REVIEW: Workshop Theatre's CATS

CATS … finds success with a cast that exhibits unflinching commitment to the task at hand (and they seem to be having a rather good time while they’re doing it).

Workshop Theatre of South Carolina opened their production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS last weekend, starting a three-week run of this show which ran for 18 years on Broadway. As the resident community theatre troupe at Columbia College’s Cottingham Theatre, the Workshop presentation is a special collaboration between Workshop and the Columbia College Dance Education and Dance Studies program - creating a unique opportunity for community actors and dance students to work together. 

Based on T.S. Eliots Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Webber’s CATS has been performed for over 40 years and had a feature film adaptation in 2019. For those reasons, we’ll spare you a synopsis and move right along.  

CATS, under the direction of Julian Deleon, finds success with a cast that exhibits unflinching commitment to the task at hand (and they seem to be having a rather good time while they’re doing it). This ensemble, which consists of over 35 performers, hits their marks, are constantly engaged in catlike activities, and ultimately offers an energetic performance that feels dutifully rehearsed.  

Actors Bobby L. Rogers (Munkustrap), Katherine Brown (Bombalurina), Carly Siegel (Demeter) and Blythe Long (Jellylorum) hold the audiences’ hands (read: paws) throughout the production as their characters are charged with introducing us to many of the characters or informing the viewers about the history and traditions of the Jellicle Cats. All four performers have truly lovely voices that are fitting for Webber’s vocal score, and they all lead the proceedings with poise and control that makes the audience feel welcome to their secret society.  

Lisa Baker, as Grizabella, does an admirable job in this production. Baker’s performance of “Memory” satisfies fans of the song due to her powerful vocals and purr-fect tone (sorry, we had to) that throws comforting nods to the Betty Buckley performance we’ve heard countless times over the last four decades.  

The performances of Nathan Jackson (Mungojerrie) and Jessica Roth (Rum Tum Tugger) are also winning moments for this production. Jackson’s Mungojerrie feels incredibly familiar to folks who have experienced the original production of this piece. He’s fun, mischievous, and quite comfortable with his dance duties. Roth’s Rum Tum Tugger deviates from the usual characterization that mixes Tom Jones with glam rockers of the 80s and provides audiences with a Janis Joplin-esque rock-n-roller that is delightful when she takes the show over.  

Without a doubt, Choreographer Erin Bailey was responsible for a larger part of the production than is usual with most musical theatre works. Bailey has created a lot of movement for the cast that allows the trained dancers to wow us when they take the spotlight, and for the “movers” in the cast to look their best throughout most of the production. While some moments aren’t as successful as others, there is a lot of varied movement throughout the production and your eyes don’t get tired seeing a large cast execute it.  

To that end, Emily Jordan (Victoria on March 9th), Katherine Brown (Bombalurina) and Jack Thompson (Mistoffilees) gave us professional performances in regard to dance in the production. They lend Bailey’s work the talent that it desires, and they give longtime CATS fans a glimpse into the choreographic focus with which the show originated.  

Music Director Taylor Dively, in his first time navigating the music for a full-length musical, shows promise in that the vocals of CATS are rather good - especially when regarding the soloists. However, the sound design makes the proceedings uncomfortable at times as the sopranos are too high in the mix - which can make certain moments feel like a caterwaul rather than the good blend coming from stage. On March 9, the band was unfortunately not meeting the cast’s performance level, as the show began with wrong notes on the keyboards, destroying the iconic opening melody. These sorts of accidents occurred often throughout the evening, leaving us hoping that the musicians will realize that they are being paid to be there, and should therefore be just as prepared as the cast who is donating their talent. 

Ultimately, despite the efforts of the cast, this production suffers from a design concept that simply does not work. The show has been promoted as “not your mother’s CATS” - and this is truthful advertising. Our mother’s CATS had humans in fully committed feline-wear, and the illusion worked rather well to make such a bizarre concept a Broadway and West End hit. Workshop’s cats have painted noses with headbands or hats that have “cat ears” attached. Our mother’s CATS had fun set pieces that allowed the cast to create a train out of oversized junk pieces laying around the set along with other moments of inventive whimsy. Workshop’s cats had bare bones structures with some castored scaffolding that left us thinking we were watching CATS on a scaled down set of RENT. The show asks for many moments of reveal, surprise, inventiveness and magic that, in this production, were simply absent. We were not tricked into thinking Macavity was in disguise as Old Deuteronomy. We did not believe we had witnessed magic when Mistoffelees motioned for the cast to wheel Old Deuteronomy back on stage when he’s supposed to be miraculously summoned. The same lack-of-illusion applies when Grizabella is wheeled off stage left as she finally ascends to the Heaviside Layer. Where’s the thrilling sleight of hand? The possibility of that felt lost in the first 30 seconds when a crew member, portraying a human in the wrong alley, walked across the stage making it clear the felines were the same scale as he.  

