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Cats

jerrybythesea

By jerrybythesea
in Live Theater & Broadway

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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With the fabulous new keyboard programming technology, even a handful of players,, can sound like the New York Philharmonic.

 

I happen to be a keyboard player. And even I object to putting musicians out of work this way. And no - no amount of synth programming can make anything sound like the NY Phil.

 

Also, it's not so much that keyboards have replaced anything - it's more that the entire score was reconceived/rethought for less players. It's not attempting to reflect the same scoring that was played at the Winter Garden all those years.

 

The original orchestrations for Cats were actually quite good, whether one likes the show or not. The new orchestrations are thinner, and very noticeably so to my ears. But it's fine by me, I suppose, that you're paying all that money on tickets to hear half of what it was originally. Go for it.

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dcguy20 Mentor

dcguy20

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I've seen the present production twice. Once from the rear mezzanine, and the other center orchestra. The set design doesn't encapsulate the theater like the original production. That being said, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and preferred my seat in the orchestra. Got an 8th row center aisle on TKTS no less. I was looking forward to seeing Mamie Paris as Grizabella, but her understudy was on.

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jerrybythesea Collaborator

jerrybythesea

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I happen to be a keyboard player. And even I object to putting musicians out of work this way. And no - no amount of synth programming can make anything sound like the NY Phil.

 

Also, it's not so much that keyboards have replaced anything - it's more that the entire score was reconceived/rethought for less players. It's not attempting to reflect the same scoring that was played at the Winter Garden all those years.

 

The original orchestrations for Cats were actually quite good, whether one likes the show or not. The new orchestrations are thinner, and very noticeably so to my ears. But it's fine by me, I suppose, that you're paying all that money on tickets to hear half of what it was originally. Go for it.

A show like Cats does not need a 24 piece orchestra....sometimes smaller is better, right?

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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A show like Cats does not need a 24 piece orchestra....sometimes smaller is better, right?

 

Sometimes yes. And yet I think if Cats were presented simply as the concert song cycle it really is under all that feline makeup, lol, it might fit well with a chamber sound (by Broadway standards). But as long as it's presented as a theatrical revue in a Broadway-sized house, I think it benefits from being scaled up.

 

Julie Taymor knew precisely what she was doing when she blew The Lion King up to overblown proportions, lol - the show works because it's uber-theatrical in size and style, even though the story being told through all of that technical eye candy is actually incredibly slight. Cats has an even smaller story to tell, and yet, I think the reason why the piece has worked so well all these years is that its spectacle very consciously outweighs its substance. And the aural spectacle counts as much as the visual one.

 

Look - I'm glad you enjoyed the show. But I really feel it's just a cheap shot way for Sir Lloyd Webber to rake in more bucks with a tourist trap production. I also would doubt that this production will have the staying power that the original Winter Garden mounting did (just shy of 18 years). It doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable, but I just feel that it's more of a "half-pint imitation" (to quote the great Lorenz Hart) than it is a new production on its own merits - which it could have been.

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jerrybythesea Collaborator

jerrybythesea

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Sometimes yes. And yet I think if Cats were presented simply as the concert song cycle it really is under all that feline makeup, lol, it might fit well with a chamber sound (by Broadway standards). But as long as it's presented as a theatrical revue in a Broadway-sized house, I think it benefits from being scaled up.

 

Julie Taymor knew precisely what she was doing when she blew The Lion King up to overblown proportions, lol - the show works because it's uber-theatrical in size and style, even though the story being told through all of that technical eye candy is actually incredibly slight. Cats has an even smaller story to tell, and yet, I think the reason why the piece has worked so well all these years is that its spectacle very consciously outweighs its substance. And the aural spectacle counts as much as the visual one.

 

Look - I'm glad you enjoyed the show. But I really feel it's just a cheap shot way for Sir Lloyd Webber to rake in more bucks with a tourist trap production. I also would doubt that this production will have the staying power that the original Winter Garden mounting did (just shy of 18 years). It doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable, but I just feel that it's more of a "half-pint imitation" (to quote the great Lorenz Hart) than it is a new production on its own merits - which it could have been.

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jerrybythesea Collaborator

jerrybythesea

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You make some good points and I respect your opinions as you seem to be much more of a theatre buff than I. I agree with you that this production will not even near the longevity of the original( Wasn't Betty Buckley fabulous?). The show is not really selling out, but it is extremely entertaining and charming. And that song we all know and how it is performed (2 times) is, in my opinion, worth the price of a ticket ( in my case $170)

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handiacefailure Mentor

handiacefailure

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I saw it touring and liked the music and my cat is named after one of the characters in the show, but I have no desire to see it again.

 

TKTS always has tickets for 40 to 50% off. A friend of mine is a big rice queen and went to see it just because Aaron Albano is in it and he said they changed some things from the original show and he really liked it

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BenjaminNicholas Grand Master

+ BenjaminNicholas

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The current Grizabella on Broadway is Mamie Parris. She's got a great set of pipes and was one of my favorite understudies to go on in the last Ragtime revival (Mother). Her talent is severely underutilized in Cats, but it's great seeing her in a spotlight role. An employed actor is a happy actor :)

 

I tip my hat to ALW in making the most success out of his very repetitive (and often times loosely-borrowed or reused) melodies. Clearly, he's got a target market that will show up for any of his productions. Personally, I believe the emperor has very little clothing in this case.

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Rudynate Grand Master

Rudynate

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My best friend is Asian and into white guys. He calls himself a potato queen and the guys he goes out with Rice queens;)

 

 

It's one of those things- they can, but you can't.

I hear Jews refer to each other occasionally as "Hebes." I wouldn't think for a second that that would make it OK for me to use that word in conversation.

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hornytwells Veteran

hornytwells

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The current Grizabella on Broadway is Mamie Parris. She's got a great set of pipes and was one of my favorite understudies to go on in the last Ragtime revival (Mother). Her talent is severely underutilized in Cats, but it's great seeing her in a spotlight role. An employed actor is a happy actor :)

 

I tip my hat to ALW in making the most success out of his very repetitive (and often times loosely-borrowed or reused) melodies. Clearly, he's got a target market that will show up for any of his productions. Personally, I believe the emperor has very little clothing in this case.

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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ALW is a genius

 

He's a talented tunesmith - that I won't deny, and in fact, I admire him for that. (I don't think he's ultimately a very savvy theatre composer, but that's another conversation entirely. What he really should do is write film scores - he'd be great at that.)

 

But his true genius is undeniably his business sense, much more than his musical talents.

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