Purrrrrfection: Paramount’s cirque-inspired ‘Cats’ dazzles the eyes and ears
“Cats” — 3.5 stars
Moments before the curtain rose on Paramount Theatre’s cirque-inspired “Cats” revival, a friend and former critic described his mood as “guardedly optimistic.”
“It’s ‘Cats,’” he shrugged.
He had cause to be wary. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical based on the poems in T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” has long inspired mixed emotions. Positive reviews accompanied its 1981 London premiere, but critics stateside were less enthusiastic about its 1982 Broadway debut.
Still, that production earned seven Tony Awards and ran 18 years. The original, which received the Laurence Olivier Award for best musical, ran for 21 years. National tours (including Chicago), West End and Broadway revivals and regional productions followed. Locally, Marriott Theatre produced the show in 2003 and 2014, the same year Paramount staged its first revival.
Clearly, “Cats” is as popular as it is polarizing, with detractors pointing to a negligible plot and one-dimensional characters that even Paramount creatives can’t improve. But the spectacle (in the best sense of the word) conjured by this top-notch team helps mitigate the show’s shortcomings. For that reason, I expect this stellar revival — helmed by Trent Stork (associate director for the 2014 production) and amplified by Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi’s breathtaking circus choreography — may well earn “Cats” a few converts.
Paul Deziel’s period projections — sideshow posters of various kitties — accompany the overture hint at Stork’s vision, which becomes clear with the reveal of Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s forced perspective, big-top set. Majestically framed by grand curtains and discretely and kaleidoscopically illuminated by Greg Hofmann, it reflects the faded elegance of a bygone era — early 20th century methinks — which serves as the setting of Stork’s “Cirque du Chat.”
The occasion is the annual Jellicle Ball presided over by clowder patriarch Old Deuteronomy (vocal powerhouse Lorenzo Rush Jr.) who, at the party’s conclusion, will select a cat to ascend the Heavyside Layer to be reborn into a new Jellicle life.
Propelled by a musical pastiche of pop, rock, funk and blues, with a smattering of vaudeville-style numbers, the musical unfolds as a series of vignettes featuring multihyphenate performers artfully individualized with wigs, hair and makeup by Katie Cordts. The striking, character-revealing costumes come courtesy of Izumi Inaba, who supplies an Elizabethan ruff for thespian cat Gus (Gene Weygandt), a studded leather jacket for rock god Rum Tum Tugger (Donovan Hoffer, whose falsetto impresses), and a sequined top hat and tails for ringmaster Munkustrap (Jake DiMaggio Lopez).
Actor/contortionist Kat Hoil plays do-gooder gumbie cat Jennyanydots. Circus artists Michael Lunder and Dani Goldberg earned thunderous applause as the mischief-making petty thieves Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer.
Weygandt’s Gus is sympathetic as elderly Gus, who recalls his storied career — with help from Allison Sill’s solicitous Jellylorum — while his younger self (aerialist Ryan Huemmer) twirls above him.
Tiffany Topol and Alexandra Palkovic play catty mean girls Bombalurina and Demeter in the seductive, bluesy introduction to the villainous Macavity (Matthew Weidenbener). And dancer/actor Christopher Kelley delivers an aggressively balletic performance as the magical Mr. Mistoffelees in a number noteworthy for Kasey Alfonso’s supple, athletic choreography and Benjamin Barnes’ illusions.
Last, but not least, is the outstanding Emily Rohm, who plays faded glamour cat Grizabella, the unmoored outsider. Rohm’s gorgeous version of the 11 o’clock ballad “Memory,” performed without self-pity, serves a grim reminder that any one of these felines could find themselves alone in the moonlight.
Bookending the first act is the exuberant “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” and the jaw-dropping “Songs of the Jellicles and the Jellicle Ball,” a showstopper so dazzling it’s impossible to know where to look. Kudos to Stork, DiStasi, Alfonso and their impressive ensemble, whose dancing and circus artistry is exceeded only by their vocal prowess.
Equally impressive is the ode to indispensable railway cat Skimbleshanks (Anakin Jace White), who dominates the second act’s boffo production number featuring yet another masterful Kmiec design.
For all its effects, “Cats” is first and foremost a musical. As such it demands excellence from its vocalists and instrumentalists. Music director/conductor Kory Danielson, a 32-member cast and 10 instrumentalists deliver a glorious-sounding show that owes part of its success to Adam Rosenthal, whose sound design is the best in recent memory.
As for my guardedly optimistic colleague, by the time the curtain descended, his mood had changed. He left Paramount Theatre thoroughly impressed.
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Location: Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, (630) 896-6666, paramountaurora.com
Showtimes: 1:30 and 7 p.m. Wednesday; 7 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday through June 15
Tickets: $28-$85
Running time: About 2 hours, with intermission
Rating: For most audiences, includes some suggested violence