Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot.
40 years on since their first musical appearance, the Jellicle Cats still shine brightly
Reviewed by Chanele Mao
Theatre Royal, Sydney
From June 2025 in Sydney, then on tour around Australia (Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane).
Tickets: https://catsthemusical.com.au/#tickets
Type: Musical, Dance Theatre, Fantasy
If you liked: Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Starlight Express
Forty years since its London premiere, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS returns to Australian stages with purrfect poise and feline flair. In only its third major Australian outing – following seasons in 1985 and 2016 – this 2025 anniversary production proves the Jellicle Ball hasn’t lost a whisker of its magic.
The overture alone sets the tone. A hushed auditorium pierced by blinking lights and a haunting, minor-key melody, evoking the eerie curiosity of cats peering through the night. It’s an electrifying start, drawing us into a junkyard world that feels at once otherworldly and oddly familiar.
At its heart, CATS is a spectacle of transformation. The ensemble cast – humans masquerading as prowling and preening cats – commit fully to their feline alter-egos, scratching, leaping, and slinking with athletic abandon. It’s as much a tribute to dance as it is to musical theatre.
The story is famously simple: once a year, the Jellicle cats gather to choose one among them by their leader, Old Deuteronomy (Mark Vincent) to ascend to the Heaviside Layer – a metaphysical realm akin to feline heaven and be reborn. While the plot is skeletal, the spectacle is the soul of the show. And what a spectacle it is!
The Jellicle Ball, the show’s centrepiece, dazzles with its intricate choreography and animalistic precision. But the standout of the night is Axel Alvarez as the magical Mister Mistoffelees. With a background from the Paris Opera ballet, Alvarez delivers pirouettes so fluid and prances so precise, they seem to defy gravity. His magical performance spellbound the audience.
This is a world-class production, underscored by cohesive ensemble work and top-tier stagecraft.
What makes CATS enduringly fascinating is its rich tapestry of characters – each cat a product of their environment or upbringing. There’s Bustopher Jones, the rotund and regal ‘fat cat’ of St James Street, brought to life by theatre royalty, Todd McKenney. And then there’s Grizabella, the dirty ‘Glamour Cat’, played by Gabriyel Thomas, whose rendition of “Memory” is so hauntingly beautiful it sends shivers down the spine.
Vocally, the cast delivers with impressive consistency, navigating Webber’s whimsical and often complex score. “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” is infectious and gleefully odd, reminding us that this is a musical not afraid to embrace the strange.
This is a world-class production, underscored by cohesive ensemble work and top-tier stagecraft. The midnight junkyard set – timeless and cleverly detailed, anchors the fantastical tone, while the lighting design (original lighting by David Hersey, here designed by Howard Eaton) adds shimmer and shadow, capturing the mystery of moonlit alleyways.
If you’re drawn to virtuosic dance, playful music, and the peculiar poetry of T.S. Eliot’s feline universe, this is your invitation. CATS remains an irresistible curiosity – a musical that shouldn’t work, but somehow always does. Run, leap, or prowlingly sneak – just don’t miss it!
Theatre Thought: Being and ode to both worlds of dance and musical theatre, which side of CATS feline fan fence do you sit?
CATS is touring nationally across Australia from June in 2025 – 2026.
JOHN FROST and DAVID IAN for Crossroads Live present the CAMERON MACKINTOSH and THE REALLY USEFUL THEATRE Production of CATS
MUSIC BY ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER.
Make Up Designed by JOHN NAPIER
Make Up Development by KAREN DAWSON
Gumbie Cat Tap Choreography BILL DEAMER
Sound Designer GREG PINK
Lighting Designer HOWARD EATON
Musical Supervisor PETER MCCARTHY
Associate Director and Choreographer for Australia CHRISSIE CARTWRIGHT
Orchestrations by DAVID CULLEN and ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
Original Lighting Design by DAVID HERSEY
Design by JOHN NAPIER
Choreographer and Associate Director GILLIAN LYNNE
Directed by TREVOR NUNN
