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- [00:00]
Instacart Announcer
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- [00:34]
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- [01:03]
Nicole Byer
Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast.
- [01:18]
Mickey Jo
And breathe.
- [01:19]
Nicole Byer
Oh sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order, 1-800-contacts.
- [01:34]
Mickey Jo
It is as though the good people of the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, Illinois heard the lyric in the introductory song, we can dive through the air like a flying trapeze and thought to themselves, you know what? Yes, yes we can. Listen, if there's one thing I know about Jellicle Cats and I don't know to what extent you're familiar with this, it's that Jellicles can and additionally evangelicals do. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. My name is Mickey Jo and I am a professional theatre critic here on social media as well as a content creator. And I am, as I have told you many times here on YouTube, obsessed with all things theatre. But what I am also is a Cat's the Musical apologist. There, I've said it. One of the first, like two musicals. It may be the first piece of musical theater I ever truly fell in love with. I will say that like I'm at a support meeting right now. And listen, I'm a defender of the film adaptation. Let's not go crazy. Let's not break our necks on the Way to the Ice Skating Rink. But I do have to credit musicals like Cats and the professional filmed recording of Cats starring Elaine Page, filmed at the Adelphi Theatre, with introducing me as a sort of a manic gateway drug to the world of musical theater and theatrical entertainment. It's one of the first shows that I got taken to go and see as a child, and I remember distinctly getting taken up on stage and meeting old Deuteronomy and all of that. So anytime I have the chance to see a production of Cats as an adult, I turn once more into an awestruck child. But perhaps never more so than when I went to go and see Cats at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, Illinois as part of a trip to Chicago. And not just any production of Cats, but Circus Cats. Yes, you heard me correctly, this is Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, but presented with circus aesthetics, circus choreography, circus themes and visuals and everything that comes with with that. And I'm going to tell you gleefully all about it in this full review. Buckle up. I promise you, you're not ready for Circus Cats. I certainly was not. But I'm not the only person who had the chance to see this production. If you had the chance to see it, Please let us know what you thought and share all of the brilliant details in the comments section down below. Let us know all about your experience. Were you someone who traveled from afar like myself, from a different country, a different continent even, to go and see the circus cats? Were you local to the circus cats? Did the circus cats arise in community and you were like, I need to go and check out these local circus cats? Were you one of the circus cats? I would love it if we had a circus cat in the comments. I've said it too many times now, and it's it's going to a strange place, but I'm very excited about this one. And if you are excited to listen to this, and if you're excited to listen to future reviews of mine, make sure that you're subscribed right here on YouTube. Seamless segue there. Turn on those notifications so that YouTube lets you know every time I post a new video or go follow me on podcast platforms where you're just hearing the nonsense that I'm sharing about this exceptional piece of theatre today. In any case, I'm not willing to wait one more second. Let's talk about the circus Cats now. It's at this point in the review traditionally that I talk a little bit about the material and talk a little about the synopsis I like to think at this point, everyone is to some extent familiar with cats. And if you've managed to survive in the world with an interest in theater, but haven't yet been exposed to cats, then, you know, it's like you're a person who has managed to walk around your entire life and not get rained on. I don't know how you have done this. What I will say is that Cats is a musical created by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. He scored a series of poems, Old Possum's Book of practical cats by T.S. eliot, and it's become this semi abstract, sort of loose narrative show about Jellicle cats, which are these sort of mystical, semi humanoid cats, perhaps meeting as they do once a year to celebrate the Jellicle Ball, the combination of which is one cat being chosen by their elect leader, old Deuteronomy, who has buried a suspicious number of wives. But we won't get into that right now. To ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn in order to live a new angelicle life. One of them gets to be reincarnated if they. If they are deemed worthy of it by the By. By the patriarchal figure basically of the society. There's lots that we could say about cats, and there's lots that I have said about cats, because in order to combat the recurring propaganda message there, I'll say it, that Cats is a musical that doesn't have a plot or has a nonsensical plot. Some years ago, in a former residence of mine, in the earlier days of my stagey YouTube channel, dressed up as my favorite of the cats since childhood, Mr. Mistoffeles. Insert picture of me doing it as a