Return to the West End: Cats The Musical

Return of the 1980’s; Cats The Musical.

With Cats, Miss Saigon and Evita all returning to the West End within a year of each other it would seem that the dawning of another 1980’s era is upon us. I, for one, am alright with that. Some of the best musicals started out in the 1980’s. My first memory of Cats The Musical was driving round in my Dad’s Forest Green Land Rover Discovery, listening to The Magical Mister Mistofolees. Memory, the Elaine Paige version, was on every ‘West End & Broadway Musicals’ compilation CD and trust me, my Dad owned them all. Eventually, Really Useful Productions released a VHS of the original cast of Cats which quickly became one of the most played tapes in my house, along with Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (starring Donny Osmond). Clearly, I was a musical theatre kid. By the age of six I was taking every dance class going and eventually I got to see Cats on stage with my Dad. I remember being absolutely in awe and so stunned that everything was exactly like it was on the VHS tape, starring Elaine Paige as Grizabella and John Partridge as the notorious Rum Tum Tugger. Upon hearing that Cats would return to the West End for a limited run in the winter of 2014, I was glad it was getting another run, but never thought I’d get to see it. My Grandmother, bless her, decided she would take my partner and I as our Christmas presents. I was thrilled. That was up until I saw Nicole Scherzinger had been cast as Grizabella. I didn’t understand – surely if Scherzinger was going to be in the West End she should be in something much cooler, more hip, and more sexy. Immediately, I was turned off. Not disappointed, and never to the extent that I wouldn’t want to go, but confused at the casting choice. I thought that casting Scherzinger would change the audience; I didn’t want to sit in a theatre full of teeny boppers, struggling to see past their ‘We Heart Nicole’ signs.

My, oh my was I wrong. In the lead up to seeing the show, I tried to stay away from reviews because I wanted to be pleasantly surprised and, dear God, was I. I will willingly eat all of my words of Nicole-Nay-Saying, turn on my heel and praise her to the high heavens. Whilst her posture and cat-acting was a little questionable at times, her movement on the whole was completely on par with everyone else on stage. Her vocals were absolutely on point and exceeded every expectation that I ever had for her performance. Never have I ever felt chills like that in Memory. I was never really enamoured with the musical theatre anthem, but the way Scherzinger sings it blows my mind. There’s a massive key change toward the end of the song after, what is in comparison quite a low section, and she knocks it completely out of the ball park. No idea how she does that every night, but judging by other reviews (which I’ve now read) she does. “Sunlight through the trees in summer, endless masquerading, like a flower as the dawn is breaking, the memory is fading... ...Touch me, it’s so easy to leave me, all alone with the memory of my days in the sun.” Not only was I astounded with her powerful key change but her stamina in the lower vocal range was seriously impressive for someone, who I had so wrongly deemed, ‘just a pop star.’

Sadly there is a downside to the revival of Cats. My favourite numbers from Cats were always Macavity and The Rum Tum Tugger (of course Mistofolees will always have a soft spot in my heart.) There was a somewhat mislead and odd attempt to modernise the show by inserting a rap section. Yep, a rap section into a TS Eliot masterpiece. Why is The Rum Tum Tugger suddenly a rap star? Revolutionising the show for a more modern, ethnic audience? I would have preferred the original and so would a lot of other people I can bet. Also, they kept Old Deuteronomy on stage throughout the whole interval. Why is that? The stage hands and technicians then came out to talk to him and bring him his bottle of water. Why not do that backstage? Maybe I’m missing a huge artistic choice, but I don’t think so. If I have missed something, clue me in. To close, my thoughts on Cats have left me with some questions. Would Cats have sold so well if Andrew Lloyd Webber hadn’t cast international star Nicole Scherzinger? Why can Cameron Mackintosh afford to revive his 80’s musical hit Miss Saigon into the West End as an open ended run, whereas both Webber’s 80’s productions are only guaranteed limited runs? Anyway, that’s enough high-brow wondering for the mean time. I’m going to put the clip of Scherzy doing her thing on Memory here, and before people get all uppity about recording in a theatre – it wasn’t me. This is borrowed from YouTube. None but the first picture are mine either, so credit where credits due and it's not me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obGVYstNHwA (The magic happens from about 4:35 onwards...) Happy days.

