Customer Reviews

A Cat's Diary: How The Broadway Production of Cats Was Born (Art of Theater Series)

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Thoroughly enjoyable. The pages flew by. You get a real appreciation of how close the company grew, and how grueling the rehersals were. It is amazing how much was done in a relatively short rehersal period. I saw the show and loved it. I do not know if that made difference, but I would think that for anyone interested in the theater, this would be a wonderful book.

This book is defenitely a must-read for any CATS lover. It answers questions such as "Why wasn't the Italian aria in the Original London show," as well as giving insights into the preparation, rehersal and immense effort that was put into the original Broadway production. Also wonderfully written are the relationships between the author and the rest of the cast and production team. This book is a CATS fan's dream!

    Seven Tony Awards. Box office receipts of more than a billion dollars. A Broadway run of nearly 8,000 performances. And yet, if I asked you to name the actors and actresses who became stars because of "Cats," you'd probably be stumped.
   Okay, Broadway buffs, so you recall Betty Buckley, for singing "Memory."
   Next?
  In fact, although this was the ultimate ensemble piece, there was one cat who outshone the others. His name is Stephen Mo Hanan, and in the original Broadway cast, he played Bustopher, Asparagus and Growltiger. "Hanan is fantastic," purred Clive Barnes in the New York Post. And the Times, Wall Street Journal and New Yorker agreed.
    Hanan's had to wait two decades for his next plum role --- this Spring, he stars as Al Jolson in an off-Broadway production --- but he's going to be immortal for a slim little book that he never intended to publish: "A Cat's Diary." Written during the rehearsal period, these nightly entries are l00 pages of delight and insight.
    DisneyWorld has spoiled us --- people disappear into animal costumes and goof around and we find them charming, in a sentimental, how-can-you-not-like-this way. But being a cat in a musical inspired by T.S. Eliot and directed by Trevor Nunn?  Not so easy. Hard physical work, in fact. And that's just the outside preparation --- as Hanan tells it, there's immense psychological inquiry and tons of improvisation.
     Although the diaries tell us a great deal about the technical challenges of mounting this musical, there's a strong human narrative (the march toward opening night) and one heroic figure (Trevor Nunn). Mostly, Nunn stands on the sidelines, watching. When he makes a comment, it's rarely what you'd expect --- before an actress does a song in rehearsal, he asks, "But are you having fun?" And, as it happens, that innocent query opens her up to deliver a terrific performance.
      Hanan, for his part, also serves up terrific little insights: "What is the acting approach? Everyone had an opinion, and I began to understand why it took so long to set up the protocols for the Vietnam peace talks." He doesn't shrink from self-deprecating anecdotes: "Trevor said, 'You've got to look like nothing anyone has ever seen before, which is easy if you're Steve Hanan, but for the rest of us....'" And, boy, does he ever show us how the griity, unglamorous work of acting takes its toll: "I come home so tired I can hardly find my way to bed."
      As the cast becomes an extraordinary performing unit, Hanan --- who is pre-disposed to a lovely hippie-esque spirituality --- doesn't fail to get the larger point. He's amazed at how far he's come, he's constantly on the verge of tears. Trevor Nunn makes the spiritual lesson less overtly. "You must remember what the greatest power in the theater is," he tells the company. "It has nothing to do with sets and special effects. It's what's going on in your minds, and how that affects the minds of the audience."
     Hanan's account of opening night is appropriately triumphant. And, because this actor is as emotional as he is analytical, you'll tear up when it's time for Nunn to leave New York and go on to his next production. Fifteen months later, with a Tony nomination on his resume, Hanan also left "Cats." To the indelible performance he gave during his stint can now be added this slim but potent book. "Cats" lovers will enjoy it. Actors, if they are smart, will turn it into gold.

Stephen Hanan played Gus, Growltiger, and Bustopher Jones in the original Broadway production run of Cats. Fresh from the London stage there was only an inkling that the show would be a great success and no true idea that it would be the longest running show in Broadway history. During the time he auditioned and through the rehearsals and opening week Stephen Hanan kept a very detailed diary of his experience as part of the first Broadway cast of Cats. A Cats Diary details Hanan's thoughts and experiences as he auditioned and the rigorous work that went into rehearsal and the production. He details the changes the show underwent as the cast, choreographer, and director tried to find what would work best for all involved and give the best possible show. As a fan of the show (I saw a very well done production at a regional dinner theatre and then the national touring production, the dinner theatre was superior), I found the behind the scenes look at one actor's experience of Cats to be fascinating. Unlike what I would expect from most diaries, Stephen Hanan is very detailed and writes out complete events and complete thoughts and writes well that there is a narrative that forms over the course of the hundred pages of diary entries.

My only real quibble is that footnotes are printed in a cursive font, as if Hanan had handwritten the footnotes into the book to explain people and things that wouldn't be obvious to the casual reader. The footnotes were difficult to read.

Hanan's strength is in the descriptions and that his personality comes through in the text of the book. A Cats Diary is a wonderful resource to those who are seeking to learn more about what goes on to produce a Broadway show and what some of the actors go through.

-Joe Sherry

This is a specialty item for the fans of the Broadway production Cats: A Cat's Diary follows the author's daily involvement with the popular production, from rehearsals to finished audience product. Especially involving for drama students, who will receive specific insights into the making of a Broadway production.