child. Insert picture of me doing it during 2020. Listen, lockdown was a trying time for us all, and I feel like we all learned things about ourselves. But there is a video here on YouTube which the real ones will remember, in which I semi, drunkenly explain my perspective of the entire plot of Cats. And make no mistake, there is an intricate plot at work here, if you want to see one. And there are antagonists, and there is a whole thing with Grizabella, who longs to return to the fold, but has been shunned for reasons that aren't quite clearly articulated. But it's not just me who reads into all of the relationships and all of the politics and everything that's going on within the Jellicle Cat community, because look at this. This is in the playbill for circus cats and is a proposed family tree which includes, but is not limited to the nine wives of old Deuteronomy, as well as, like, brother sister relationships and. Oh, wow, that's. Oh, jelly lorem Grizabella sisters. Fascinating. Wait, are they both the second wife of old. Oh, no, I see. They are the offspring of the second wife of all Deuteronomy. So Grizabella, old Deuteronomy daughter. That's a hot take. That makes the whole thing at the end kind of seem like nepotism. Anyway, as predicted, we have gone to a strange place. My point of all of this is that Cats is for many people a nostalgic musical. It is for many others, a slightly puzzling musical. The one thing that Cats has always been celebrated for is its movement. And it's a spectacular dance piece, of course, originally choreographed by the iconic late great dame Gillian Lynn. But the one thing that I don't think we talk about nearly enough is what a strong score Cats has in terms of its composition. And it was this long running spectacle and this fascination of tourists before the Mamma Mia. And the Lion King. And obviously Memory is an absolute classic and a staple of musical theatre. There are also terrific songs like Mungo Jerry and Rumpel Teaser, for crying out loud, like Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat. But some of the musical moments in this show, which I find to be the most stirring, the most exciting and remind me how passionately I feel about this material are the instrumental sections. The entirety of the Jellicle Ball, musically, I find so thrilling. You've got, first of all, the section that's like da da da da da da da da da da da D and then every time you hear a modulated version of that, like, coming back, it's so exciting to me. That's before we even talk about, like, the brassy, jazzy brilliance of a song like Macavity and the moment in memory that made it such an iconic song, which is, you know, Grizabella falling down and then Jemima, or whichever cat it is at that performance, singing, like the middle eighth section for her, and then she jumps back up the octave and gives it touch me. Campy iconic for a reason. Basically. You are never going to be able to tell me that Cats is not a good musical. And people look down their human noses at the whiskered noses of Cats the musical. And I think that things are allowed to be abstract, things are allowed to speak to audiences of all ages. And I think that things are allowed to be unashamed celebrations of dance. There are those among us who say, I don't love the usual version of Cats. But I really like these new interpretations that we're seeing. They may have really enjoyed Cats. The Jellicle Ball recently seen Off Broadway. And there are people who said, okay, I'll see Cats, but this is the way that Cats should always be done. And I don't subscribe to that way of thinking, both because I think trad wife Cats, original Cats, is underappreciated and is, to my mind, terrific. But also because Cats, the Jellicle Ball, is not the only way to do it, because look at this brilliance. So having got that unanticipated Cats rant out of my system, I genuinely did not even know that that was bubbling up inside me for so long. Let's talk about circus Cats now. What's very exciting, slash bizarre, in the world of theatrical licensing at the moment, is we are seeing simultaneously multiple productions of Cats with wildly different themes, concepts, and aesthetics. This began, of course, with the Off Broadway Cats, the Jellicle Ball, which is set to perpet a New York return. As of right now, it's unconfirmed whether that's going to be on or off Broadway, but that is Cats with entirely human characters as reconceived in the world of New York ballroom drag culture. There was also Country Cats, which was a version where they were wearing, like, cowboy boots and they had a. Like, a Southern twang in their accent and Mr. Mistoffeles had a gun. There is Cats being staged in a set made to look like an abandoned theme park, like, with roller coasters. And I had been assuming that somebody at LW had just gone, do you know what? Just let them. Let them do whatever they want with Cats. Like, they just flicked a switch or pulled a button. And finally, all of these petitions to do wild reinventions of Cats had suddenly been approved nationwide. I have subsequently heard anecdotally that someone said that they're not actually allowed to do it in the traditional setting, that they have to choose to set it somewhere else. And that feels a little more, because what are the chances you would simultaneously get all of these different productions doing Cats in such different ways? In any case, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, which, from what I gather, has staged Cats before in a more