Musical review: Cats
Cats – The Musical pounces back onto an Adelaide stage for its 40th anniversary, reminding us of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline ability to ensnare and delight.
The lights dim at Her Majesty’s Theatre, the stage cluttered with enormous pieces of rubbish – battered tin cans, old newspapers, car tyres and bike wheels – a world resized to the scale of a cat. Glowing eyes blink in the shadows, and from the stage’s nooks and crannies, cats slink onto the stage. As the opening bars of the famous ‘Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats’ burst from the hidden orchestra pit we are transported into one of musical theatre’s strangest yet most enduring spectacles.
Directed by Trevor Nunn, the 2025 Australian revival of Cats, brought back to the stage by Cameron MacIntosh and The Really Useful Theatre, is less a reinvention than a celebration. Four decades after it first electrified audiences in 1985 (this reviewer included) the show still captivates.
This musical has always been a curious hybrid – not so much a conventional, narrative-driven story as a pageant of musical vignettes based around the delightful poems of T.S Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939) famously embedded within Andrew Llyod Webber’s score. The music is similarly a medley of styles. Soaring choruses and ballads butt up against jazz and rock numbers. It’s this eclectic sound, paired with visual spectacle that explains why Andrew Llyod Webber remains one of the most wildly popular composers of this era.
At the heart of this eccentric musical is the Jellicle Ball, an annual gathering under a full moon where a tribe of cats tell their individual stories and compete for recognition, with the prize being ascent to a new life in the Heaviside Layer.
The creative team behind this production has chosen not to overhaul the material in favour of polishing it to a new sheen. This is a commemorative event – the oversized rubbish heap, the distinctive makeup and costumes, everything closely resembles the original staging. Even the choreography is still deeply rooted in Gillian Lynne’s physical vocabulary. This honouring of the show’s DNA is more than a blast of nostalgia. It’s a time-capsule, allowing today’s audience a faithful reproduction of the energy and theatrical craft that made this show legendary back in the mid-eighties.
Several performances stand out. Gabriyel Thomas delivers a powerhouse Grizabella, her final, soaring rendition of ‘Memory’ raising hairs on arms. Mark Vincent brings an operatic depth to Old Deuteronomy and Des Flanagan’s Elvis-like swagger to his strutting Rum Tum Tugger is hilarious. Todd McKenney, veteran of the Australian stage, charms in dual roles: the dapper Bustopher Jones and wistful Asparagus the Theatre Cat, bringing a delightful balance of humour and poignancy to both.
The ensemble work is breathtaking. This choreography demands athleticism and the cast delivers – their lithe, feline agility and powerful voices pay heartfelt tribute to the electrifying stage presence of the original.
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Conducted by Paul White, the brilliant live orchestra is tucked out of sight beneath the stage, powering the performance like a V8 engine under the hood. Hearing the familiar strains of Skimbleshanks (Tom Davis), Jennyanydots (Leigh Archer), Mr. Mistoffelees (Xavier Pellin) and Macavity (Edward Smith) as these iconic characters cavort across the stage, it was impossible remain unimpressed by the enduring power of this score.
Despite how deeply the costumes, staging and music of this legendary production have become embedded in our collective memory, it is testament to Llyod Webber’s knack for melding unforgettable melodies with spectacle to explain how long this musical’s appeal has remained undimmed. Mixing powerhouse vocals, lithe, energetic dance and a healthy dose of nostalgia, this whimsical spectacular may have lost the shock of the new it held back in 1985, but four decades on it still has the power to captivate.
This musical has always been divisive. To some, it’s nonsensical – a weird parade of poems set to music with little connective tissue. But to others it’s a celebration of one of humanity’s most beloved species – a stage show that only makes sense to those attuned to feline eccentricities and their resistance to being fully known. And that’s the secret of this musical’s enduring charm – embracing eccentricity and allowing yourself to be swept away by the mysterious power of this strange and nostalgic piece of musical theatre history.
Cats continues at Her Majesty’s Theatre until October 12