Max Craven and Nick Davis; Photo: Matthew Murphy

          It's hard to tell if the show has been cast with dancers who sing or singers who dance. Dance and movement are so essential to the success of this piece. However, the singing is superb except for one voice that was almost unbearable, a high-pitched squeak of a voice. John Napier's original scenic design and costume design has been well adapted for this production even if some key elements in my memory are missing, in particular a giant trash can which securely set the show in a city back alley, the perfect locale for this show about a special group of cats who gather annually to celebrate the special status as Jellical cats who gather to send off one of their own to be reborn into a new life (the plot of the show). Along the way we meet and watch celebrated Mungojerrie and Munkustrap (Max Craven and Nick Davis), Asparagus, better known as Gus, the Theater Cat (John Aker Bow), Macavity (Aiden Pressel) and Jennyanydots (Michelle E. Carter), all of whom gave their all and delighted the large audience  assembled for opening night at Proctors. 

Tayler Harris; Photo: Matthew Murphy

        If there are truly principal characters in this musical extravaganza, they are Old Deuteronomy, the cat who rules the day while the others play their roles, and Grizabella, old, decrepit, despised and reviled by the others. She gets to sing the show's only hit song, "Memory," a staple of award shows, elevators and take-out food shops on major city side streets. Made famous by Betty Buckley who originated the role, it has a catch-in-the-throat quality which is haunting and effective. In this current version of the show it is sung at least five times, an old-fashioned method for making sure the audience will remember it. Tayler Harris who plays the role sings the song most effectively and I didn't mind hearing it again and again if she was singing it. Like Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger. . ." there is a prize for singing the best ballad in the best manner and that concept decides the outcome of the cats' ball, or bawl. Harris is a true find; she wins more than just the competition; she wins us also.