traditional production and is a producing theatre in Illinois in a very charming little community, decided to do circus Cats. Now, for this production, that meant the whole thing was set inside the context of a big top tent, which was realized on stage. It didn't extend particularly out into the auditorium, except for a trapeze, which was very noticeable as we entered into the auditorium. It was conspicuously hanging a few rows into one of the aisles on a wire going right to the back of the circle level. And this conspicuous empty trapeze was gestured to fairly early on in the show. It came to represent something which I will tell you about momentarily. But one of the most brilliant features of this high concept revival reinterpretation of the show was we had an introductory animated slideshow offering credits introducing us to all of the characters in their new circus context. So it was telling you about the magical Mr. Mistoffeles, who lends himself very well to the circus aesthetic. Right. But also various other cats as circus performers. And I can't remember exactly how they were referred to, but we saw basically all of the images of these cats and all of their cat names, as well as their title within the circus. And you had acrobats and jugglers and clowns and that sort of thing, as well as Grizabella, who was the trapeze artist with a big sort of crossout animation that was like, no longer appearing at this circus. So already, where usual productions of cats have given us nothing by this point, aside from perhaps a couple of people starting to crawl on stage and a lot of the eyes staring at you and the kind of like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do of the text, Any of the lyrics add in dialogue? Of course not. In order to acquaint you with the new context of the production, which is always the biggest challenge of these things when recontextualizing a show to a different setting, to a different aesthetic. Gave you this silent slideshow that did all of that work for them. And so everything was set up. Not only did we understand who these characters were, the world that we were living in, but also a little bit of backstory and context for the outcasting of Grizabella for the role of Macavity in the community. And that is something that I think every other production of Cats should be noting and should be implementing. I think even ballroom cats could benefit from something like that. Now, what I will say, just on the nature of the concept, is that this was a really smart choice because you don't have to all the way bend over backwards to try and restage cats in a circus setting. There was less legwork that needed to happen to take the original version of the show and make it circusy than the Jellicle Ball had to do. Like, they had to more substantially reinvent the aesthetic and the formula and the structure of the show in order to make that work. And in this one they were mostly just, you know, giving it a different set design. It didn't really extend to the costuming particularly. It was far more about the staging, about some of the set pieces and props used, and introducing acrobatic elements alongside the choreography. And there was a real mixture throughout. Let me tell you about the creatives involved here of more traditional Cats esque choreography. Although I will say it wasn't always feeling like strikingly inspired by Gillian Lynn. The one thing that it kept really speaking to for me was it felt very Michael Bennett, actually, which I wasn't mad about whatsoever. But with that a lot of circus tricks happening at the same time as well. And you had a cast, I believe, made up of circus performers as well as musical theater dancers. Oh, here you go. I haven't found the creatives yet, but on the cast list they actually credit simultaneously. Christopher Kelly as dance captain with Hayley Larson as circus captain showing those two ideas working in tandem. Where are the creatives? Gosh darn it. Well, Jim Corty is artistic director of the Paramount Theatre. Oh, here we go. So Trent Stork was the genius who directed this production. They are a Jeff Award winning director based in Aurora. And this is their 26th production on a directing team for Paramount Theatre, which I think is fantastic. Casey Alfonso, meanwhile, was also a creative returning to Paramount as the choreographer and Sylvia Hernandez de Stasi was the circus choreographer. So both of those ideas happening from different people. We also have an illusion consultant, Benjamin Barnes, a fight stunt and intimacy coordinator in Max Fabian. Plenty of other creatives as well in more traditional theatrical roles like scenic designer, sound designer, lighting designer, all doing a great job on this production, it's worth saying. And one of my favorite credits here, Amanda Crockett, clown consultant and associate circus choreographer. And all of that worked really seamlessly. It speaks to, I feel, a really fantastic creative collaboration between these visionary individuals. But it also just works as a concept and intrigued as I would be because of all of these different productions of Cats to see really out there interpretations. Like I want post apocalyptic cats, I want like futuristic cats, I want like jazz age, like speakeasy cats, I want cats on the moon, I want cats in space. I want all of these different. I want superhero cats, I want every notion to be explored. Circus makes more sense with the text and with the material. And if the entire reasoning behind Cats as a musical on stage.
