MUSICAL THEATER

Phenomenal felines: ‘Cats’ returns to Robinson with new choreography, direction

The cast of "Cats" reaches toward the heavens. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Matthew Murphy)
The cast of "Cats" reaches toward the heavens. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Matthew Murphy)


Aiden Presser says "Cats" was the favorite of his father, growing up in the 1980s, but as a millennial he wasn't exactly familiar with it until he joined the touring company cast last year.

"I truly didn't know much about the show," he admits.

"Cats" will be onstage Friday-Sunday at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall. It was originally scheduled to arrive in May 2020, part of Celebrity Attractions' 2019-20 season, but was postponed because of the covid-19 pandemic.

The show features a cast of cat characters singing Andrew Lloyd Webber's settings to music of poems from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats." An extraordinary tribe of felines gathers on one magical night for its annual ball, at which one cat will undergo a celestial apotheosis.

The North American tour, which wraps June 26 at the Keller Auditorium in Portland, Ore., is based on the 2016 Broadway revival, featuring new sound design, direction and choreography.

  photo  Aiden Presser, who plays princely Plato in the first act, in the second act changes "fur" to become the villainous Macavity in the current tour of "Cats." (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Matthew Murphy)  Presser is playing the feline roles of Plato in Act I and, after a quick change of fur, the villainous Macavity in Act II. He's also the onstage dance captain. Not bad for a performer on his first professional tour — and in one of his first professional performing jobs of any kind.

He graduated from Pace University in New York in May 2021 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in commercial dance and auditioned for the tour shortly thereafter. And while he knew he was under consideration for final casting for awhile, he only found out just before rehearsals started in August that he'd gotten the job.

Plato, he explains, is most prominently visible to audiences as the cat that lifts Victoria during the first-act Jellicle Ball. Otherwise, "He's princely, protective, supportive" and out to please everybody, he adds.

Macavity, "the Mystery Cat," he says, "is almost the polar opposite. He's the super-villain." ("Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity/For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity," as Eliot describes him.)

Changing characters "is a good challenge every night," Presser says, continually enabling him to turn in a performance that "is not robotic."

  photo  Max Craven plays Mungojerrie with Kelly Donah as Rumpleteazer. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Matthew Murphy)  The responsibilities of the dance captain on a dance-heavy show like this one "depend on the day," he explains. "My biggest job is to put up a great show every night." Beyond that, he needs to be on hand if something dance-related goes wrong, and fix it. Otherwise, he needs to be "close to the cast, have an open ear, listen to comments and concerns; to be a role model; to exert a positive energy; and to be somebody to whom [the cast] feels comfortable to come to."

And though the prime responsibility lies with the on-tour choreographer, Presser has a "hand" — or is that a foot? — in getting new cast members up to speed.

"First we teach them the entire show," he says, in a process that also involves learning the spacing and the show's understory.

For example, Nick Davis took on the role of Munkustrap on the tour just last month, "and he and Macavity have a huge fight," Presser explains, so he was directly involved in the educational process.

Neither Macavity nor Plato have solo songs, but of course, it being a musical, the entire company sings at one time or another. So, Presser says, while undoubtedly he was hired primarily for his dancing ability, "of course I can sing and act."

  photo  Tayler Harris plays once glamorous, now bedraggled, Grizabella. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Matthew Murphy)  Determined to have a greater understanding of where the show comes from, he and his on-the-road roommate started a search for a "hard" copy of Eliot's poetry collection.

"I didn't want to just order one from Amazon," he says. "I wanted to find a copy at a local bookstore."

They succeeded, coming up with a copy that had originally been bought, apparently by a husband for his wife, for a 1978 birthday present, and with a hand-written message on the flyleaf.

"That was really cool," he says.

‘Cats’

  • What: Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, settings of poems from T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” A tribe of urban cats gathers for its annual ball, where one of them will be reborn.
  • When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
  • Where: Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway
  • Tickets: $31-$81
  • Information: (501) 244-8800; CelebrityAttractions.com or Ticketmaster.com

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