Cats the Musical UK Tour

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
Wednesday 20th March, 7.30pm

After waiting nearly ten years for Cats the Musical to revisit Wolverhampton Grand, I was very eager and excited to see this production live onstage again. A huge fan of the 1998 film, starring Elaine Paige, John Mills, John Partridge and Jason Gardiner, I had very high expectations of the current uk tour. As a big cats fan, I had prebooked my seats when they went on general sale and had the best seats in the house (A Row Centre Dress Circle) - which was a 'Purrfect' view!

Cats is the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical spectacular based on the 'Old Possum's book of practical cats' by T.S. Elliot. Cats is a show that is 'danced through' and the entire cast appear onstage for the majority of each performance. Cats first premiered in London in 1981 and as one of London's longest running musicals ran for nearly 9000 performances before closing in May 2002. The show has little narrative, but introduces each of Elliot's jellicle cats as separate characters through spectacular song and dance. Gillian Lynne's choreography is visually second to none and the extremely stylistic movement is executed perfectly by the entire ensemble.

Cats 2013 ensemble

The clever Cats staging was on show as we entered the auditorium and enticed the audience into a junkyard full of rubbish and trash. The set made of larger than life size litter, tyres and various car parts allowed the cast to enter the stage via some weird and wonderful entrances. Not to give much away but the Cats cast embraced the use of the whole auditorium, and audience members in the stalls certainly acquired some feline friends!

Richard Astbury as Coricopat

Special mention in this production goes to Wolverhampton's own Richard Astbury starring as Coricopat. Having danced with Richard in numerous amateur productions at the Grand before he starting his professional training at Arts Educational, London it was lovely to see him treading the boards back on home turf. Other standout performances came from Jessica Buckby (Cassandra), Barnaby Thompson (Mungojerrie) and Oliver Savile (Rum Tum Tugger). Joseph Poulton as Magical Mistofelees impressed as the original conjuring cat and Joanna Ampil delivered a vocally faultless performance as Grizabella.

Joanna Ampil sings 'Memory'

Another great touch from this performance was the chance for audience members to go onstage during the interval to have their programmes signed by Old Deuteronomy (Nicholas Pound). I had my programme signed on Cats' last visit to the Grand in 2004/5 and of course couldn't resist getting up onstage again!

Signed Programme

This 'SpeCATular' show runs at The Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday 30th March!

Book your tickets here