- [17:45]
Instacart Announcer
This summer, Instacart is bringing back your favorites from 1999 with prices from 1999, that means 90s prices on juice pouches that ought to be respected. 90s prices on box Mac and cheese and 90s prices on ham, cheese and cracker lunches. Enjoy all those throwbacks and more at throwback prices only through Instacart. $4.72 maximum discount per $10 of eligible items. Limit one offer per order. Expires September 5th while suppl discount based on CPI comparison.
- [18:19]
Nicole Byer
Hey everybody, it's Nicole Byer here with some hot takes from Wayfair. A cozy corduroy sectional from Wayfair. Um, yeah, that's a hot take. Go on and add it to your cart and take it. A pink glam nightstand from Wayfair. Scalding hot take. Take it before I do. A mid century modern cabinet from Wayfair that doubles as a wine bar. Do I have to say it? It's a hot take take. Get it@wayfair.com and enjoy that free shipping too.
- [18:47]
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- [18:52]
Mickey Jo
Was this dance language created by Gillian Lin that felt, you know, appropriately feline, that was born out of cat like movements. Then adding in an acrobatic and circus element to that and adding in scale and drama feels like a natural extension of that same idea because there's still something very cat like about all of that kind of movement. All of the trapeze stuff and the elegance and athleticism of it is all still very feline. Like, it doesn't feel outlandish, it doesn't feel like a bizarre stretch whatsoever. This feels like a natural continuation of the idea of cats. So let me give you a little bit more of a flavor of how this production worked by explaining a couple of specific concepts that we saw within the show. So already, by the climax of the introductory number, Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats, when there are actually lyrics in there about, like I said, flying through the air on a trapeze, we are already achieving a huge sense of scale on stage, using wires, using suspended hoops, with acrobatics and athleticism alongside dance. And the visual volume of it all is already pretty audacious, and it acquaints the audience with the concept of what this is going to be for the next couple of hours. The challenge is when you then get to the Jellicle Ball, you have to try and top that, right? And you have this huge sweeping moment of music in the Jellicle Ball that demands some sort of huge choreographic sweep to go with it. And this is where you love to see a really smart creative paying attention to the material and sometimes that material doesn't have words. Sometimes that material is just music and. And a feel of what the audience is expecting and what has always been done in that moment combined with the smartness to do something else, to turn it on its head and to know that because you gave us that extraordinary extravaganza of an opening, you could only match it. You can only do the same thing again and give us that same sort of full, dizzying stage picture of all of these performers twirling and flying and flipping over and doing all these different things. And that it would just be a repeat of it. It would still look thrilling, but it. It wouldn't bring it to a new height. So instead you do something visually powerful for its subtlety and for its unison, because they were all in cacophony at the beginning. But there's also something beautiful about the Jellicle Ball bringing them all together. So instead, everyone is holding a balloon and they like, slowly bring them forwards and then eventually thrust them out into the auditorium. And then we are batting the balloons over our heads and kids are playing with them in the interm. Which I think is adorable. It reminded me of the immersive staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, currently returning to the Bridge Theatre in London. And it's one of those brilliant moments that turns a very sedentary audience into a participatory community. But just what they did with that moment of stillness and something spectacular in its subtlety, I thought was so clever. And there were