Wild and wooly costumes one of a kind on ‘Cats’ tour
In the Broadway revival of “Cats,” the actor playing Old Deuteronomy would stay on stage, sitting quite still, throughout the entire intermission. The sage cat is a majestic but hairy old thing — wearing 20 pounds of wool yarn as fur.
For the touring company at the Benedum Center, Downtown, this week, the actor under all that yarn gets a break. Adam Richardson, one of two Carnegie Mellon University graduates in the show (Zachary S. Berger plays Munkustrap), is six weeks into the role. Unlike his Broadway counterpart, Richardson exits, then returns to the stage about 10 minutes before the rest of the feline Jellicle tribe.
The morning after the opening night for “Cats” in Pittsburgh, Mr. Richardson was wearing a casual sweater and seated beside a rack holding his heavy-duty fur, which has been sharing a rack with other costumes. The actor and wardrobe supervisor Michael Turner were deep in the depths of the Benedum Center, showing off some of the outfits that help define each of the show’s characters.
Turner reveals that Richardson wears an ice-pack vest “to regulate his body temperature so the poor thing doesn’t cook.” Stroking the yarn as he speaks, Turner showed spots where he has replaced some strands of wool — this being a coat for a cat, it sheds.
Old Deuteronomy is just one of the characters derived from T. S. Eliot’s poetry book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” memorably given new life in the popular musical by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn.
The cats are experiencing another of their nine lives with the current tour that began as a Broadway revival. It includes exciting new choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, based on the original by Gillian Lynne.
Each kitty in “Cats” has his or her own unique look — except for the twins — and several have two.
Richardson also plays an ensemble cat named Victor, and Dani Goldstein as “The Old Gumbie Cat” Jennyanydots, a seemingly lazy cat by day, transforms by night into a tap-dancing, fringed whirlwind. Goldstein’s gold tap shoes are shining nearby, decorated with 500 multicolored, hand-glued Swarovski crystals on each shoe. (Richardson’s Old Deuteronomy wears wool-covered Nikes.)
The costumes are each a feat of ingenuity. For example, the white cat, Victoria, introduced by Webber and based on his own cat, wears what looks like a simple unitard.
“The unique thing about these unitards is, they are handcrafted in the UK, and they have been for 35 years, under licensing with the Really Useful Group,” Turner says, adding that each unitard costume is hand-painted.
The sleek unitard is a stark contrast in color and bulk to the plush costume of Bustopher Jones, a cat that obviously eats well.
The costume and makeup are part of a unique experience for Richardson, a baritone who holds
a master’s from the Julliard School: This is the first time he has portrayed a “nonhuman” onstage.
“It’s a challenge,” he says, “but it’s definitely a privilege to be in a show as iconic as this and take on that task every day, to uphold the legacy of the show.”
As Old Deuteronomy, Richardson is the cat with the power to change lives, despite the presence of the mysterious Macavity. To tame the looming threat, the Jellicle cats need a little help, and it arrives in the form of Magical Mister Mistoffelees.
“He’s got a lot of sparkle and pizazz,” as Turner puts it, holding the character’s black bolero and pointing out the colorful LED lights among the rhinestones, and the battery and receiver pack in the lining. The lights are triggered by remote control, sparking the high-flying entrance of the tour’s Mistoffelees, the terrifically athletic PJ DiGaetano.
An electronic jacket check is just one of Turner’s many preshow tasks. “It’s just like Christmas lights,” he says. “If one goes out, they all go out.
Audience members in the orchestra seats can get a close-up look at some of the costumes, as the cats often come down the aisles — one reached out and grabbed
Richardson’s arm on opening night.
Also on Tuesday, some patrons (adults and children) got into the act themselves, in catlike face makeup and pointy-earred headbands, creating their own characters. Still others showed some catlike moves, leaping from their seats after Donna Vivino’s powerful rendition of “Memory,” to give her a standing ovation.
“Cats” performances are at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: trustsarts.org.