[SDPaul]

About three years ago, the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre produced one of the first regional productions of "CATS"...it was a fantastic show, with original set (the show takes place behind an abandoned theatre) and choreography, all while nicely maintaining the spirit of the original production...Keith Wilson's friend John Sloan played Macavity in the Chanhassen show...you can see a two minute clip of highlights here:

http://www.chanhassentheatres.com/experience-cdt/virtual-tour.asp

After the video loads, you can move past the virtual tour and into the show highlights...they really do a marvelous job with all the shows..it's one of the only Equity dinner theatres in the country. After viewing the "CATS" scenes, why not just stick around and watch samples from their other shows..if you ever get a chance to visit the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, plan to take in a show at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre (Chanhassen is a southern suburb of the Twin Cities)..I don't mean this to sound like a shameless plug, and I'm not an employee of the theatre..just an avid fan who enjoys their work and thought you might like to see a bit of their production of "CATS"...by the way, the actor playing Tugger (Danny McHugh) had just graduated high school the year before this show was staged (2003)..he made his professional debut with this production!


SDPaul/Growltiger/QuizCat

[Gwen]

Yay Minnesota!!
I missed seeing it though, I wanted to go to it sooo badly...
A-ha- ha...(cries.)

Oh well. Thanks for posting. Yup yup. Minnesota.
Nice to know that we do a good job.

[littlgriz]

[rabymon10]

I'm sorry if i sound sour saying this, but last time i checked, it was illegal to put on your own production of Cats 3 years ago. just thinking that maybe they should at least take the Cats portion off the virtual tour if that's the case.

[darkmage]

If I recall, 2003 is the year they released the rights. There had to be certain requirements met for the theatre to stage the show, so it all depended on what kind of contract they had with R+H and RUG.

[SDPaul]

The rights were available for regional theatre (professional) to produce "CATS" in 2003..the Chanhassen was one of the first to do so (November '03 through May '04)..it was produced "through special arrangement with the Rodgers and Hammerstein Library and the Really Useful Theatrte Company, Ltd" (from the Playbill). Nothing illegal here!

SDPaul/Growltiger/QuizCat

[jazzygirlsings]

My little sister worked there as a server at the time Cats was there...she wanted to KILL them during intermission, as they would be in the way! They would be prowling through the crowd in character...

My sis would be carrying drinks and accidentally trip on one and they would hiss at her! LOL!

[Gwen]

Haha, that's funny!
IF I were a performer, I'd totally do that- walk around during intermission (were it allowed, of course. )
Cool.

[littlgriz]