Off to the Theatre: Back home to London.

Good evening and welcome back. I was a musical theatre kid, so please allow me to splurge my knowledge and excitement...But be aware of massive spoilers :)

“Miss Saigon is not standard musical theatre. Saigon requires not only rock and roll singing chops. It’s sung-through, it’s truly an opera. Also because of the interracial casting – half of your cast has to be Asian!” 

In 1990, Cameron Mackintosh was described by The New York Times as “the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world” – he’s still gracing the front pages of newspapers, with not only the news that he’s bought the Victoria Palace (currently housing Billy Elliot) and the smaller Ambassador’s Theatre but with mixed reviews of his 2014 revival of the classic Miss Saigon. 

As the producer of shows including Les Miserables (the West-End’s longest running musical), The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Oliver! and Cats - Mackintosh is not afraid of bringing the classic’s back to London’s theatrical home. Miss Saigon had its first run of over four thousand performances in the West End, at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane in September of 1989.
Young Lea Salonga landed the role after a long and arduous audition process which had visited Hawaii before finding Salonga in Manila, Philippines. Only 18 when she first auditioned for Miss Saigon, Lea went on to voice Mulan, Princess Jasmine and star in many more of Cameron Mackintosh’s productions including playing both Eponine and Fantine in Les Miserables. Lea was the first Asian actress to play these Les Mis roles. 

Reminding Mackintosh of Salonga, is newcomer to the stage Eva Noblezada, playing Kim in the 2014 revival. “Eva’s going to be our new Lea...” Cameron Mackintosh told The Daily Mail. Noblezada, never having played professionally before had only performed in shows at her school.
This is where I come in. Having been such an avid fan of all things musical theatre, when I heard at the start of this year that Miss Saigon would be returning to the West End, I knew I had to go and see it. 
I mentioned to my Grandmother, and we went as my 21^stbirthday gift last weekend. (24.05.14)
I poured over musical soundtracks when I was younger, and even took part in some amateur dramatics that attempted some selections from Miss Saigon (namely Movie In My Mind), I was ready beyond belief to add Miss Saigon to my musical collection. With the opening to “Dreamland/Heat is on in Saigon” stuck in my head all day, we took our seats for the 2:30 matinee. 

The heat is on in Saigon, these girls are hotter than hell. Don’t tell me I’m reassigned, all that chicken-shit sucks, tonight I’m out of my mind – not to mention ten bucks!

Is there a war going on, don’t ask I ain’t gonna tell! 

Having only known Johnathan Pryce as The Engineer from the Making of Miss Saigon DVD, I was happily surprised with Jon Jon Briones’ performance. Not only was the performance everything and more, this revival is Briones’ return to Miss Saigon in London as he was in the original company with Salonga in 1989. Briones’ has travelled the world performing in Miss Saigon and his performance on Saturday was a reflection of that. He knew the role like the back of his hand and was exactly the right balance between desperate, sleazy and comical.
“Some people need two days to recover from the show; they were so shocked and so moved by what they saw. So every night, every matinee, people must believe that it’s a unique performance especially for them...” which is what Claude-Michel Schonberg said to the 1989 cast, in the Making of Saigon DVD. The sentiment was entirely true to that of the cast I saw on Saturday. How the people on that stage put the audience through the same heart-wrenching emotions every day, I will always be in awe.
 