Cast member Harrison Ayer’s bio briefly and aptly reads that Ayer “is a human, acting like a cat dressed like a human.” That’s pretty much what you get with this directorial concept. If it was a big idea that didn’t come to fruition due to the immensity of the project, then it can be forgiven. However, if this production meets the vision of those who created it - then perhaps this CATS shouldn't have been let out of the bag. Doing “different” is welcome, but only when there’s a relatable or inventive perspective that exposes something newly relevant or unexpected about a cherished work.

We always invite patrons to challenge our reactions by taking the time to see the work themselves. Art is entirely subjective, and you may have a very different experience. If you want to see a fully committed cast giving you undeniable energy in tandem with some rather talented dancers that are performing one of the theatre industry’s most successful works, then you should book your tickets to see Workshops’s production of CATS. The show runs through March 23rd at Cottingham Theatre on the campus of Columbia College. You may buy tickets at www.workshoptheatreofsc.com. Also, don’t forget that the theatre is taking donations for animal shelters, so be sure to bring some treats, litter, or toys with you.

REVIEW: A New Realization of a Classic Work -- The Glass Menagerie at Workshop Theatre

Workshop Theatre opened its 56th Season with Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie on Friday, September 15th at Cottingham Theatre at Columbia College.  As this 78-year-old play is frequently included in high school literature curricula and regularly produced at community and professional theatres around the country, it is likely that many audience members have already had an experience with this play. It continues to relevantly examine escapism, unfulfilled desire, and familial responsibility in an old American South that is in conflict with modernity and advancement. Friday’s audience seemed to enjoy the production, leaning into the intended comedy of scripted moments, while also finding levity in moments that seemed absurd to contemporary audiences. For example: one of the biggest laughs came when a character decided to put a newspaper on top of a rug in order to “catch the drippings” of a candelabra that was being used to combat a blackout. The audience seemed to scream with their laughter: “Somebody call the Fire Marshal! This guy is nuts!”

          A quick recap of the story: The Wingfields live in St. Louis, Missouri. The patriarch has long since abandoned the family, leaving them to fend for themselves. The matriarch, Amanda Wingfield, is an overbearing mother hellbent on refining her modern children and pushing them towards the life she wishes for them. Tom, her son (and the narrator of the play), is the main bread-winner of the family – working a very unsatisfying job at a shoe factory. Amanda is constantly badgering him about pretty much everything. Laura, the daughter, is an incredibly timid young woman who spends most of her time indoors with her phonograph and her animal figurines made of glass (cue title of the play). Amanda obsesses about Laura’s future, and after learning that her daughter’s anxiety has kept her from her typing classes – she insists on Tom finding a gentleman caller for his sister. He says he will, and indeed this former high-school hero, Jim O’Connor, comes to the house for dinner. Go see this production if you are not aware of what happens next. 

          In the first scene of the play, Tom Wingfield, played by Lamont Gleaton, steps onto his “safe place” – the fire escape outside of his home. Here, he tells the audience that what follows is a “memory play,” and that “nothing is real.” Thus, Williams has explicitly told the audience to expect the unexpected, while also freeing a director and production team to dream outside the constraints of slice-of-life realism and engage in the magic, idealism, romanticism and, sometimes, regret that memory can conjure. Workshop’s production, under the direction of Bakari Lebby, intentionally exercised creative freedom with their production rendering a thoughtful dive into the memory-world of the play that truly made this a 21st Century production - with mixed results.

          Workshop’s The Glass Menagerie is performed by an ensemble comprised of Columbia-based actors Lamont Gleaton (Tom Wingfield), Katie Mixon (Amanda Wingfield), Carly Siegel (Laura Wingfield), and Marshall Spann (Jim O’Connor). Contemporary productions of Williams and Arthur Miller plays are being cast more frequently with Actors of Color in the past 20 years here in America – offsetting the decades long practice of casting only white actors to portray the families that these playwrights created. The multiracial casting of Workshop’s Menagerie invites the audience to engage in a different kind of discomfort when witnessing Amanda Wingfield’s talon-tight grip on the old Southern way of life. When insisting she clean the table after a meal in Scene II, Amanda uses a racial epithet to describe her domestic services to the family – something that creates a unique tension on stage and in the audience as a white mother says this to her non-white children. The casting also begs more questioning of Amanda’s southern-fried prejudices within the context of her relationship to her now-absent husband. These questions provide good fodder for post-show conversation, but do not overshadow the author’s original intent during the performance – which focuses more on universal and poetic themes.

