“The overriding spirit of the revival appears to be the familiar motto: Don’t mess with success...The most significant nod to the intervening decades and changing tastes is the hiring of Andy Blankenbuehler...The felines prance and romp and occasionally hiss at one another as they introduce themselves in songs that provide the show’s greatest allure, as well as its variety. Mr. Lloyd Webber is a musical magpie...The cast for the revival is largely excellent."
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“This was a lost opportunity. Rather than lamely re-creating the original, why not orchestrate the score for acoustic instruments, redo the costumes and dances, and find fresh drama underneath the tacky, dated pageantry? Instead we get a taxidermied pet. If there is heart to the piece, it’s Grizabella, the faded, outcast 'glamour cat.' British crooner Leona Lewis has a big, yearning voice, but even her (heavily amplified) yowling of 'Memory' can’t make the past worth revisiting.”
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“The wan revival at least gets the lighting right...No greater ambition seems to have animated the revival as a whole. Other than Katz’s spectacular lighting, the design and staging are at best equivalent to the original’s, even after decades of adjustments and second thoughts...Seeing it 34 years later, in a Broadway environment that has recently produced the likes of ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Fun Home’, is to experience something milder and less dangerous than it once seemed.”
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“Most of the musical numbers are ballads that describe the appearance and personality of the characters but suggest no particular stage action...Andy Blankenbuehler has brisked up Gillian Lynne’s steps with touches of hip-hoppery, but they’re still dullish...Mr. Napier also designed the cat suits...They held my attention when nothing else did, which was usually...If you loved ‘Cats’ as a child and long to let your memories of ‘Memory’ live again, you certainly won’t be disappointed."
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"Watching the lively yet enervating revival staged by Trevor Nunn, who directed the original 34 years ago, you can’t help but wonder how its first run lasted 18 years. Plotless, repetitive, nonsensical, the ’80s relic quickly turns tiresome enough to make you wish for a catnap. So much energy spent, so little impact...At least the talented litter of hoofers and belters under gobs of makeup and in stretchy, body-hugging catsuits offers some saving grace...'Cats' 2.0—now and whatever."
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“Memories could be fatal to this revival—specifically, the memory of Betty Buckley as Grizabella, singing ‘Memory'...Leona Lewis isn’t in her league. Happily, nothing as catty can be said of the rest of this fabulous revival of the 1981 musical phenom...A corps of brilliant dancers leap with feline agility through every style of dance, from toe-tapping Broadway jazz steps to the classic ballet moves...The genius of the show is in the dancing...The dancers are in perfectly splendid form."
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"Only hardcore fans will be able to spot the differences in this new version...The biggest change is the new choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler...More athletic and stylistically diverse than before, the dancing here is particularly spectacular...Lewis reveals her lack of acting experience with her less than galvanizing Grizabella, but her powerful singing is not to be faulted...Enough time has passed for a new generation of theatergoers to embrace the show."
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"A slavishly faithful revival...'Cats' remains precisely what it always was, a tuneful ball of coiled dancers’ energy and the useful vehicle for a discovery of the wonder of musical theater...The cast assembled for the revival is gangbusters. Andy Blankenbuehler has been recruited to tweak the dances of 'Cats’s' original choreographer, Gillian Lynne. His refinements inject precision and verve...Lewis, for her part, is blessed with power to spare but is emotionally inert."
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