CATS the Musical

Incredible show. Cats has come back to the London Palladium for a second winter season and it’s absolutely blown me away. The cast are spectacular, the songs are brilliant and catchy and the choreography — just wow. If you like dancing, this is one musical you’re going to want to see. The dance numbers are absolutely breathtaking. Those cast members must have so much energy! They’re so bendy too. They absolutely blew me away. I’m not sure about the new Rum Tum Tugger, but the show overall was spectacular. I especially loved hearing Beverley Knight sing Memory. She has a very powerful voice. Well done all involved. GO and see this show!

If it wasn’t for Nicole Scherzinger’s couple of outstanding vocals and some spectacular dancing and acting from a few other charismatic characters, this musical would be nothing special. The performance was definitely an ensemble piece with many cast members dancing and singing at the same time and the orchestra belting out music most of the time.
It went a little over-​the-​top for me, bringing to mind the saying «too many cooks spoil the broth»; such that at times I felt the live music was drowning out the lyrics being sung and the simultaneous singing drowned out the diction of the words. This all meant that words were being lost and sounds were merging together, particularly in the first 1hr of the show. The second half was noticeably better as there were more performances that showcased individual talents, be it dancing, singing or story-​telling.
The drawbacks of CATS have to be the lack of a relatable story (as it is all a little too fantastical) and its minimal utilisation of Nicole Scherzinger who was not on stage for long at all (only probably a total of 30mins within the 3hr show). This is not what I expected and I overhead fellow theatre-​goers saying the same thing as I left the theatre. So whilst the dancing as a whole alongside the snippets of Nicole singing and the costumes were worth witnessing, I am still left with a little disappointment after watching what is rumoured to be a legendary theatre production.