Cats in Manila! :)

The fountains of CCP were on full show last weekend. Cats, the musical, made its way to Manila. It was headlined by none other than the magnificent Lea Salonga and my family got to see the matinee show on Saturday.

The show was incredible! Singing incredibly well is difficult enough as it is, and so is dancing with brilliant technique. It's often quite impressive when people can sing and dance well, but when people can dance and sing at an impossibly high level at the same time, it just blows my mind. Everyone in the cast was really amazing. I especially like how the cast sang "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" in a very muted way. According to the program, since the cats are just meeting the audience for the first time, they are still quite suspicious so singing very quietly, almost as if they were purring, is meant to convey this doubt.

And of course, the production value! The set, the lighting the make-up, and the costumes were all fantastic. It doesn't surprise me that Cats won Tony Awards for costume design and lighting design.

One really cool moment in the show was in the beginning of the second act, during the song "The Moments of Happiness" which has a portion of the song Memory in it. One of the cats actually sings this song with the lyrics translated to Filipino! Normally audiences do not applaud in the middle of song numbers but after this translated verse, we just immediately had to show our appreciation.

Another really cool thing about the show is that about halfway through the intermission, a few cats, in full character and costume, started interacting with the audience. As they were in character even while amidst the crowd, they did not pose for photos, but audience members could walk up to them and take photos. We were able to take a photo of my mom with one of the cats! :)


Of course, for all the Filipinos in the crowd, the highlight was Lea Salonga's rendition of Memory. Or rather, of Memory (Reprise). The tonal quality of Lea's voice along with her amazing technique, phenomenal power, and impeccable control ensured that her rendition of this Andrew Lloyd Webber classic brought the house down. The thunderous applause she got after her performance lasted a while and echoed through the walls of CCP.

I'm really pleased that I have now been able to watch two big musicals in CCP - Miss Saigon (years ago, also with Lea in the cast) and now Cats. My mom bought the tickets several months ago - back in December, I think? - and she managed to get them on a promotional discount so our orchestra tickets were purchased at 30% off. We got really good seats too, right smack in the middle. And it's good she bought them then because I've heard that tickets are sold out and they have in fact extended the run. I hope the success of Cats brings more world-class musicals to the Philippines.

*****

After the show, we had dinner in Sizzling Pepper Steak right next to CCP. If you ever get to visit this restaurant and you still have room for dessert, I suggest that you try the Turtle Cheesecake. It's cheescake which caramel, almonds, and cocoa powder, and it was really good!! Sizzling Pepper Steak doesn't have coffee in its menu, but we were allowed to purchase coffee from Starbucks and bring it inside.