As in the musical and Andrew Lloyd Weber. Which explains several things on the ship including the lack of availability of the theater for anything useful during the day and the tendency to front of the curtain performances at night.
Thinking back, I believe it was around 2000 when we, as a family spent a week or so in London during winter holidays. Besides seeing some of the really touristy places, riding in a London Taxi and hunting for food on the 25th – we went to a performance of Cats! The set was spare, the costumes clean and simple, the music, singing and dancing superb. I wish I had not had that in mind when I stood in line prior to the theater opening this evening.
This performance was….busy… The set was interesting but so intricate and textured that the lighting reflected strangely depending on your seating (second row balcony). And, since it was complex and (I think) set up to resemble a trash heap or back alley – it was distracting rather than performance enhancing. Look at the scenery – what the “h…” is that @ 0200 anyway? kind of discussions. Since the singing varied in both quality and miking – there was a need for distraction. The dancing was by far better than 80% of the vocalists, but there were simply too many on stage to pull off anything that intricate. I don’t remember 21-22 cats (not counting 3 of the main characters). Spare would have been better and showcased the talents.
If I sound a bit irritated, count me in the 300+ who didn’t bother to come back after the intermission. Overall, that isn’t a high number. But the “musical” felt more like a standard ship’s production number than a real musical. In fact – their standard “Come Fly with me” was much better. The Comedians were better – and many of you know that I normally avoid comedians like the plague. The Speakers were better. And their Jazz orchestra is by far better than the poor guy who was the entire musical support on a poorly tuned piano.
Cats? Give it a miss. I’m sorry I didn’t go to the Aqua show instead.
