During the 1st week of august, a few colleagues and myself decided to watch CATS, the musical for our girl bonding activity. We went ahead & bought the cheapest tickets which cost us Php772 each. A week before our scheduled gimik, I posted on my facebook wall that we will be watching the musical play at the CCP. Some of our friends advised us to wear something nice as we might come out as underdressed.
With that advice, we decided that we should all wear a black dress. Last August 4, we actually did as planned. Since the show was at 8pm, we had to change clothes at the office before we left. Everyone was like, where are you all going? hahaha!
The place was jampacked. The musical was really successful, they even extended to this sunday, August 22, 2010. I can’t say that it’s a must-watch because honestly, I wasn’t impressed. I felt a lil lost with the storyline. I didn’t do any research before going in the theater. Based on my personal assessment, the ff. are the reason why:
- we were seated at the last row
- we couldn’t see the faces of the performers at all, even with the Php50 binocular that CCP sold us.
- we couldn’t understand the words well. I’m not sure if it’s the audio or what.
Don’t get me wrong, the performers were SUPERB! I totally admire them for their talent. I think the story is a bit weak or too simple. Or maybe, it was really my fault. I should have researched first before I watched 😛
Anyhow, for those who will be watching from today till sunday, here is the plot based on my research after watching the show. CATS is based from the book, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Elliot. Basically in a junkyard, the cats are auditioning to be chosen by Old Deuteronomy to travel to Heavyside Lair & to be reborn. In the end, Grizabella (played by Lea Salonga) was chosen.
Despite my poor rating for the musical, this shouldn’t discourage many of you to go out and see it for yourself. CATS is a definite must see for those who enjoy plays and musicals in general. It’s a legend in the musical industry, the show is long running, and has even been performed in 20 other languages. And for fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber, you should also be excited about this show too since he’s the original composer to this musical. This musical is one with a lot of history and awards to back up its continued popularity. However, plays and musicals, and this storyline in particular isn’t suited for everyone.
But I believe a lot of Filipinos watched CATS, the musical to catch Lea Salonga on stage. The highlight of the play was when Lea sang the song, Memory. For me though, I really loved when the whole cast sang a tagalog version of the song! Wayyy cool!
To be part of such a historic musical, I think you should at least see this once in your life. Who knows, you may like it more than I did!
My advice for those who are planning to watch is don’t expect a heavy storyline. CATS was mainly based on poems/short stories so just sit & relax, enjoy the music & the dances and you’ll go home happy and satisfied.
Lastly, they were selling CATS souvenirs & stuff but I must say they are expensive! The bracelet shown below actually cost Php1,000! Yaiks! Must be worth collecting.
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CATS Now & Forever
July 24 to August 22, 2010
TicketWorld
(02) 891-9999
my friends watched the show in beijing and most of my filipino friends were impressed and that was without a lea salonga in stage.. but they say that lea salonga was a marketing move to draw audiences for the filipino production, my friend bought the 12K per ticket price, and she ended up super not satisfied because of the poor audio and weak story as what you have written. 🙁
awww… 🙁 12k is too expensive considering now that they’re selling it at a discount… wahh.. we actually felt that good thing we bought the cheapest tickets. but then again, I’m thinking that it might be because of it that we didn’t get to appreciate the play so much.
the production would have been better with a live orchestra.