many more moments as well that took my level of expectation and surpassed it and did something completely different. If you, like me, grew up loving the professionally filmed recording of Cats, you may recall the song Mungo Jerry and Rumble Teaser and how it culminates with this double cartwheel where they grab each other around the waist and they're flipping over each other's heads. That's the big finale. And that's what they do at the start of the song in Circus Cats. Like, they're like, this is going to be our entrance. And then it's only going to get crazier from there. And they have throughout the show with these cats, but with others as well, because there were more pairs of cats in this production to do partner work. Various moments, moments where they are hanging off each other and doing things with trapezes and suspension. Which brings us to the conversation about the empty trapeze that I told you about. And Grizabella. This is going to be a spoiler for the since closed production of Circus Cats, but they gestured to it at one point, and Grizabella's not there at the beginning and there's nobody on it and it is lit and it's just sort of a moment of silence and recognition. It is next gestured to when Grizabella returns. Grizabella, played by Emily Rome, who you may be familiar with, deal with of Ride the Cyclone fame. We'll talk more about performances in a little bit. But she is sort of reaching out in a very forlorn way, as Grizabella tends to, up to the empty trapeze that she can no longer reach because Critically, she's not 30ft tall and it's all the way up there. And the subtext of this is that she's no longer a part of the circus. And perhaps she doesn't even think that she can do it anymore. And she's been outcast for whatever reason that they semi explain in the song Grizabella, the Glamour Cat. But practically it's just because the trapeze is halfway along the track and there's no one from stage management willing to lower the thing to help her. That's really what's happening here, if you think about it. In any case, it does not take a genius to work out where we're going with all of this. And when we eventually get to that iconic crescendo in the music, when she's singing Memory rather than simply rising to her feet, it's a bit of a defying gravity moment because she instead sits on the trapeze that has been brought onto the stage, or maybe it's even a separate trapeze, I forget. And she is elephant into the air above the stage as she's singing Touch Me. It's so easy to leave me. What it's not easy to do in that moment is touch her, because suddenly she's flying several feet above their heads. But gosh darn it, if there isn't something about the simplicity of just flying over a stage. And we can see the wise and we know it's a trapeze. And there is no sense of mystery about how this is happening or that it's going to happen at the end of this number. And it is thrilling nonetheless. There's something about the elegance of her being suspended there and going up at that moment in the music that just works, even if we see it coming. And then, wonderfully, when she is selected to go to the Heaviside Layer, she, Mary Poppins is, that is the official verb, to the back of the auditorium, waving at us all as she goes past slowly as they're singing about the Russell Hotel, for reasons that have never once been clear, clear to anybody in the audience, eventually reaching the back of the circle. I thought we were gonna have done with it. No, no. She comes back. Grizabella returns. Cats too. Grizabella's. Well, not Revenge, because presumably she's thrilled. McCavity's revenge, if anything. But not in this production, for reasons I will tell you. Just wait until we get to that section. So Grizabella returns, trapezes slowly back towards the stage, but not as the Grizabella we remember, looking like a younger, hotter Grizabella who's just taken the death becomes her potion and is suddenly, suddenly full of life once more. I have never conceived, even certainly not seen a production of Cats in which we see the new Jellicle Life actually happen before the end of the performance. That