REVIEW - Cats, LAODS, Lincoln Arts Centre, Friday 13th June 2025 - *****
- theatrereviews
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
To re-stage the magnitude and effervescence of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats strikes me as a haunting challenge. The feline-shaped ghosts of Brian Blessed, Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman et al, are, of course, still very much living… ‘Memory’ is remembered. Unfairly shunned and condemned to the litter tray by some contemporary critics at the time of its original 1981 production, the show ended up not only planting itself squarely in the West End for over 20 years (and subsequently took Broadway by storm for 18 years), but it also rewrote exactly what a modern musical could be. And be a runaway success.
All that makes it, to my mind, a haunting challenge. To producers Nicola Calver, Stacey Carr, Jim Hodson, over at Lincoln Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (LAODS), however, it would appear to have been an irresistible opportunity. It acts as a most tantalising showcase for the Society. To date, it is the most confident, most perfect production of the year.
On the face of it, the charity generates some impressive funds. At £25 a ticket (no concession rate) and membership and production fees to swell the coffers, this is an amateur company that takes itself very seriously; thankfully, fittingly and gloriously, every it's all up there on the stage - aesthetically, vocally and musically. This is a bold, riveting, complex, and always beguiling, production. There’s an enchanting sheen, but one that is never there one minute and then gone the next; it’s not masking anything or compensating for something, somewhere. Instead, this is foot-to-the-floor entertainment, delivered at a breathless pace with an ensemble honed, proud and excited to be there.
The story is slight, based on a 1939 whimsical poetry collection by T. S. Eliot titled Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. A tribe of cats called the Jellicles come together at the annual Jellicle Ball to decide which one of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a new life. It’s a contrivance for a parade of standalone cat-character biopsies, as about a dozen cats are each put under the spotlight. The loose story structure aids the chapter-like approach; many songs finish with a direct lead-in to their own reprise.
With an ensemble cast of 37, and a live band of 16, Cats screams lavishness. The set, costumes and make-up reflect this, visually popping off the stage. Despite being set at night-time, it’s colourful and vibrant (the follow-spot operators have a tough task, it must be said). The majority of the cast members are only off-stage for a matter of seconds at a time – the stage is brimming, with each ‘cat’ distinct from the others, yet the company frequently perform sustained choreography that often requires minute, united, unison.
It should also be said that there are true moments of comedy. Old Deuteronomy’s sign off T'he Ad-Dressing of Cats' is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, while 'Gus: The Theatre Cat' and 'Macavity' wouldn’t be out of place in a bawdy music hall.
There are key performers… Dan Woodhall’s salacious characterisation as Rum Tum Tugger had the ladies next to me utterly enthralled, Philly Macfarlane’s Mistofelees delivered a show-stopping acrobatic routine (bolstered by the enigmatic ensemble), the camaraderie on display from Katy Vine and Rachel Pick as the dynamic duo Rumpleteazer and Mungojerrie was inspired…
Plain and simply, every theatregoer will have their favourite cat, and also their favourite number: mine were the gluttonous, sardine-can-dwelling Bustopher Jones (Jordan Shiel, also doubling as the refined Old Deuteronomy), while my favourite number, due largely to the dazzling choreography and staging during it, was Matthew Frederick’s ‘Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat’. It would, however, be totally unjust not to mention ‘Memory’, performed by Abigail Szulc-Nield’s Grizabella, and then reprised, also featuring the vocal talents of Evie Nicholson’s Jemima. It’s a tough song; the original director, Trevor Nunn, citing the song as the show’s “emotional centre”, wrote the lyrics himself well into the rehearsal process, so desperate was he to create something so tonally right. Both Szulc-Nield and Nicholson have the power and resonance to make the number their own.
It may be a punchy ticket price, but do go and see it. Every penny of it is up on the stage (or down in the pit), and the whole show is strewn with moments when it looks, and sounds, magnificent.
'Cats' is being performed, at various times, until Saturday 21st June 2025. Click on the link below to secure your tickets.
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