1 post tagged “musical”

I was about ten years old when my father and some friends took me to the National Theatre in Washington, DC, to see CATS live. Now, CATS gets a bad rap among musicals, and I never quite understood why. Most seem to perceive it as cheesy, overdone, and mostly without a coherent storyline.

Many music critics are not themselves musicians or performers in any way. What the critics miss in CATS is the magic that any artist can plainly see. As a ten-year-old who had been addicted to dance since the age of 4 on her first viewing of The Nutcracker, I found CATS to be the most mesmerizing of the Broadway musicals. Whatever one thinks of the musical's storyline (and I admit that it is thin, but it's certainly there), there is no way to deny that the choreography of CATS is among the most impressive choreography that this dancer has ever seen. On top of this, the costuming is so brilliantly done (the performers really and truly do look like cats); the combination of these two aspects makes CATS among my favorite musicals.

CATS falls in my top two favorite musicals; the second of those is 1776. This one is not anywhere near as well-known, but it is certainly one of the most cleverly written and the most cleverly choreographed works that I have ever seen. I have to admit that I have not seen this one live - the film version (with William Daniels playing John Adams) is one of the greatest films that I have ever seen. I first saw it as a young girl with my family (we were geeks) and then when I watched it again later as an adult, I realized how much of the humor I had missed entirely as a six-year-old. Just watch the scene in which Martha Jefferson waltzes with Adams and Franklin, or the scene of "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" and you'll see what I mean.