Admission of guilty pleasure time: I enjoyed CATS. I have the soundtrack recording, and listen to it on occasion. We bought the DVD and my 5 yr old daughter has watched it repeatedly. She’s now 8, and still likes it.
It’s hard to explain the appeal of the show. I hate most of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s stuff, and consider him to be kind of a hack. The show has little plot. But sometimes a show gets under your skin and you inexplicably enjoy it, and that’s what CATS did to me. I like it, and I can’t explain why. I don’t even like cats all that much.
“Memory” is an absolutely beautiful song. There ends the positive section of my review of CATS. There’s nothing that would be offensive to him but I seriously doubt he’d enjoy it (Memory’s the best thing about it and he’s too young to grasp the emotions- I mean what does he know from memory, he’s 7) and may well try gnawing off his own paws to get out of the theater. He probably won’t be the only self maimed audience member if he’s successful as a good number of husbands and even a wife or two may have beaten him to the lobby.
THE LION KING, on the other hand… the mere hint that you might take him to see it a second time if he’s good will probably guarantee his best behavior well into adolescence. A visually stunning show whether you’re 4 or 94.
I saw Cats when I was 16, was all excited to see it, and then I nearly fell asleep during the first act. Good lord, it dragged on. The second act was a little more engaging. I don’t think there’s anything really inappropriate for kids, but boredom during a supposed entertainment is inappropriate for anyone. Still, he might enjoy it as other posters’ children have, and anything that gives kids a positive impression of theater is OK in my book.
You mean a third time. We’ve already seen it twice. London and San Francisco. We actually would have gone a third time when it was here in Sac, but were out of town/very busy during it’s brief run here. And yes, it does serve to keep him in line. We will be seeing it, yet again, the next time we are where it’s playing.
Well, just to let everyone know…honestly, I wasn’t all that keen on seeing cats myself. But I really did want other people’s opinion. Guess I’ll keep my eye out for other plays/musicals that could be considered “kid friendly” without being drivel.
Mildly embarrassed to have enjoyed the show in London when I was in my early teens. There did seem to be quite a bit of rubbing up against audience members, and though there have been complaints (again, involving that dirty rascal Rum Tum Tugger), I doubt there’d be a problem with a small child.
Oddly enough, when we took our daughter who was about six to see it on Broadway, she announced to us on 51st street that she had forgotten her underwear. :eek: We made a quick trip to Saks to get her some.
I think the OP will discover that his son won’t be the youngest kid there. My kids loved it. We saw it in London originally, a couple of times in Philly on a roadshow, and more times than I care to remember on Broadway. We wound up with a box seat once, cool since the dancers crawled right in front of you.
Lack of a plot will hardly matter - it is all the singing, dancing, and costumes, and they thought the tunes pretty catchy.
And I’m not that much of a fan of Sir Andrew. I didn’t much like Phantom, and Starlight Express sucked big time. But Cats is a good children’s show.
I saw Cats a couple of years back when it came to Southampton; I realy liked it and so did my kids, who were then aged about 5 and 7. It isn’t particularly deep and the plot is sketchy at best, but the music and visual elements; the lights, the costumes, the choreography, make it a really nice, engaging piece of entertainment.
Yes, ALW is a hack; yes, the plot is vapid and childish; neither of these facts need stand in the way of entertainment.
If you get a seat at the end of a row near the front of the stalls, you may……be treated to a visit from one of the cats; during one of the songs, at least in the production I saw the actors leave the stage, remaining in character, and interact with the audience a little; sitting on laps and nuzzling up to people
