It was as early as 6:00pm when my wife and I left home to get straight to Cultural Center of the Philippines to see the International Tour Cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats Now and Forever. This is the first time that the musical will be played in the Philippines, featuring Lea Salonga as Grizabella. The other casts are mostly Australians who played the musical in other Asia-Pacific countries.
Cats is the first musical that my wife will be seeing and her first in CCP, as well. I was the one who is a fan of musical plays because of my theater experience in high school but it was my wife who really wanted to see Cats... with Lea Salonga on it. She only got influenced in me listening to the London and Broadway Cast Recordings of mostly the popular musical albums, i.e. Miss Saigon, Les Misérablés, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar; among others. She admits that the only song that she knows in this musical is "Memory" and it's even more surprising to her that the origin of the song is in the musical play Cats, which she thought this was just one of the popular songs of Barbra Streisand.
It will take us from our place in Mandaluyong to Roxas Boulevard roughly an hour since it is Saturday, heavy traffic included, so it is the perfect time to listen to the tracks on our way. I played the Cats Original London Cast Recording album in the car, where Grizabella was originally played by Elaine Paige in 1981, to set the mood before seeing the play itself. We reached CCP Complex at around 7pm and we didn't finish the whole album. We still have one more hour left to roam around and take pictures. Our point-and-shoot camera was confiscated as it is not allowed inside the theater. I didn't bother leaving it in the counter. We both have camera phones anyway. :)
The musical play started at exactly 8:00pm. As soon as the lights went off, hundreds of cats eyes are seen everywhere. It was a mesmerizing spectacle to see where jumping, crawling, dancing, creeping and singing cats are seen everywhere in the theater. They all gathered towards the main stage while singing "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats," one of the most popular tracks in the album. The energy was incomparable, their voices are powerful and the dances are very extraordinary.
Audience going to the musical with dearth knowledge of the plot will be dragged to the story wondering what's happening. You might wonder why these cats suddenly all came together and what purpose they might have in attending this gathering. Moreso, you might be puzzled why the cats Jennyanydots, Rum Tum Tugger, Bustopher Jones, Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser started showing off their best performances to an older cat Deuteronomy. And when Lea Salonga came out as the ostracized Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, I hear voices at the back wondering why she was limping as she sings. Duh! That's the role she is portraying. She didn't perform onstage with a leg injury. But when she started singing the first part of "Memory," people held their breaths. It was short and melancholic. And it was the last song in the first cut.
After the intermission, the story went on with "The Moment of Happiness" number where part of the song is an excerpt of "Memory." Much to our surprise when the cat Sillabub suddenly came out singing "Liwanaaaag..." in the Tagalog version of the song (in an Australian accent). It was one of the most applauded part of the show. The showdown of the cats continued and it was followed by Gus the Theater Cat, Skimbleshanks, Macavity and Mr. Mistoffelees. Once more, the production numbers are jaw-dropping and and the musical cuts are breathtaking. The audience are all fixated in the grandiose fashion of the show until Grizabella, again for the second time, came out from the backstage and all cats disappeared one by one, evading her. Lea Salonga started singing the complete version of "Memory" and everyone inside the theater swallowed their tongues, not wanting to make any sound. It was the culmination of the whole show, people gave her a standing ovation and a lengthy deafening applause that the play can't move forward. The story ended when Grizabella was swallowed by the smoke effect of the elevated ramp as the Old Deuteronomy sang his last song "The Addressing of Cats." We went out of the theater still in awe, trying to save all the spectacular scenes we have heard and seen tonight in our memory.
We were supposed to eat dinner at Harbor Square, just across the Cultural Center of the Philippines, but all restaurants are infested with Saturday night clubbers and those who watched Cats. We even agreed to persevere in taking in fastfood just to satisfy our hunger but there are no signs of unoccupied tables where we can eat. I drove down to the nearby streets to chance on any open restaurant but I reached Makati Avenue looking for one. We both ended up in a Chinese Cuisine in A. Venue Mall where we ate like dogs, forgetting that we just saw cats earlier on.
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