I was fortunate enough to attend the first UK screening of Tom Hooper’s Cats.  It has a big cast:  Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, James Corden, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson and Taylor Swift.  They are the ones I recognised.  It also has some fantastic dancers including Steven McRae, principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, who played Skimbleshanks.  He was absolutely amazing, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen tap dancing like that.

I should probably declare right now that I didn’t particularly enjoy the stage version of Cats (although I love the music) but I was attracted to the film because of the cast. 

Despite a lot of the reviews that have been published now it’s been seen by the critics, I thought it was a good production, the dancing made it for me.  I love ballet and real cats do have something of a ballet dance in their movements.  It was a good choice.  

It goes without saying that Jennifer Hudson has an amazing voice.  The newcomer, Francesca Hayward was also very good.  There were some great special effects, particularly when Mr Mistoffelees was performing his magic.  

Idris Elba didn’t have to do too much dancing, which was a good thing, because the professional dancers really showed him up.  (Or maybe he just can’t dance.). Strange to see him with green eyes too.  Or perhaps it was more strange that so many of the cats had brown eyes since that’s not common in real cats.

What fascinated me most was the ears and the tails.  The cast were all dressed in cat costumes, and the ears and tails moved, in the same way that cats’ ears and tails move.  It was incredible.  No, I didn’t ever believe that they were real cats, but I was impressed at the way the professional dancers moved around when they weren’t dancing.  Very feline.  I found out later that they’d recorded real cats and used CGI to superimpose them on the humans.  Now it makes sense.  

© Susan Shirley 2019