          As Tom Wingfield, Lamont Gleaton was taxed with a large order to play an iconic character from the American canon. Having wowed audiences this time last year with his portrayal of Lola in Workshop’s Kinky Boots, this seems to be Gleaton’s first foray into non-musical theatre. He shines in scenes with other actors – letting his cool-heeled naturalism serve the play throughout. He particularly brought control to a scene where he returns home drunk from “going to the movies” – realistically exhibiting a man on a bender who is returning home to live a lie.  Gleaton does seem to struggle with inviting the audience into the poetic monologues that connect the scenes all evening. Gleaton might gain more command as the production continues if he realizes that this story is Tom’s to tell.

          Katie Mixon in the role of Amanda Wingfield was an audience favorite – she confidently commanded the stage as her character created most of the conflict in the play. Her portrayal was theatrical, outrageously comedic – and the audience rewarded it with laughter. However, this choice makes it seem that Amanda is not only in a different world in her head – it feels as if she is in a different play. Gone is the brutality and seething criticism that the character garners on the page, leaving the stakes low for Tom’s need for exodus and freedom, and completely eradicating the possible indications that Amanda’s narcissistic abuse exacerbates her daughter’s severe insecurity and anxiety. Still, when Mixon took her final bow – she was met with audience members who were inclined to stand to show their appreciation.

          As Laura Wingfield, Carly Siegel was one of the strongest performers in the production. Siegel emphasizes the affliction of Laura’s anxiety disorder – a condition that, as we understand it today, can be a crippling disability. Though the character is traditionally portrayed with a limp or costumed to wear a leg-brace, this Laura does not. In 2023, we can totally acquiesce to the concept that this character’s timidness and fragility (a trait she sees in her glass figurines) is a product of her own anxiety which is made more severe through her mother’s scrutiny. Seigel beautifully executed the moment in the play when her “gentleman caller” accidentally causes the destruction of one of her beloved glass animals. She grows in the moment right in front of the audience – controlling her response and avoiding a sure panic attack.

          Marshall Spann was a solid choice for the prized gentleman caller, Jim O’Connor, who finally enters the play in Act II. His charming portrayal of the character makes him a magnetic interest for Laura, while also welcoming allure from Amanda (and possibly Tom?). The scene in Act II in which Spann and Siegel are left alone on stage is very rewarding, with both actors creating a welcome tension between the possibilities of the future and their ultimate hopelessness.

          Director Bakari Lebby and the design team present a very thoughtful concept of this memory play – accepting Williams’ scripted invitation to be inventive in creating the world on stage. A painted portrait of the absent father changes over the course of the play, with each following iteration becoming more and more abstract. The Wingfield home is a foundational structure that is faced with reflective material – making the set a literal glass enclosure from which the characters cannot escape. The sound design proffers a delightful mix of period-appropriate jazz that is peppered with contemporary music – drawing modern connections to the story and giving the audience permission to see how moments in the story could feel like “here and now.” Most notably, the media used in the show is instrumental in this production’s presentation of memory. Film clips that were filmed and edited specifically for this production were featured throughout the performance, giving the audience glimpses into the minds of these characters. These inventive and well-produced clips were shown on two TV’s nestled in the on-stage structure.

          Ultimately these production design elements put a unique stamp on Workshop’s production of The Glass Menagerie. One can feel that these elements were intended for a larger presentation. Perhaps more specific lighting and projection mapping on the set could have elevated these elements to a more effective level for the audience. In the end, this production seems like a laboratory or workshop for a future production. Whether it was lack of resources or technical capabilities, this production suffers from a grander vision not being realized. This production should be seen and supported, because there is quite a bit of thought and inventiveness that went into it. The stylized concepts, though they could have been pushed much farther, do present Columbia with a new realization of this classic work. Tennessee Williams continues to prove that he was a skilled auditor of the human condition, and we can still see ourselves in these characters. The Glass Menagerie runs through September 24th at Cottingham Theatre at Columbia College, and you may book tickets at workshoptheatreofsc.com.