives right here in St. Louis. While Houdini would like to report he visits often, Ken Page does not go around his Central West End neighborhood still acting like a cat. But Judy Cullen, the Executive Director of the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, will definitely be taking in a performance or two of CATS at The Fox. After all, she was the stage manager for the show from 1986-1990. She says, “I left Lindenwood thinking I'd only miss one semester because realistically how long could a show run where people dress up like animals? Turns out it runs forever.” We are purring.
She adds, “The show is such phenom, big glitzy production numbers with show stopping choreography, dazzling special effects and haunting music. ‘Memory’ is the big hit song and it aptly leaves lasting memories. Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber told me he originally pictured CATS as an intimate chamber piece but once the designers weighed in it mushroomed into a huge event. He found his second wife Sarah Brightman on the show, and future ‘Christine’ in PHANTOM.” Cullen also met her husband on the show– he ran the light boards and she says, “We teased that he had to marry me because he got used to taking my cues in the dark (stage managers call the light cues).”
For the newbies– or kitties– to the phenom, CATS tells the story of one magical night when an extraordinary tribe of cats gathers for its annual ball to rejoice and decide which cat will be reborn. Houdini and his mom will be seeing the show for their 11th time when it returns to The Fox. Strauss first saw CATS in England and says, “CATS was extraordinary because it was completely different from anything I’d ever seen before.”
As for Houdini’s “memories” of some of his nine lives, he encourages readers to visit his first home before he became a Jellicle Cat.* He was rescued from the Animal House Cat Rescue and Adoption Center where a smorgasbord of cats await adoption if one is so inspired by the show to become a cat’s “furever” home!
*A Jellicle Cat is a house cat full of magic and music to share with the rest of the world. Good thing Houdini can’t read because he’d find out they are also fictional, as created by T.S. Eliot.