Kim, lead role, now being played by both Eva Nobelzada and Tanya Manalang, is always played by a young South East Asian looking girl. Eva, from Charlotte NC, has the classic look and the lungs of steal to go with the fully sung-through score. Eva is only eighteen, so will currently only be performing four shows a week. Tanya Manalang, who is the Kim Alternate (not understudy) will be playing Kim in the remaining shows, backed by understudy Julia Abueva. Both Manalang and Abueva are Filipina but whereas Manalang has been in theatre all her life, Abeuva graduated from high school in Singapore two months before starting rehearsals for Miss Saigon. Whilst understudy for Kim, Julia Abeuva is simply billed as ensemble in the programme, Tanya is billed as Alternate Kim.
Unfortunately having Eva being dubbed by fans and media as “the second lightning bolt” of perfection for the role of Kim, second to Lea Salonga, fans are asking why Tanya Manalang isn’t as present in production advertisement as Eva. Eva is playing four shows a week; Tanya is apparently covering the rest, which leaves her at three shows a week – practically equal to Cameron Mackintosh’s shining star.
 

On Saturday, 24^th of May, we saw Eva Noblezada as Kim – and she is entirely worth all the hype. Young and pint-sized but still with enough emotion to fill the Prince Edward theater five times over. Her onstage relationship with Alastair Brammer (Les Miserables, Queens. Les Miserables, The Movie) will continue to push audiences to believe in the love story between American G.I and lost, orphaned Vietnamese woman. Brammer shines as the conflicted yet passionate Chris but Eva’s performance and devotion to Chris does leave audiences bitter – my boyfriend called Chris “flitty”, which is probably a slight over exaggeration on his part, but I can understand where he was coming from. Both Rachelle Ann Go as Gigi was everything she needed to be and more sass to boot, John played by Hugh Maynard was possibly the best John I've seen in all my YouTube trawling. I prefer him to Simon Bowman (original John) I know saying that is sacrilege, but still.

The inclusion of new Ellen song ‘Maybe’ confused me; ‘Now That I’ve Seen Her’ was always one of my favourite songs from the show, but for the revival Mackintosh, Boubil and Schonberg agreed to attempt to connect audiences with Ellen a little more with the rewriting of the song that Ellen sings as a reaction to meeting Kim for the first time. Dutch and Japanese productions of Miss Saigon have heard ‘Maybe’ before, but the London audiences will be the first to hear it in English. Personally, I prefer ‘Now That I’ve Seen Her’ – it evokes more emotion that ‘Maybe’ ever could. The lyrics alone, provide more doubt and more real emotion that audiences could connect with – ‘Maybe’ is full of insecurity and panic. 

Now that I’ve seen her, there’s no way to hide. She’s not some fling from long ago.
Now that I’ve seen her, I know why he lied. And I think it is better when I didn’t know.
In her eyes, in her voice, in the heat that filled the air, part of him still lingers there.
I know what pain her life today must be, but if it all comes down to her or me...
I don’t care, I swear I’ll fight.

The above lyrics from ‘Now That I’ve Seen Her’ give Ellen much more of a backbone; much more of an opinion and I believe that would be a more obvious reaction for Ellen to have. In ‘Maybe’ there is too much doubt that Chris is flaky enough to leave Ellen for Kim – almost as if Ellen doesn’t trust Chris to have moved on. Understandably there is the issue of Tam (Kim’s Child that she has just revealed is fathered by Chris) but even with this in consideration; I still believe ‘Now That I’ve Seen Her’ would be the stronger song for this character at this moment. In this clip with Kerry Ellis (Wicked, WWRY, Les Miserables, My Fair Lady, Chess, Oliver!) the accusation at Chris comes across so well, and that is completely missed in ‘Maybe’.

 

Overall, the show was the best I’ve seen in years and will remain if not top, in my top three West End shows for years to come. Never have I ever sat in an auditorium convincing myself to hold my shit together. You will not cry, this is not happening to you. I have never experienced such an emotional reaction to anything fictional; not anything. I use the word fictional, because the characters are fictional. Please understand that I do understand that the show has resonance in reality and is based on reality. 

The cast were absolutely amazing; if I could afford to go back tomorrow I would. And the next day. And the next day. And the next day. You get the picture. Miss Saigon will always have a place in my musical theatre heart. Well done to the cast, crew (technical and creative) and of course Cameron Mackintosh.

Til next time, stay safe. 
BarGirl. ♥