The cast of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. (Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

By Deirdre Donovan

 

The competition of all competitions is underway at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) this summer. Under the arrangement of the Really Useful Group, and the inspired direction of Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, a talented 23-member cast are strutting their stuff in Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

This is a radical revisiting of the musical Cats, which premiered at West End's New London Theatre and transferred to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre almost a half century ago. Although retaining the book based on T.S. Eliot's one volume of light verse, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and the score by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Levingston and Rauch have reimagined the musical as an event on Harlem's queer ballroom circuit, the once-underground drag culture that was appropriated to mass media with the 1990 landmark documentary "Paris is Burning" and the TV show Pose.

Instead of the familiar backdrop of a nocturnal junkyard, scenic designer Rachel Hauck has conjured up a Jellicle ballroom, complete with runway, for the Jellicle kitties to do their voguing. To enhance the ballroom aura, audience members sit at cabaret tables on three sides of the runway, putting them up close and personal to the Jellicles who will be competing in different categories for the trophies.

Although the musical has a fresh new spin, its basic story is essentially the same: a tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide at their annual ritual celebration which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer (think Cat Heaven) and be reborn to a new life. The suspense builds, as one contender after another is introduced and given the opportunity to perform their signature routine before the on- and off-stage audience.

Outfitted in fierce fashion (costume designer Qween Jean), the first-rate troupe of singers-dancers execute their terpsichorean movements, using sharp angles, dramatic poses, and intricate hand movements, mimicking the poses of runway models (choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles). Then Old Deuteronomy (Broadway icon Andre DeShields), with his ancient but unfailing judgment, gives each a thumbs up or down.

"Tempress" Chasity Moore (Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

This anthropomorphic musical offers you a menagerie of 20 felines with human resonances. Although at times it is hard to differentiate one cat from the other as they compete in the various categories ("Pretty Boy," "Hair Affair," "Opulence". . .), it's delicious to hear their onomatopoeic names announced (Clinkscales, Rum Tum Tugger, Mistoffelees) and then listen to their respective ballads.

There's little question that the emotional center of the musical is the eleventh hour song in Act 2, "Memory,"" sung by "Tempress" Chasity Moore as Grizabella. Given that this showboating song has been sung in the past by such luminaries as Judi Dench, Elaine Paige, and Betty Buckley, Moore has the difficult task, if not to outdo her predecessors, to put her own mark on it. Fortunately, she does just that with brio and panache.

Gender fluidity prevails when Junior LaBeija performs Gus, dressed in drag, poignantly reminiscing about his days of acting glory in the musical number, "Gus: The Theatre Cat." A darker anthem insidiously works itself into the musical fabric, later on in Act 2, with "Macavity: The Mystery Cat." Macavity (Antwayn Hopper) is as villainous as ever in this production. And the discordant music (Just listen for the chilling clash of brass cymbals!) acts like a menacing undertow to the more festive musical numbers in the show.

André De Shields (Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

No question that De Shields, as Old Deuteronomy, the wise and beloved patriarch of the Jellicle tribe, is the star turn of the production. At 78, he still cuts the mustard with his dignified presence, facial expressiveness, and physical poise. To illustrate—and cement—his stature among the felines, one of the Jellicles presents him with two glowing tablets at the show�s midpoint, creating a striking tableau that is a clear nod to the Biblical Moses being given the ten commandments on top of Mount Sinai.

The show does run long, clocking in at over two and a half hours. Although the pacing between scenes perhaps could be improved by tightening, this really is nit-picking, as the show's strength is in its abundance of energy, verve, and sheer imagination. In short, why tamper with Levingston and Rauch's able direction?

Indeed, Cats: The Jellicle Ball lands nimbly on its theatrical feet. It is proof positive that T.S. Eliot's poetry and Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, which purred happily on Broadway from 1982 to 2000, aren't old hat. Indeed, this show is a must-see for all musical theater lovers.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

At the Perelman Performing Arts Center, 251 Fulton Street, Manhattan

For more information, visit www.pacnyc.org

Running time: 2 hours; 30 minutes with intermission