London’s new reimagined revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s Cats is at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre ahead of a U.K. tour, and Playbill has a first look at the production, directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie (Jesus Christ Superstar, King Kong).
The revival is a brand-new staging of the 1981 musical, though unlike Broadway’s current revival Cats: The Jellicle Ball, McOnie’s cats are indeed felines. The cast features Fin Adams as Alonzo, Carla Bertran as Electra, Elliot Broadfoot as Bustopher Jones, Matthew Caputo as Skimbleshanks, Josie Chambers-Sims as Syllabub, Briana Craig as Rumpleteazer, Katie Dunsden as Bombalurina, Joshua-Samuel Freeman as Tumblebrutus, Regan Garcia as Pouncival, Hannah Joseph as Victoria, Taziva-Faye Katsande as Tantomile, Melanie La Barrie as Old Deuteronomy, Dianté Lodge as Macavity and Admetus, Owen McHugh as George, Danny Nattrass as Mungojerrie, Millie O’Connell as Demeter, Andrew Parfitt as Coricopat, Charlotte Riby as Jennyanydots, Lucie-Mae Sumner as Jellylorum and Griddlebone, Jaydon Vijn as Rum Tum Tugger, Jack Wilcox as Munkustrap, Gary Wilmot as Gus, Rachael Wooding as Grizabella, Jet Yau as Mr. Mistoffelees and Quaxo, and Patricia Zhou as Cassandra. Swings Grace Burrows, Aaron Jenkins, Nathan Rigg, and Taela Yeomans-Brown round out the company. Casting is by Will Burton.
The production features music supervision by Alex Parker; music direction by Geraint Owen; set, costume, and wig design by Sami Fendall; lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun; sound design by Adam Fisher; makeup design by Guy Common; intimacy direction by Ingrid Mackinnon; and fight direction by Kev McCurdy. The creative team also includes associate lighting designer Lucy Adams, resident director-choreographer Josh Baker, associate set designer Tim Blazdell, associate sound designer Ollie Durrant, voice coach Fiona McDougal, associate choreographer-director Ebony Molina, and associate wig and hair designer Georgia Nosal.
The production is the latest Lloyd Webber musical to come to Regent’s Park before further runs. The 2016 Jesus Christ Superstar (choreographed by McOnie) toured the U.K. and U.S. along with getting several London encore runs, and their 2019 Evita, directed by Jamie Lloyd, recently closed a West End transfer.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is producing with Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals.
Cats, which premiered in London in 1979, is a dance musical adapted from T.S. Eliot’s book of children’s poetry, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Mostly plotless, the musical follows a tribe of so-called “Jellicle” Cats who gather for an annual ball, presenting themselves for the chance to be reborn in a new life. Lloyd Webber’s Tony-winning score introduced “Memory,” which has proved to be one of the composer’s most enduring standards. The original West End and Broadway productions were among the first worldwide musical theatre juggernauts, both once holding the mantle of the longest-running productions in the history of their respective theatre scenes. A Broadway revival, re-titled Cats: The Jellicle Ball and reimagined inside the world of ballroom, is at the Broadhurst through August 8.
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