Great White Way’s ‘Cats’ dazzles Great White North

Shows close every day on Broadway. But one musical had nine lives.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” based on “Old

Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Eliot, spent 18 years on Broadway, finally closing in 2000.

The work tells the story of the Jellicle Cats, who gather once a year against the backdrop of a trash heap for their annual choice, picking one cat to ascend to the Heaviside layer, there to be given the chance to live another life.

“Cats” may have left the Great White Way, but the traveling production presented by Cat’s-Eye LLC came to the University of Maine on Thursday night. It’s just as well that the show was staged inside the Maine Center for the Arts, for its cast of felines was likely to be averse to the soggy conditions outside.

As the evening progressed, the sold-out crowd was introduced to a dazzling variety of Jellicle Cats – a rock-‘n’-roller, a pair of cat burglars and a railroad cat among them – many of whom are candidates for ascension. The narrative is told entirely in song, with a little speak-singing thrown in for good measure.

Unfortunately, some of the lyrics got lost in Hutchins Concert Hall, but, for the most part, the story barreled along. Also, some of the production numbers seemed a little too drawn out.

Still, a standout cast of singers and dancers carried the day. As would be expected, Anne Brummel in the featured role of Grizabella, the faded, tattered glamour cat, stood out, especially in the show-stopping number “Memory.”

Other full-voiced standouts were Erica Sweany as Demeter, Jackie Trippeer as Bombalurina and Martin C. Hurt as the cats’ leader, Old Deuteronomy, and the agile dancer Shane Hall, as Mr. Mistoffelees.

The show had been sold out nearly since it was announced in August, and “Cats” didn’t disappoint. Theatergoers awarded the cast with a standing ovation before treading happily back into the November drizzle, with visions of colorful felines dancing in their heads.