Cats at the Liverpool Empire Review
Cats
Liverpool Empire
11-16 July 2016
Reviewed by Jan Mellor
“Adapted from TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, this wonderful blend of fantasy, drama and romance is set on the night that the Jellicle Cats meet for the Jellicle Ball in a sparkling fusion of music, dance and verse.”
Well this was my second time to see the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classical show CATS. Last year I was totally blown away by the whole thing so this time I brought along my partner and our son to experience the phenomenon.
Once in our seats it was bemusing to see in front of us a girl dressed as a cat with whiskers and ears and all. “She knows this show word for word” her mum explained “we can’t get enough of CATS”. We bought ice-creams from the ushers as they walked around the theatre (great idea) and were introduced to the show by ’Cats’ with aluminous green eyes pouncing around the audience and sparkling stars across the ceiling – my 11 year old son was in awe. The songs came effortless one after another, with impeccable voices and timing, faultless choreography, amazing costumes and props and within minutes the theatre was vibrant and alive. The interaction of the cats merging with the audience was a great way of bringing everyone into the show and enabled you to see the awesome make up and costumes clearer. The ‘rapper cat’ (Rum Tum Tugger) had the theatre bopping and clapping whilst the ‘has-been’ (Grizabella) and ‘Memories’ had the place in stunned silence. With tap dancing ‘cockroaches’, phenomenal acrobatics (Mungo Jerry, RumpleTeaser and Mr. Mistoffelees) operatic ‘Siamese cats’ and a theatrical pirate cat (Growltiger) for good measure the show never stopped to excite and amaze. I can understand how ‘Cats’ can grab you and coming back from the interval with a double-CD of the show and a tee-shirt emblazoned with bright yellow cats eyes – I was obviously hooked. The show was truly fantastic, faultless. The girl in front of us was ecstatic, my son in tears, my partner and I ‘knocked out’ and the standing ovation could not do justice to what we, the audience, had witnessed. Seeing the show a second time did nothing to ruin the excitement – I would see it again tonight!
I would definitely recommend this show. As well as a fantastic performance and score, there were nice additional touches – a wide range of merchandise to purchase, a character (Old Deuteronomy) who sat on stage during the interval and gave autographs for the queuing children, interaction with the audience throughout the show by the ‘Cats’ and the opportunity to witness incredible non-stop singing and dancing by incredible performers that was second to none.
The show was 2 hours and 40 minutes long (including a 20 minute interval) but it felt like 10 minutes.
A must see!
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost from £15 to £45.50 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).
Cats is at the Liverpool Empire until 16 July 2016. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0844 8713017.
Liverpool Empire Theatre, Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L1 1JE | 0844 8713017
