CATS

You've got to hear this story.

When I was young, my family took a trip to London, where I had the life changing experience of seeing CATS performed by the London Company. I was never so captivated by a performance. It quickly became my favorite (only recently almost-rivaled by Les Miserable, but the two plays are in completely different categories.)

So CATS came to Baltimore last night! Stephan and I had gotten tickets last year to see it, and we set out to get there early. The show was at 8. We ended up walking into the theatre at 7:50, after not a little worry as we skuttled in from the parking lot. We did not want to miss one second of this performance!

We sat down (and our seats were great), and within minutes the house lights went down. They went through the first number (which we called "epeleptic's bane" - a series of strobe lights, colored lights and flashing lights set to music). Then came the actual opening number, where the performers actually come out on stage. They began, and within a minute of starting we all noticed a bright, rhythmic flashing coming from the house walls. At first we thought it was part of the performance - after all, they'd had that seizure inducing number just before this. It seemed strange to me, nonetheless. As a veteran CATS-viewer, it just didnt' seem to fit. I then did what I do on plane rides - "watch the stewardesses", or in other words, the people who should know what's going on. I turned my attention to the performers. They'd know, right? At first they just persisted in their performance (much to their credit). But then they all slowly stopped as we heard the flashing lights start talking to us...

"May I have your attention please - a fire has been detected in the building. Please walk to the nearest exit"

Needless to say the cats all left the stage at this point and people started looking around, confused. The ushers (who aren't any more in the know that we), opened the doors to let people out. I started gathering my things when we heard a voice come over the speaker (the same one who had told us to turn off our cell phones). Voice said that there wasn't a fire, and asked us all to stay seated.

We sat. One of the ushers postulated that that a theatre smoke sensor had been left on. Some of the special effects in the play were haze and smoke, so they had to turn off the theatre sensors for certain performances. A fire marshal had to be on-site to do it though. Luckily, there were two fire marshals at the performance (by law) and did a sweep of the sensors and the building just to make sure there wasn't really a fire. The show resumed within 5 or 6 minutes.

They bagged the Epeleptic's Bane number and went right to the performing number. At exactly the same point in the dance, the lights started flashing again. No one moved this time - unless they were getting up to leave out of annoyance (which I didn't really find neccessary). Voice came on again and said there wasnt' a fire, and asked everyone to stay in the theatre while the firemarshals tried again to locate the problem.

By this time we're all suspecting a really cruel practical joke - or if you're like me, terrorists. What if someone was just trying to drive them to disarm the fire alarm system, then start a real fire? The possibilities were endless. Within a few minutes (during which I saw alot of poeple leave and come back with drinks that definitely weren't sodas...) Voice himself came out on stage! He was the stage manager for the traveling company, and was giving us an update. He said the next time they started, the play would show in it's entirerity. That finally happened about an hour later than the original curtain-up time. Stephan and I couldn't help joking about how we could have taken longer at dinner, and could have been less stressed on the drive up...or even could have jumped the front row seats of the people who'd gotten up to leave out of annoyance.

Was it worth it? YES! Though no dance company was perfect and, as a dancer myself, I probably notice more flaws than most, the one dancer I had set all my hopes on for a bang-up performance didn't dissapoint me:

Magical Mr. Mistoffoles!

(the above isn't the same performer as our company last night.)

The demands on the Mistofolees number are high. It includes alot of gymnastics as well as some pretty crazy spins (you know how ice skaters can keep spinning on the ice? this dancer has to be able to do it on solid ground). Did our Mistofolees deliever? Well, lets just say I didn't feel sick any more while he was dancing. He made the show worth it.

My kudos to the entire company for their professional-ness under the fire alarm fiasco, and my thanks to Mr. Mistofolees, for not dissapointing me.