is wild and extraordinary and great. Now, I mentioned Macavity. This once again is a spoiler. But I was so shook by this moment. We have to talk about it. And I have to credit here the brilliant individual who is responsible for projection design. That's Paul de Zeal. Because Macavity, after, you know, perpetrating Cat the and taking away all Deuteronomy and then Mistoffeles magics him back, which, like I said, makes a lot of sense in a production where we're already in a circus and it's like illusions and spectacles and all this stuff. McCavity, then there's a big fight. Mcavity is eventually overpowered. What they do in this production is they bully circle Macavity into the center of the stage area. Macavity then goes up on what I believe is a hoop up into the fly space. And I assumed, based on just like the laws of theater, that that was a narrative enough to just kind of banish him from the area of the stage and therefore he's gone. No, no. There is subsequently a harrowing projection on the back wall in which the silhouette of Macavity is implied explicitly to fall out of the top of the tent, presumably to his death, which segues into a semi sorrowful, semi romantic, sort of a tender and quiet moment. And I'm spending the whole of this aghast, with my hands to my face. Not that I'm feeling sympathetic for Macavity. I just didn't see the mob violence coming in Circus Cats or really any production of Cats, if I'm being honest. Not that it's necessarily out of place. You know, he's. He's done a lot of bad things. He's brought a bad name to the community. I just didn't think we were going to get, you know, mob justice. Murder in circus cats. That was not on my bingo card. Now there are a couple more creative elements I want to talk about before we move on. I want to talk about the cost costuming, which it wasn't obviously circusy necessarily. It felt just sort of like non replica, like a different way of realizing cats. There was a little bit of disparity between some of the cat designs, and they were all cool and interesting. I felt like they either needed to be more distinct or to have a little more continuity between them because they were like. It was like there were two or three different schools of thought present on stage in terms of how we were going to realize the. The cat costuming. Izumi Inaba was the costume costume designer. I did respect the fact that occasionally the costumes had to be altered because performers needed certain areas of grip on their limbs in order to do the work with the wires, which was very impressive. I haven't seen a lot of circus in my life, not really since childhood. And magicians and illusionists make me very nervous. I have an irrational fear of magicians, Certainly circus. I'm not. It doesn't scare me. I was definitely awestruck. And I feel like I'm either a fun or an irritating person to sit next to when there's circus skills happening. Because I am a very quiet theater goer, I do not respond audibly at the theatre. Like, even my laugh is basically silent. And I will just, you know, do my nice British clapping at the end when circus things are happening, I have this involuntary response where I will go, oh.
- [28:55]
Nicole Byer
Okay, close your eyes, exhale.
- [28:58]
Mickey Jo
Feel your body relax, and let go.
- [29:01]
Nicole Byer
Of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1, 800 contacts. You guys, they're so fast. Oh, sorry. Namaste.
- [29:16]
Mickey Jo
Hi there.
- [29:17]
Wix Announcer
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- [29:19]
Nicole Byer
Yes, I did, because I found the exact same contacts as my eye doctor prescribes. F1,800 contacts. Here, give me that. Attention, shoppers. Did you know 1,800 contacts has 45 million contacts in stock? Okay, we checked the brakes. Everything looks good. You know, speaking of checking, did you know 1,800contacts triple checks every order? Yeah, they make sure you get exactly what you need when you need it.
- [29:44]
Mickey Jo
1, 800 contacts.
- [29:45]
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- [29:48]
Mickey Jo
You'll want to tell everyone, too.
