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Cats - The Musical (Ultimate Edition)

Cats - The Musical (Ultimate Edition)

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CATS now and forever!!!
Review: The musical CATS will forever be one of the true greats of musical theatre. The video is the next best thing to seeing it live. I watch the video so muc, the tape might wear out soon. I HIGHLY reccommend this stunning piece of international theatre. JELLICLES FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Front Row Seat
Review: I had the opportunity to experience "CATS" live in New York before it closed. I will never forget the unbelievable set and effects. This show was truly what Broadway is about. Although not comparable to seeing it live, this dvd is a close as you get! I recommend this ultimate edition to anyone that loves musical theatre. It is a must have!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A First rate performance that deserves better editing
Review: This DVD has been a good world traveling companion. It's nice to fire up a couple of numbers while waiting between flights or during a flight when a full movie would just be too long. The entire cast did a fine job and met the challenge of making the transfer from stage, where you perform the whole show in sequence, to video, where they did small segments over and over. It's too bad that the people responsible for staging weren't more aggressive at continuity checking. Some of the editorial cuts that show continuity errors were probably just for shortening the piece, but some are just bad continuity from one filming of the scene to another. "Mistoffelees" suffers particularly badly, to the point that the continuity glitches are downright distracting. There are also quite a few places where the sound doesn't synch well with the players. Still, the music, choreography, makeup, and the acting are very good, and, it least for me, I've really enjoyed watching the background action more after several viewings, and the players who weren't the focus of the scene are doing fine business that supports the scene without upstaging the main action. As far as the DVD layout goes, I really feel that the chapter break for "Mistoffelees" is badly mis-set, capturing too much of the Macavity fight. I would also have set the "Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer" break slightly earlier to catch the first laugh and "shh." Regarding "Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer," it is really too bad that the big hack taken out of the middle wasn't put back in for this "ultimate" edition. Jo Gibb and Drew Varley did such a nice job with what you get to see, that I really would like to see the whole number (even if Webber didn't want to alter the cutting of the feature, it could have been included on disc 2 as a deleted scene).. You see a bit of the missing section in the excellent "Making of Cats" documentary on disc 2. The individual interviews on disc 2 are also fascinating and entertaining. The makeup sequence is also nice (it helps that the music sequence used is one of my favorites). .I would have liked to have seen more normal face/stage makeup pictures for the cast, although there are several between the documentary and the makeup sequence. As someone who never got to see "Cats" on stage, I really appreciate this DVD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Now and Forever, Cats is a musical to remember!
Review: This musical is my favorite musical of all. Even though I own the entire Andrew Lloyd Webber Spotlight Collection, I watch Cats more than any of the other three. Ever since I first saw this musical for the first time in person in Minnesota, I have remembered it ever since. If you like good performance or simply love great music and dancing, you should see this muiscal. I give it two big thumbs up. I applaude Andrew Lloyd Webber on this phenominal musical. Cats is an expereince you'll never forget.

Here are the cats that stand out to me in the cast of characters: Rum Tum Tugger (John Partridge):a real styllish, lady cat's man, just look at and listen to him him sing and dance. Munkustrap (Michael Gruber): the leader of the clan and main story teller. Demeter (Aeva May): the most couragous, spirited of all the female cats. Magical Mr. Mistoffelees (Jacob Brent): a real dancer and magician, he brings out all the magic and power of Cats. Macavity (Bryn Walters): the original criminal mystery cat, with all the moves and fire. Bombalurina (Rosemarie Ford): the most leading of the female cats, who's always there in the most exciting of moments. Victoria (Phillida Crowley Smith): the most graceful, royal, exotic and lithe cat on the cast. Cassanrda (Rebecca Parker): the royal, worshiped cat of Egypt.

Oh, and just in case you read my review, Jo Gibb, I send you all my priase and attention. Nice work. You looked so great in your cat suit!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cats the best
Review: it is wonderful absoluteley wonderful with the quality of the sound and the singalong songs and after you get the dvd all you need is the cd which is also amazing. The picture really lets you see the qualkity of everything which is amazing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The More You Watch it the Better it Gets
Review: The first time I saw ''Cats'', I didn't enjoy it that much to be perfectly honest. I had difficulty following the storyline. I decided to give it another try and it was so much better the second time. Now it's a favorite that I hope to own. I have watched it over and over again, and it's absolutely enchanting.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not quite purr-fect
Review: It's easy to knock CATS. Gillian Lynne's choreography consists mainly of repetitive kicks and leaps, with the occasional backflip; Lloyd-Webber's eclectic score rarely rises above mediocrity, with the exception of the deservedly-famous "Memory"; and, of course, there's no story to speak of. Nevertheless, CATS rapidly established the taste for big-budget spectaculars that came to characterize the Broadway musical in the 1980s and 1990s, and as such does hold an important place in theatrical history. CATS' innovative scenic and costume designs were genuinely pathbreaking twenty-odd years ago; as critic Ken Mandelbaum observed around the time the Broadway production closed, to see CATS when it first opened was to see something truly new.

However, this video does not quite merit defense on its own terms. In essence, it replicates the theatrical version, combining the American choreography with the British cast of characters. Filmed without an audience and lip-synched, the show loses most of its vibrancy. The applause breaks hang awkwardly with no applause to be heard. Several numbers, including the long "Jellicle Ball" sequence and "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer," have been drastically edited; "Growltiger's Last Stand" disappears altogether. And the casting, too, is problematic. There are good performances from Ken Page (Old Deuteronomy), Elaine Paige (Grizabella), and Michael Gruber (Munkustrap), but John Partridge is an obnoxious Rum Tum Tugger and Jacob Brent, while cute, on camera possesses neither the star-quality ballet technique nor the charisma to carry off Mr. Mistoffelees--which is no doubt why his dance solo (usually the evening's most interesting choreography) has been abruptly truncated. While those who are fond of the show will probably want to have this DVD, overall it doesn't do CATS much of a favor.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too long!
Review: The whole thing could have been boiled down to less than an hour! Boring watching the cat-people prance and dance after awhile.

I had to turn on captions so I could understand any of the songs.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Kitty cats gone bad :(
Review: What I don't like about Cats:

-There is no storyline
-You must turn the captions on to understand the actors
-The same backdrop and scenery are displayed for the entire play
-Spandex + fake fur + people pretending to be cats = ugly and wierd
-Too much dancing
-Reviews say some scenes "might be skipped if kids are watching" which means it's just plain inappropriate
-Just plain old dumb

Yes, I know, you Cats fans will hate me for saying all of these things. Sorry people. I don't mind if you say my review wasn't helpful.

What I do like about Cats:

-Okay voices
-Some good music
-Some of the backstage tape

I think the reason it's so bad is because it's on tape, they dubbed almost everything and do so many stupid closeups. It's fine just zooming up on a person every once in a while, but they don't have to zoom in on people's rear ends. They should of had more shots of the whole theater. I've never seen the actual play, maybe it's better than this horrible misfourtune.

If the play is better than this, I feel sorry for Andrew Lloyd Webber. The tape ruins the production.
So do whatever you want, if you think it'll be good, get it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cats rule
Review: this is probley one of my favs both acts are great act 2 is a touch sad it made me cry but its a great dvd


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