Musical theatre legend Andrew Lloyd Webber told people he bought himself a therapy dog after the trauma of seeing 2019 Hollywood film Cats, based on his groundbreaking 1981 stage musical.
Hopefully he would not be buying another furry, non-feline companion if he had the opportunity to experience Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts’ third-year musical theatre students, accompanied by the WAAPA orchestra, in their Cats production at Geoff Gibbs Theatre until September 14.
The reimagined production has been directed by Crispin Taylor, with musical director Craig Dalton and choreographer Jayne Smeulders, the former WA Ballet principal fresh from spending five weeks in Montreal, where she was invited to restage her 2011 full-length ballet Cinderella with Les Grands Ballets.
There is not a tail or whisker in sight on the cast in their final WAAPA production before graduation, which Smeulders says is for both artistic and budgetary reasons.
“There was a lot of interest from this particular year group to do Cats, but originally Crispin and I weren’t sure if we really wanted to go anywhere near it,” Smeulders recounts.
“The more we thought about it, we realised it could be good to try to do something a bit different and really interpret the text, going back to the original poems and the old Victorian theatre style of everything.
“To do Cats with the tails and the fur and the whiskers, it’s a very expensive outcome to do it well because otherwise it’s going to look like a bad production. So we were like, ‘Let’s not go there’.”
While each character is still very much a cat, Taylor had the idea of making their costumes less cat-like and focusing more on their body movement and speech. The story of one magical night set backstage in a Victorian theatre is inspired by the poetry of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
What has not changed is Webber’s wonderful score from the original production sitting at the musical’s heart, and that is where Smeulders started with her choreography.
“The music has always told me what to do, so I just tried to let go,” she shares.
“I didn’t even watch the original production again. I think Cats was the very first musical I ever saw when it first came to Perth. I have since gone back and had a little look and gone ‘Oh, I’m really happy with what we’re doing’, but I just wanted to go with my own thoughts from the music, so it all does stem straight from music.
“I mean, Cats, you either love it or you hate it. Traditionally, that’s always been everyone’s opinion of Cats. Either you’re a fan or you’re not a fan.
“And it’s traditionally quite weird. I mean, we’ve got the huge Jellicle ball in the middle of it, that hasn’t changed. There’s still a 10-and-a-half-minute dance party right at the end of the first act. I’m interested to see what other people think. We’re proud of what we’ve done, but it is very different.”
Smeulders says the cast of triple threats — with a half/half mix of those who started at WAAPA with a lot of dance training and those who did not — has risen to the challenge, which is part of the joy of teaching.
“I started teaching at the school where I grew up when I was age 12, taking little kids for private lessons and stuff like that, so I’ve always taught, and I do really enjoy teaching,” says Smeulders, who retired from WA Ballet in 2016 after 17 years at the company.
“I’ve been dancing since I was 18 months old and I’ve danced for, you know, 45 years, pretty much non-stop.
“I’ll work with any student who just wants to work hard and these students are really giving their all.
“We’re so lucky at WAAPA to be able to create, too. We say this to the students as well, that when they go out into the industry, if they get into a big production, a Disney production or another production that’s already running, you’ve got a number, you’ve got your spot, you’re not creating anything from scratch. Together we’ve been creating something new and that’s a rare thing.
“Creating a new show is always an honour and to be able to try something different and ask them to be really open and giving, they’ve embraced all of that.”