Young cast brings an energetic ‘Cats’ to Everett

Published 3:08 pm Thursday, March 25, 2010

In learning how to think, move and act like a cat, there’s a fine line between artistry and coming off as cartoonish.

An authority on this topic is Cara Cooley, who plays the flirtatious cat Bombalurina in the Broadway musical “Cats,” opening Wednesday at Comcast Arena.

“You try not to become a caricature,” Cooley said. “There is a danger of that.”

How did Cooley avoid that trap? A intense rehearsal process helped, along with the guidance of choreographer Gillian Lynn.

“Once you are finally in rehearsal clothes, you put on your makeup and wig and then you become completely a cat,” Cooley said. “It’s very natural.”

The dancers in this company of “Cats” are good enough that they are the only national touring company sanctioned by “Cats” creator and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The cast is, by and large, a group of young dancers who bring a lot of energy to the show.

“We have a really strong sense of a tribe in the sense that we bring something every single night and I think that’s rare,” Cooley, 25, said.

Webber’s musical is based on T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” It’s a story about a tribe of cats celebrating at the Jellicle Ball, where one cat will be is picked to go to the Heaviside Layer and a new life.

This national tour of “Cats,” with the original direction by Trevor Nunn, features its original score, which includes “Memory,” along with “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats,” “Grizabella: The Glamour Cat” and “Mr. Mistoffelees.”

“Cats” won seven Tony awards, including best musical, in 1983.

Cooley, who spoke while traveling, said the show has been around long enough to draw a new generation of patrons, a younger crowd often accompanied by their parents.

“Then you just see lots of families with little girls whose faces are painted and you can tell it’s the first time,” said Cooley, who is going into her second year with “Cats.”

“It’s a great show and I love to share it with people who have never seen it before.”

Cooley grew up in the Spokane area, where she did lots of community theater. She moved to New York to pursue her musical theater career and said she never saw “Cats” before she got the part.

Cooley, who said she once had a cat named Orange Julius, said she basically learned her feline skills by being free during rehearsals to do what a cat would do.

“To me it’s more like I can’t think about it too much,” Cooley said. “I have to feel it and do it and try to feel it out and make it natural that way.”

Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; goffredo@heraldnet.com.

“Cats”

One show only, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Comcast Arena, 2000 Hewitt Ave., Everett.

Tickets are $30, $40 and $60. Call 866-332-8499 or go to www.comcastarenaeverett.com.