Legendary musical 'CATS' returns to The Hanover Theatre for some new memories

It's been over 40 years since the musical "CATS" opened on London's West End. The show has certainly had more than nine lives since then, and the latest U.S. national tour comes to The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts for a six-performance run March 3-6 as part of The Hanover Theatre's Broadway Series.

The musical still has plenty of catnip, judging by way the current tour has been faring.

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"The show's been going well," said Zach Bravo, who plays Run Tum Tugger, the rebellious, lime-light loving cat, and also the ensemble tom kitten Bill Bailey.

"There's great continuity with this. It's been going 40 years," Bravo said. "We've had really great responses from the audiences we've been at."

For Bravo, the "CATS" tour has its own special meaning.

It's his big break — his first national tour and he's playing a leading character.

"I would consider it (that), yeah," he said. "I never had a principal role. I can now say I have it."

With a spirit Rum Tum Tugger could appreciate, Bravo said his ultimate goal is Broadway.

"That's always the dream."

Bravo was speaking on the phone recently from a tour stop in West Palm Beach, Florida. Although "CATS" is heading north to likely colder climes, the show should still be among warm friends. When "CATS" came to The Hanover Theatre in the theater's early days in 2009, it played to sold-out houses.

"CATS" has great singing, dancing and choreography, Bravo said. But given that, he observed that the real key to the show's success is "definitely the writing by T.S. Eliot and Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic composition. If Andrew Lloyd Webber had not been (impressed) by T.S. Eliot's ('Old Possum's Book of Practical) Cats,' there would be no show."

Webber had a lot of playfulness in him — and audacity — when he wrote a musical built around the Anglo-American poet T.S. Eliot's uncharacteristically playful 1939 poetry collection "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" and some other poems. Simply put, Eliot, the author of the grim if true "The Wasteland," loved cats.

Eliot died in 1965, but the popularity of his "Practical Cats" book endured (Groucho Marx did a wonderful reading in London for a benefit performance) along with the serious stuff ("The Wasteland," "Four Quartets") still being taken seriously.

Eliot's poetry cats were not really tied to a thread. For "CATS," director and writer Trevor Nunn helped Webber develop a narrative story through line to connect them.

And so Jellicle cats, as these cats call themselves, gather once a year for a ball (usually depicted as a junk yard), and various characters introduce themselves and tell their stories. Besides Rum Tum Tugger they include Mr. Mistoffelees, Macavity, Jennyanydots, Grizabella and Skimbleshanks.

Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, must choose one of the cats to ascend to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

The show, which is sung through, has plenty of cleverness with the Eliot and Webber combo. Its best and enduringly memorable song, "Memory," was written by Webber with lyrics by Nunn based on poems by Eliot.

The London production ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances, while the Broadway production (as Bravo probably knows) ran for 18 years and 7,485 performances, making "CATS" the longest-running musical in both theater districts for a number of years. "CATS" also won seven Tony awards, including Best Musical. It has since been revived in the West End twice (2014 and '15) and on Broadway once (2016).

There is, however, the matter of the 2019 movie "CATS." Some people speak about the film as if there is something seriously the matter with it.

But not Bravo.

"With film and stage they're obviously two different platforms," he said "I feel it was a really fun movie, but you get a much better sense of what the story is if you see the live stage version."

For the current tour, the stage version has all-new lighting and sound design, and new choreography.

Bravo is from Queens, New York, and while he was always interested in performing, he didn't start thinking in terms of acting and singing until he was in his late teens, he said.

"I had mostly taken dance classes."

He danced his way into LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York City (the "Fame" school). But then in his junior year at LaGuardia, he was cast in "Grease" and it lit a fire. "I knew in my heart, musical theater was my calling."

He graduated from Pace University in New York with a BFA degree in musical theater and was in several university productions including "A Chorus Line," "Jesus Christ Super Star," "The Drowsy Chaperone" and "Sunday in the Park with George." Regional credits have included a phantom in "The Rocky Horror Show," George Banks in "Mary Poppins," and Ren McCormack in "Footloose," all at the Clear Space Theater Company in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Bravo was ready to continue right on, but suddenly there no stage to perform on because of the pandemic.

"It was really tough trying to find things to still create art. There was still work happening but it was remote," he said.

He had watched a videotape of "CATS" at home when he was young and then saw the 2016 revival production. "I was hoping to do a show like this. I thought this would be a fun show to do."

The stakes became a lot higher when he heard about auditions for a pending national tour of the show.

He sent a video audition tape for "CATS" in the summer of 2020.

"In 2021 I got an in-person call-back," he said.

"CATS" went from being possibly a fun show to do to something much more. He was being auditioned for Rum Tum Tugger.

"At the time I had never wanted a job so badly. It's such an iconic role."

When he was cast, "It was a big moment for sure. I was ecstatic. I was just so very happy."

Rum Tum Tugger is the rock star cat (or would-be rock star cat). Bravo said he researched the rock stars of the period Webber was writing "CATS," including Mick Jagger (who Webber has said he was paying homage to) and David Bowie. Elvis and Prince figured into his expanded studies.

Rehearsals were this past August and the show went on the road in September.

"Now that we've gone so far with vaccinations and masks it's very possible to do the arts," Bravo said of doing live in-person theater again.

The tour has been going pretty much without a hitch in that regard.

"We take a lot of care of ourselves," Bravo said. Cast and crew have to do regular testing for COVID.

The "CATS" tour is currently scheduled to run until the end of June, Bravo said.

When it does end, "I might just give myself time to decompress … Be with my dog."

What, no cat?

"I don't have cats in my family," Bravo acknowledged.

That apparently is the case with a lot of the people involved with the "CATS" tour.

"There seems to be a big thing for some of us — we do 'CATS' but most of us have dogs."

Still, hopefully in the not too distant future when he's on Broadway, "CATS" will be a very pleasant memory of an important step along the way.

"Broadway. I'm just going to keep working until I finally get that chance," Bravo said.

'CATS'

When: 7:30 p.m. March 3; 8 p.m. March 4; 2 and 8 p.m. March 5; 1 and 6:30 p.m. March 6. ASL interpretation and Audio Description for "Cats" will be available for the 1 p.m. March 6 performance.

Where: The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester

How much: $39 to $89. (877) 571-7469. www.thehanovertheatre.org

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Legendary "CATS" returns to The Hanover Theatre for some new memories