HARTFORD’S BUSHNELL WELCOMING “CATS THE MUSICAL” UNTIL FEBRUARY 3

Feline lovers, rejoice, for a whole community of cats is coming to town.  The Andrew Lloyd Webber national tour of  ” Cats The Musical” will be prowling and preening its way into the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts until Sunday, February 3 and it is the purr-fect family entertainment. Inspired by the poetry of T. S. Eliot, in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, it has been a critical hit since it opened in the West End of London in 1982. 

“Cats” tells the story of a collection of cats, the Jellicles, and the one night they decide which of their membership will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and return to a new life.  With intriguing names like Grizabella, Mr. Mistoffelees, Rum Tug Tugger, Old Deuteronomy, Jennyanydots, Mungojerrie, Macavity and Rumpeteazer, these tabbies and tigers possess elaborate furry feline costumes and remarkable cat make up.

The alpha male of the tribe, Munkustrap, serves as narrator, expressing his hope that Old Deuteronomy will appear and choose his successor, to be reborn.  The cats become busy dancing, sensuously and sinuously, in a myriad of musical styles, as they teach mice and cockroaches to be better behaved, perform mischievous acts of burglary, put on a play about a pirate, drive a train, kidnap Old Deuteronomy, introduce a magician and his tricks, and select the favored Jellicle to enjoy reincarnation.

This sung and danced musical features such numbers as “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats,”  “The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball,” “Grizabella: The Glamour Cat,” “The Moments of Happiness,” “Gus: The Theatre Cat,” “Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat” and the most famous of the songs, “Memory.”  Webber is busy assembling a cast for a film adaptation to be released at the end of 2019.

For tickets ($23-128), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Grab a tail to hear the tale of strays to sheltered and pampered pets as they attempt to entice their wise leader to select one of them to be reborn.  Decide for yourself if Andrew Lloyd Webber was justified in taking out a second mortgage on his home to finance “Cats” all those years ago in 1982.