Cats has yet another life, in spectacular 40th anniversary production

2 months ago 13

“We’re making history here,” says Amy Berrisford, director of the touring production of Cats, which has just landed (on all four feet, naturally) at Hamer Hall. “We are the first major full-scale musical production in this theatre.”

That may sound hard to believe. After all, the Roy Grounds-designed concert hall opened in 1982, and underwent a refurb – similar to that currently underway at the neighbouring State Theatre – before reopening in 2012. But it’s all to do with the fact that it has no proscenium arch.

Gabriyel Thomas as Grizabella the Glamour Cat.

A concert hall, Berrisford explains, is an open space, whereas a theatre is like a magic box, with that arch used to conceal all manner of trickery – lighting rigs, curtains, entrances and exits, scenery. And without it, a big piece of musical theatre just hasn’t been possible – until now.

“The technical crew have spent a long time designing and organising and having meetings about how we’re going to do this, and they’ve come in and built a proscenium arch,” says Berrisford. “It’s pretty incredible.”

Of course, none of that is likely to matter to the average punter sitting in the theatre itself. They’re just there for a good time. And Cats assuredly provides that.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical about a bunch of street cats was born out of a technical exercise of sorts: he wanted to see if he could write music to pre-existing words, in this case, T.S. Eliot’s 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. It was only when Eliot’s widow, Valerie, presented him with an unpublished poem about Grizabella the Glamour Cat that the composer saw the possibility of a full-blown musical.

First staged in 1981, Cats has become one of the most successful pieces of musical theatre ever conceived. It ran for 21 years in London’s West End, and 18 on Broadway, and has been translated into 23 languages. This production marks the 40th anniversary of its first staging in Australia.

“I was lucky enough to join in the original Melbourne season in 1987, where I was the youngest member of the company,” says Todd McKenney, who plays two cats – Bustopher Jones and Asparagus – in this iteration. “And here I am, 38 years later, as the oldest member of the company. I’m 60 in lycra, and that is worth the price of admission alone.”

It’s a spectacle, for sure, with 23 oversized cats prowling the stage, singing and dancing on a junk-strewn alleyway set. But spare a thought for the performers themselves.

“It’s tough,” says Berrisford. “There’s a lot of crawling on the knees, especially for the kittens – they’re always on the floor. We’ve really got to make the audience believe we’re cats.”

To that end, the watching of cat videos on YouTube is encouraged. “Everyone [in the cast] has their own moment, and they get to develop their own cat, and do a lot of research themselves.”

Naturally, there is much herding of Cats, too. Everyone gets put through the rigours of cat school during the rehearsal period, and occasionally during the run, too, if someone is straying too far from the metaphorical stoop.

“At the beginning of the day, we’d do about half an hour of cats crawling, prowling, sniffing – all the senses, eyesight, sounds, how we react as cats, how we would smell and how we would touch and work our paws, getting used to having a tail,” Berrisford says. “And we’d sit and discuss what we would feel.”

As for what it’s about? Well, the jury is still out.

“I’ve been doing it for 38 years and I still haven’t got a clue,” McKenney says. “Plot-schmot.”

But there is a narrative, insists Berrisford, who played Demeter in the last local production in 2016. Just not that much of one.

“There is an underlying story of forgiveness and redemption and, in human terms, people going through hard times. It’s about coming together, and what is happiness.

“So yes, there’s lots of dancing and lots of fun and lots of cats and a good night out, but there’s also a strong story underneath all that.”

Cats is showing at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, until January 31. Details: catsthemusical.com.au

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