CATS (musical)

For the first time, after watching a couple of different musicals, I had to admit that I was at a total lost for the first part of CATS. I didn't read the story of CATS before I went and so, had to try to follow as the music and mood changed. And during the break, Qing went to buy the programme and from there, we suddenly realised that there was not much of a storyline to the musical, but just introductions to the different types of cats in the group.

I guessed I'm not used to watching a show without a proper storyline to follow. But then again, CATS showed me another side of musicals, in which the actors had to have excellent dancing skills (coz they are dancing about half the time), as well as beautiful voices to make the whole thing work. It's definitely not easy having to jump and leap across the stage gracefully, while maintaining a steady singing voice which also, at the same time, portrayed the needed emotions. No wonder all the actors have such good bodies to wear the tight-fitting cats costumes.

Something else that was a little surprising was that the actors had quite a lot of interactions with the audience. The musical started with loud music and blinking lights, and suddenly there was a "cat" preening itself right beside you. And another act which they were reciting a poem (which I'm completely lost), another "cat" will again appear in the midst of the audience. And the scene when the flirtatious Rum Tum Tugger got off the stage, grabbed a lady from the first row and started dancing with her. There were also "cats" running loose during the break which got everyone all excited and cameras started flashing around the theatre. And, nope, yours truly never brought a camera coz I didn't think that it was allowed. Sigh.

I had to admit that CATS was not really what I expected and compared to The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables , and will not rank top of my list of favourite musicals. I'm more a "follow the story" kind of person, guessing what will happen next and what the ending will be. But for CATS, I think those who are dancers or have a passion in dancing will be able to appreciate it more. However, I was still very impressed with the singing, you know those kind that you literally felt your goosebumps rising together with the very first word of the song.