Feb. 22, 2012 - Issue #853: Folkways
Cats
"I learned the show in a week, and on my seventh day, I was on stage. That was my first experience," Wilcott explains, on the phone from what's now his second, and inaugural full tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's beloved family musical.
Like many, he first saw the musical as a child, and something about seeing 22 different people-as-cats running through the events of the Jellicle night resonated with him. And now, on his second run through the character as part of the show, Wilcott notes that getting a second chance to go through the full rehearsal process has given him the opportunity to dig deeper into the species specifics of Mistoffelees.
"We have rehearsals just to work on being cats—not your cat, or your dance moves or your singing," he says. "Just specifically on how to act like a cat, how to react to things like a cat. It was great to experience that this time around."
The feline mannerisms, he notes, are some that have followed the cast into their everyday lives: coughing up hairballs and tensing up in the chest when spooked are difficult to shed byproducts of embodying one of TS Eliot's practical cats on stage every evening. Still, Wilcott notes that it's that level of feline specificity is what that makes or breaks a production.
"I think those little extra things, about felininty and being catlike, are what makes the difference with a great production of Cats and a medicore production of Cats. So I'm glad we focus on it on tour. I think it makes a huge difference."
Until Sun, Feb 26
(8 pm; matinees at 2pm)
Directed by Trevor Nunn
Jubilee Auditorium, $35 – $93 vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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