“Cats” by Copper Studios

Bonington Theatre, Arnold.

“Cats” as we all know is a sung-through musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. It tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Each cat presents itself and explains in song why they should be chosen to enter the Heaviside Layer.

This production has been a year in production and in that year the cast have transformed themselves in many ways. "Cats" is technically quite a difficult show to perform, and especially for youngsters. While they have the elasticity, the choreography is based a lot of the time on balletic movement with plenty of control. From the performance tonight, I think that they have cracked it.

Choreographed by Megan Hindley, who also directed this show, I can tell that she chose exactly the right people for the heavily choreographed parts and played to all of their strengths.

I am going to choose to mention some of my stand out performances from tonight, but let it be known that as an ensemble, they looked wonderful.

Will Horner as Rum Tum Tugger was brilliant, oozing confidence as the feline equivalent of, say, Harry Styles - or whoever the latest pop heart-throb is that the girls swoon over nowadays.

Louis Chadburn as Bustopher Jones really got under the skin of the character. William also played the role of Old Deutronomy, two very different roles. He has a really strong, mature singing voice that I could hear right at the back, even when the mics weren't working! Both William and Louis have "leading male" roles written all over them.

Evan Fretwell is a young man whose future really lies in musical theatre as this boy can dance. As Mr Mistoffolees, he was dressed in a similar way to Michael Jackson, and Evan has that Michael Jackson touch. I noticed the way that he held himself and his armography was excellent. Here is one young man who could be a future Billy Elliott with his poise. I do not know if the two young ladies sat on my row knew him but they went crazy when he took his bows at the end.

I loved the fun that Mungojerrie, played by Ashlei-Mai Domleo and Rumpleteazer, played by Isabella Steets brought to the show. It was a shame that both mics failed half way through their piece, but their dancing was wonderful.

Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, well in her day anyway, was suitably mournful, nay wistful as she sung "Memory" after being scorned by the other cats. Grizabella also played by Isabella Steets

I also loved Gus The Theatre Cat with his reminiscing of his heyday, played brilliantly by Jude Forsey

The soundtrack includes some great songs, “Magical Mr Mistoffolees”, “The Rum Tum Tugger”, “Macavity The Mystery Cat” and of course “Memory”. Musically Directed by Harry Hindley.

There was no mention in the programme of who the Lighting Design was by, but the results were wonderful.

The set was scaled down and where the size of the items in the scrapyard setting are normally larger than the cats, this time they were smaller, but I am nit picking here. I did notice that the props were very good though, especially the food props for Bustopher Jones' section.

The make up was amazing, so much so I had problems matching the young actors to the roles, but then again, the photos of the cast were taken about a year ago and some of these actors have shot up and matured since the photos were taken for the back of the programme.

The costumes were wonderful and varied, showing the many different cat styles, shapes and sizes.

The only thing that let this show down was the sound. There were several issues with the sound. Mics not working, some turned up louder than needed and others not switched on at all, some turned up mid song. There were loud crackles which cut out the mics, but what really bugged me more than any of these issues was that the sound desk was right behind me in a small booth which I really think should have some sort of screening. I could hear the sound operators talking all the while, and not in whispers. I also did not need to know that there were "only two mics muted and they couldn't work it out why the others weren't working". That was fairly obvious. The booth really does need screening off so we couldn't hear them. I say "we" because I was not the only one who noticed this. The lady in the row in front of me also turned around, as did the woman two rows in front of me when we could hear the talking from the booth over what was on stage.

On stage there were some real stars and I hope to see their names in future productions for a long time to come because the talent is out there. When you know the hard work that is put into a show such as this, by every actor on stage and behind the scenes, you really appreciate the blood, sweat and tears and the resulting performance. They should all feel extremely proud.

Now before you try and get tickets for this production, let me stop you right there, because all performances are sold out, unless you wanted to check for cancellations, but I very much doubt that anyone will be giving up their tickets for this show.

“Cats” runs at The Bonington Theatre, Arnold until Saturday evening.