Cats: Mediocre musical phenomenally performed at the Lyric Opera House

Spring has different associations for different people. Some think of budding flowers, chirping birds, love and rebirth. Others anticipate the start of the baseball season and the end of another school year. For me, the spring has always been associated with musicals, those lighthearted comedies performed by countless student groups during April and May. Here, for instance, the Barnstormers are in the middle of a fantastic run of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

To satisfy my early cravings for that perennial spring delight, I recently ventured to Baltimore's Lyric Opera House, only a short distance from Penn Station, to see a traveling production of the Broadway hit Cats. Despite my affinity for musicals, I had never seen Andrew Lloyd Webber's well-known creation; as a result, my impression was a mixture of praise and dislike.

I am, quite frankly, amazed that this musical ever received enough critical acclaim to be able to run for years on Broadway. I know from his other works that Webber has a tendency to be a show horse -- to create grand spectacles out of absolute fluff -- and such was the case with Cats. The story line was practically devoid of plot -- more a catalog of characters for the first act, followed by an entirely predictable ending in the second.

The story is based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, a collection of poems by T.S. Eliot. Basically, a fraternity of stray cats -- the so-called Jellicle Cats -- is introduced one by one in a series of campy numbers. For instance, there's Rum Tum Tugger, a cat's Elvis; Grizabella, a washed-up former beauty; Bustopher Jones, an aristo-cat; Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer, two fun-loving pranksters; and Macavity, the bad-apple of the group.

All of these Jellicle Cats anxiously await the rising of the Jellicle Moon, when their sage leader, Old Deuteronomy, returns to select one cat to be reborn into a new life. The second act is the buildup to his highly-predictable choice in the final number.

The songs were also a little disappointing, though certainly better than the plot. It bothered me that the show was completely devoid of dialogue; the whole story is told through the songs, creating an unnatural, disjointed performance. Perhaps my dissatisfaction was to be expected. I'm much more Chicago than Oklahoma -- I prefer the jazzy, sexed-up numbers to old-fashioned ballads. While jazzier numbers like "Macavity" and "The Rum Tum Tugger" captured my attention, I was bored by others, such as "The Jellicle Ball" and "The Old Gumbie Cat."

However, freshman Becky Mercado, at her first professional musical, had a different opinion. "I liked how the music tied together the whole story; how it was the whole story. The soloists were awesome -- they had strong voices." Her favorite number was the well-known "Memory," featuring Gretchen Goldsworthy as Grizabella.

It is true that individual performances in Cats were phenomenal. The performance, directed by Richard Stafford, was extremely well-done despite any shortcomings in the original production. All of the actors were quite talented, both as singers and as dancers. In addition to a stellar performance by Goldsworthy, William Hartery delivered a diverse and challenging turn as the old theater cat, Asparagus, his younger self acting as Growltiger in a cat opera and the portly businesscat, Bustopher Jones. As expected, the silent magical Mr. Mistoffelees, played by McCree O'Kelley, was a remarkable dancer.

I would be remiss not to comment on the fantastic dancing and choreography. Because the show relies on the audience accepting that the human actors are in fact cats, it is essential that the dancing be perfected to create the illusion of cats based on their motion. At this task the dancers undoubtedly succeeded.

Said freshman Vicki Nelson, who has studied dance for many years, "The choreography was amazing. Stafford [the choreographer] used and transformed classical ballet training to portray the movements of stray alley cats. The ballet alludes to the quiet grace of cats, while the dancers add tumbling and modern dance to keep the audience from getting caught in the stiff connotations of 'proper' ballet."

A final high point was the staging. The set design, which featured larger-than-life objects to dwarf the actors, was exceedingly clever. Best of all was the makeup and costuming which "animalized" the actors while maintaining the humanity essential for the audience to connect with their characters.

Though I probably would not want to see Cats again if given the opportunity, I left the theater thoroughly convinced that the Lyric Opera House was worth another visit.

Visit http://www.lyricoperahouse.com for a schedule of upcoming musicals and operas. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased by phone at 410-494-2712 or online at http://www.ticketmaster.com.