|
|
|
?Cats? Tour to Pounce on Carlsen Center
March 12, 2008
by Taylor Pero
Quick! Which mega-celebrated musical opened at New London Theatre in London?s West End on May 11, 1981, and was such a smash hit that it became the longest-running musical in the history of British theater? I?m talking a 21-year run, folks! And that very same musical has won seven Tony awards and has played in five continents, 26 countries, for over 45,000 performances, with 50 million tickets sold worldwide.
It?s Cats, and it?s coming March 21-23 for four performances at the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College. This is the only official authorized tour in North America, as created by Andrew Lloyd Webber?s original team on Broadway. Tickets are on sale now at the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or go to www.broadway-series.com for more details.
The fickle finger of fate selected my humble self to bring this gargantuan theatrical spectacle to your attention, and who better than me? Like the cast and crew of Cats, I once trod the boards doing musical theater for years. I was a member of The Johnny Mathis Show back when bands of marauding Indians would attack our train cars and fire burning arrows at us. OK, a slight exaggeration there, but performing the same show eight times a week and traveling city to city, town to town, village to village via bus, truck, rickshaw or donkey cart is no easy feat.
Recently I had the good fortune of speaking to two members of the touring company that will be creating sold-out performances at the Carlsen Center.
The first was Cara Michelle Fish. She?s straightforward and outspoken, and has nothing but praise for the experience of playing a cat named Jennyanydots in the national tour of Cats. You?ll recognize her at the performance as the cat who makes her entrance by being rolled out of an oven where she has been napping, her mood turning sour at having been rudely awakened. Fish describes Jennyanydots as ?a kind of bipolar cat who loves to teach cockroaches how to dance at night.? Interesting hobby, eh?
Her description of Cats and its core meaning is well-put: ?The show is about redemption and forgiveness. We see that with the character Grizabella, and her desire to become a part of the tribe once again after taking a sabbatical. The tribe meets once a year to decide who will be selected to live the next nine lives. It isn?t until she sings ?Memory? at the end of the show that they realize they can?t help but forgive her. The beauty of Cats is there is a little something for everyone. There?s every kind of dance, and acrobats combined in an opera ? you name it! It?s a beautiful spectacle to watch, too, with the costumes, lights, and the orchestra.?
Fish describes herself as ?a singer who dances? and credits her voice teacher at Wichita State University, Deborah Baxter, as having the greatest influence on her vocal development.
?I?ve always been a people person,? she says, ?and have never suffered from stage fright. I love the excitement that builds the day before my next performance, knowing I?m going to get to do it again.? She has completed 430 performances, a number that is due to grow to 600 or 700 by the end of the year.
Born and raised in Overland Park, Kan., Fish graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School ? never mind the year. She began training for her career in show business with dance lessons at age 3. That continued until age 9, when she began taking voice lessons and became involved in community performances through the Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park, which lasted for 10 summers. What she remembers most fondly about Kansas is the explicit change of seasons, as well as many long hours spent at Shawnee Mission Park, on the lake or taking long walks along the miles of trails she found so peaceful.
And what comes after Cats for her? She and her guitarist boyfriend are pondering a move to Minneapolis, ?where there?s lots of theater,? she gushes.
Methinks she?ll be doing theater for a long time to come.
The second person I interviewed was someone you won?t see onstage, but his work surely appears there. Tony Ray Hicks? talent and firm control as the show?s wardrobe director will dazzle and amaze you. The costumes are crucial to Cats, and Hicks displayed a winning wit and wicked sense of humor as he spoke to me from Canada about them during our all-too-brief telephone interview. He?s clever, candid and open to any question, which always makes for a good interview. One might think that his current success arrived all too easily to hear him tell it, but I?m sure there were times when his life today was only a far-off dream.
Hicks attributes his love of creative fashion to his late mother, who made all the family clothes on her home sewing machine. He watched her and began helping her, developing the eye, knowledge of fabrics, and obsession for wardrobe that became the foundation for his career. He developed his passion for fashion while working in community theater, where he was soon anointed as full-time costume designer. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater performance from Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduating, Hicks became involved in children?s theater in Philadelphia.
The day before his contract there was to end, he got a call from Dodger Productions to work on A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden in New York. Talk about going to the head of the line! But not exactly. Hicks is a firm believer in making things happen through positive thinking and self-image. In his own words, ?People have dreams for a reason and do what they do for a reason. It?s all aligned in the stars.?
He grew up in a religious home environment with loving and nurturing parents who saw no future in theater. But they changed their minds quickly after seeing his first paycheck and have been supportive ever since, he explained with a laugh.
Hicks gave me the lowdown about the complex costuming of the show. The 75 costume changes require precise timing.
?All characters have a basic cat costume,? Hicks explained, ?and as they evolve into themselves, they have added elements to define them as Chinese cats, pirate cats, shining cats, electrifying cats. Each cat has multiple characteristics, which evolve during the performance.?
What happens if a cast member falls ill?
Hicks says, ?There are nine people who have many jobs to do behind the scenes, and every one of them is trained and ready to jump in as a replacement at a moment?s notice.?
Hicks savors the travel opportunities that his job offers. In the last 12 years, he has found himself in all the provinces of Canada and all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil and Chile.?This month he will add China to his travel roster when he goes to help mount the Asian tour of The Sound of Music.?
The list of stars Hicks has worked with over the years includes such household names as Michael Bolton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Randall, Ben Vereen, Terrence Mann and Emily Skinner.
My final question was, ?How do you deal with the general public?s perception that all men in theater are gay?? His answer was straightforward and tellingly funny. ?I don?t think about it,? he said. ?I just think that people think in stereotypical terms, and when you?re working with wardrobe and wigs they think, ?Oh, well. You know.? ?
I laughed out loud just before the punchline: ?It might as well be one of us chosen ones.?
|
|
|
|
