Review: 'Cats'
At Northern Stage
By Charlie McMeekin

"Cats" has won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score. It played in London for 21 years, in New York for 15, and is the longest continually touring show in American theatrical history.

However, there are few theater operations that can pull off a show with the complexity of "Cats," with its non-stop dancing, singing, and costume demands.

Happily, it turns out that Northern Stage in White River Junction is one of them, and the results surpass what I saw when the show played in Boston 20 years ago.

That may be in part to the intimacy of the theater itself compared to the vast Boston hall. Another reason may be that almost half the cast in White River have either played their roles on Broadway or the national tour of Cats!

The superlatives started when we entered the space. The set, designed by Ken Goldstein, features a floor painted with ads, as if blown into a pile by wind and worn by time. A second look, and a third, uncovers that the ads were for local businesses, those which help sponsor the Northern Stage season. Clever, smart, and worth a chuckle!

The simplicity and levels provided by the set made a perfect home for cats, and the technical staff managed to pull off an ending which is known for its complexity.

David Upton's lighting was also superb, softened by a hint of fog, featuring a huge full moon that dominated the starry night sky. It was the Jellicle moon, an annual event which causes cats to gather and party, choosing one of their kind to be reborn.

And then there were the costumes, the work of many people, but led by the design efforts of Rachel Kurland of South Strafford. They were magnificent, varied, and always fun to look at, using an underlayer of unitards painted to create different cat breeds. You had tabbies, calicos, tuxedoed black and white cats, and scruffy alleycats.

Best of breed was Deuteronomyl, whose costume was like a rug of long flowing strands of yarn.

Next there was the make-up, usually an area ignored in a review, because it is merely functional. Not so when you're using cats as main characters.

Whiskers, puckered lips, little noses, total face paint, deep-set eyes gave us a full evening of visual enchantment as we sat and noticed the professional attention to detail. Jesse Factor provided the make-up design. He also served as the company choreographer, and oh yeah, he was also the cat Skimbleshanks!

Oh Yes, the Actors

Halfway through the review, and still no mention of the acting. Call it saving the best for last.

There were 20 actors on the stage, each and every one completely committed to creating cat characters. We were treated to sleek, elegant felines, tumbling kittens, a raffish tomcat, a Falstaffian overgrown cat, and many more, each winning a place on a stage they charged with their magic. It was impossible to see all of the stage business happening at any one minute, which made for a superb level of audience energy and appreciation. It was a true cat treat.

Speaking of treats, wait until these people sing. The fact that they were engaged in such exuberant choreography while singing only added to my appreciation of their hard work. The singers gave the play a story by using their music to tell us something.

That fact is sometimes cited as a criticism of the show itself, as it's really a collection of poems by T. S. Eliot without a significant narrative thread. Director Brooke Ciardelli found the story in the lyrics, and my wife and I were both moved by the reminder of life's mortality and the joys of being touched by friends.

"Cats," like Andrew Lloyd Weber's other hit familiar to me, "Jesus Christ Superstar," is nothing but music. There's no dialogue, no scenes to give the actors a break. And because they're singing, they're usually dancing, and the moves were fresh and feline—it was worth the price of a ticket just to admire the human form and its ability to move.

Three Northern Stage productions in my memory have achieved a level of greatness. One was "Wit," which may never be equalled for its dramatic impact. One was "A Christmas Carol," which gave me fresh appreciation for an old chesttnut.

"Cats" now joins that constellation of stars as the most fully-developed, totally realized achievement of all of theater's disciplines. Now that the cat's out of the bag on this show, just hope that tickets for it are in your Christmas stocking!

It is at Northern Stage in White River Junction through Dec. 31. The show begins at 7:30 on December 14-17,19-23,and 26-30. Matinees begin at 2 p.m. on December 14-17, 20,22-23,26-27, and 29-31. The show is great for children as well as adults.