Post by Martina on Jan 22, 2010 13:48:51 GMT -5
Together with “La Bella e la Bestia” by Stage Entertainment, Cats by the Compagnia della Rancia surely is the musical event of the season: after all it's the first Italian version of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and moreover Cats is one of his most successful works (well, even if it's not my favourite show, 8949 performances in London and 7485 on Broadway should mean something).
So I couldn't miss the chance to see this show, which, unlike many other productions can also count on ads, TV appearances in many shows and which may get a very wide public to see it.
And, to be sincere, the show was better than I expected. Probably I had low expectations, but at the end of the show I had enjoyed myself quite a bit. Obviously there are some differences with the London show (more on that coming), but all in all the results were pretty good.
First of all the differences (which also rank on the negative side
): Compagnia della Rancia got from RUG the permission to use different costumes than the original ones (a fact that caused some irritation among the die-hard fans of the original production). Maison Coveri designed the new ones, and I read some reviews which criticised them. Well, now I can understand why. Away with the second skin 1980's look, the cats now wear wide furry pyjamas which cannot underline the movements of the dancers. There was a yellow cat whose costume really seemed a cheap shapeless training suit. Also Rum Tum Tugger's costume wasn't good IMHO: he looked like the feline copy of Danny Zuko, with a leather jacket and jeans. On the other hand, what I found ok was Grizabella's look. Under her furry coat she had a sort of shiny paillette dress which underlined that she used to be a diva. (for images here's the link then click on galleria)
The choreographies as well were changed, and the new ones designed by Daniel Erzalow. I am not an expert in dance, and usually I don't care much for the dance aspect of musicals. But in Cats dance is 50% of the story... And you can't change Victoria's Solo dance at the beginning of act one, or leave out the double flips of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer... Even the Jellicle ball seemed a bit strange, when all cats put on a black kimono and started a sort of Japanese dance. Obviously, other choreographies were alright, like Skimbelshanks, who had a shopping cart instead of a train or Mr. Mistoffelees.
On the positive side there was the music side, cast and orchestra: all actors were very good, even though there were no famous names (or probably thanks to that ;D). The only person who had done some TV was the actress doing Grizabella, who had won a talent show some five or six years ago, and has been doing theatre since then.
The Italian texts were adapted by the same translator who did also “Beauty and the beast”, and were very good, faithful to the original but natural to an Italian ear. I liked the text of Memory, but my very favourite was the adaptation of “Gus the theatre cat” and the following Growltiger scene, where Travaglio found very witty solutions for the text.
All in all, this production is probably worth a 3 ½ stars out of five.
And it seems that the Company may release a cd. I'd be interested to get it if it comes out. 
So I couldn't miss the chance to see this show, which, unlike many other productions can also count on ads, TV appearances in many shows and which may get a very wide public to see it.
And, to be sincere, the show was better than I expected. Probably I had low expectations, but at the end of the show I had enjoyed myself quite a bit. Obviously there are some differences with the London show (more on that coming), but all in all the results were pretty good.
First of all the differences (which also rank on the negative side
): Compagnia della Rancia got from RUG the permission to use different costumes than the original ones (a fact that caused some irritation among the die-hard fans of the original production). Maison Coveri designed the new ones, and I read some reviews which criticised them. Well, now I can understand why. Away with the second skin 1980's look, the cats now wear wide furry pyjamas which cannot underline the movements of the dancers. There was a yellow cat whose costume really seemed a cheap shapeless training suit. Also Rum Tum Tugger's costume wasn't good IMHO: he looked like the feline copy of Danny Zuko, with a leather jacket and jeans. On the other hand, what I found ok was Grizabella's look. Under her furry coat she had a sort of shiny paillette dress which underlined that she used to be a diva. (for images here's the link then click on galleria)The choreographies as well were changed, and the new ones designed by Daniel Erzalow. I am not an expert in dance, and usually I don't care much for the dance aspect of musicals. But in Cats dance is 50% of the story... And you can't change Victoria's Solo dance at the beginning of act one, or leave out the double flips of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer... Even the Jellicle ball seemed a bit strange, when all cats put on a black kimono and started a sort of Japanese dance. Obviously, other choreographies were alright, like Skimbelshanks, who had a shopping cart instead of a train or Mr. Mistoffelees.
On the positive side there was the music side, cast and orchestra: all actors were very good, even though there were no famous names (or probably thanks to that ;D). The only person who had done some TV was the actress doing Grizabella, who had won a talent show some five or six years ago, and has been doing theatre since then.
The Italian texts were adapted by the same translator who did also “Beauty and the beast”, and were very good, faithful to the original but natural to an Italian ear. I liked the text of Memory, but my very favourite was the adaptation of “Gus the theatre cat” and the following Growltiger scene, where Travaglio found very witty solutions for the text.
All in all, this production is probably worth a 3 ½ stars out of five.
And it seems that the Company may release a cd. I'd be interested to get it if it comes out. 