- [29:50]
Nicole Byer
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Mickey Jo
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- [29:55]
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- [30:28]
Mickey Jo
Or like Ah. And I, I can't stop myself. I get so. I get so wrapped up in the death defying circus stunt. And so, you know, you have to imagine me seeing this production and not only being turned back into a six year old sitting on the carpet of my grandmother's lounge watching Cats on VHS with my sister and you know, dressing up as Mr. Mistoffeles in face Paint, but also watching circus stuff happening as part of Cats and turning into like a fascinated cave person seeing fire for the first time time. That was my experience and a big part of why I loved this so much. Let's finish then, as we always do, by talking about some of these fantastic performance. I did see a couple of brilliant covers on and Cats is a hell of a show to be covering because even to be playing one track is very demanding, especially in a production like this. So shout out out to all of them. Where to even begin with this company? Lorenzo Rush Jr. Vocally as old Deuteronomy. Oh, delicious choices were being made. There were so many little licks and runs, but tasteful, subtle, just little moments in there. In some of the Old Deuteronomy songs, which, you know, it's worth saying are not the most thrilling numbers of the show and can get a little bit repetitive. Lorenzo did a really fantastic job. Of course we have to talk about Emily Rohm as Grizabella. There was one particular vocal choice which I felt was almost a direct tribute to Betty Buckley, who of course was the first actress to play Grizabella on Broadway after Elaine Page originated the role in the West End. I don't know that it was deliberate. I like to think that it was because it sounded so much like something I have listened to Betty Buckley do over and over and over again. And it's the way that she sings Alone like on Alone in the Memory rather than All Alone in the like. There's something about the way that Betty sort of leapt quickly onto Alone and Emily did the same, same thing, but it's worth saying was serving up a vocal masterclass. And if you know Ride the Cyclone, you know that Emily Rome already is an expert in singing in this high and challenging part of her range while suspended over an audience. In fact, I think what she did in Ride the Cyclone, from what I understand, makes just sitting on a trapeze and singing Memory seem like child's play. Or kittens play, perhaps. But she gave us all of the requisite drama and sorrow and eventual jubilation of Grizabella coupled with an astonishing vocal. And that's all that you need to do in that role. And while we're talking about vocals, let's talk about all of them. Donovan Hoffa as the Rum Tum Tugger when making the choice to sing the first section of the Mr. Mistoffelees song up the Octave, I lost my entire mind how thrilling that was. And in the performance of the song the Rum Tum Tum Tugger, it had this sort of like glam rock, Adam Lambert kind of a vibe. It was sensational. I mean, all of these performers did a really fantastic job because the execution of all of the circus stuff and the choreography was just so consistently mind boggling. Some of my particular favorites. Where are you? Mistoffeles Kept catching my eye. Christopher Kelly did a great job. I liked that this production was choreographed, it's worth saying as well, with less strenuous enforcement of the gender binary in the cat world in numbers like Macavity, previously you would have like only the cats identified to be the girl cats doing that number. And from what I could perceive, things were a little bit different in this production and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Cara Brody was terrific as Victoria. Had a wonderful feature dance solo moment. Jean Weigant. I'm so sorry if I'm mispronouncing that name name played Asparagus AKA Gus, as well as Buster for Jones and a character called Peter Buster for Jones. As always, deeply charming and Gus full of pathos and presence. And a particularly brutal ending sung wonderfully by the performer playing Jelly Lorum, who is Alison Sill. I'm not sure that Alison was on at the performance that I saw because like I said, we did have understudies, but it was sung very beautifully. We didn't have the Battle of the Peaks and the Pollicles nor growltiger's last stay in this production. I don't think that we needed it necessarily, but it meant that when we had the phrase at the end when Gus sings and I once played the rumpus cat, I could do it again, I could do it again. Which almost seems to suggest you're about to launch into a flashback or a vision. The fact that we then didn't was brutal. Just like a devastatingly poignant choice as he keeps saying I could do it again, I could play it again. But then he doesn't as his strength sort of seems to fail him. Like I said, I could keep talking about every individual within this company because I think they did such a fantastic job at realizing what I think was a really magical and extraordinary production. I love to see innovation and creativity like this, so it is a huge bravi from me to everyone at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora for their production of Circus Cats. I hope that this may get remounted in the future. It deserves to. And I hope that we see more exciting and inspiring creativity from this them when it comes to other productions that they are producing. If you are even slightly local to the Paramount Theatre, go and check it out. It was a wonderful space to go to. All of the staff were brilliant. The whole theatrical experience was wonderful. You'll be able to see what it was like in a vlog that I am sharing here on YouTube this weekend. But I also hope that we get to see more exciting productions of Cats around the country and around the world in the meantime. Those have been my thoughts about this production and Circus Cats. Thank you so much for listening. If you had the chance to see it or if you were in in it, let us know everything that you thought in the comments section down below. And in the meantime, I hope as always, that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe Packages by Expedia. You were made to be rechargeable. We were made to package flights, hotels and hammocks for less. Expedia Made to Travel Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Love music. We do too. Well, if you ever feel like it's hard to keep up though, don't worry, we're here to help. 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