@lionturtles replied to your post “Okay fun story: yesterday after walking out of Cats at intermission I...”
yOU WALKED OUT OF CATS AT INTERMISSION?!?!??!?!
Let me tell you about how this big budget, “sold out in London” production of Cats used said budget to fuck up.
The biggest issue was how the orchestra was extremely overmicced. The only time my seat wasn’t vibrating was the really quiet, soft numbers, like the Moonlight one.
But, and here’s the kicker, not only was the orchestra overmicced in general, it was also overmicced in relation to the actors. There were a few actors whose mics managed to make them heard, but for the most part the orchestra was drowning out the the damn actors. I literally could not understand them, and could also feel myself going deaf.
They also went balls-to-the-walls with the lighting, blinding the damn audience multiple times. I get the artistic intent, but blinding your damn audience is never a good idea, especially in a show that’s already very visually-oriented like Cats, and especially if you can’t understand the actors and the visual element is all you have left. They had an absolutely gorgeous, incredible set too that could be appreciated just fine with minimal lighting effects, but they were dead set on using bright flashing lights all the damn time. This is a musical, not a light show.
I genuinely felt like the actors were secondary to the spectacle, which I’m sure you agree is completely ass-backwards. So I walked out at intermission. I’ve seen one other big budget production, which was Wicked on Broadway, and both of them JDHS could blow out of the water on a shoestring. Even if you discount Les Mis, which was honestly the greatest production of anything I’ve ever seen, our old damn high school is still better than the pros in my opinion.
