Cats

In the heart of the city a tribe of cats known as the Jellicles gather yearly to decide which one of their kind will be allowed to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be re-born to a new Jellicle life. Directed by Tom Hooper and based loosely on the writings of T.S. Eliot and the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber this Broadway to screen transformation is the controversial picture that’s raising eyebrows and coughing hairballs along the way. Set with a stellar cast including heavies Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Taylor Swift, Ian McKellen, and Jennifer Hudson just to name a few, the talent factor is high in this production, but sadly, it’s the lack of actual narrative coupled with computer generated costuming, sets, and sometimes movement that makes this recitative nightmare a tempo’d clash of taste and artistic license. And, save for the “hits” of the show including Memory and Macavity, the rest of the music comes across as eye-rolling and flat out bad. This one’s lost in translation, pass. Cats is rated PG.