by kellie abrahamson    kabrahamson1@aol.com

      The FCCJ Artist Series’ Broadway in Jacksonville closes its 42nd season with a bang this month when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award-winning musical CATS arrives in the River City. The world-renowned show gives audience members a look at a very special evening in the lives of the Jellical Tribe, a clan of kitties first dreamed up by T.S. Eliot in his book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. EU had the pleasure of speaking with cast member Seth Lerner about the show and what life is like on a year-long tour.

EU: Tell people who may not have seen CATS a little bit about the story.
Seth Lerner: The story is about a special tribe of cats that meet once a year to participate in sort of a magical ceremony where one tribe member will be chosen to be reborn, reincarnated into this beautiful, magical cat. It’s a tribal musical… The show opens with the audience being allowed to watch this ceremony and the proceedings of the night...The audience is introduced to the cats and they learn about the tribe and… the different characters in the tribe.

EU: Who do you play?
SL: I play the spiritual leader of the tribe. His name is Old Deuteronomy and he is the one who looks after the tribe, who adores the tribe, the tribe adores him, and he is the one who will ultimately make the decision on who will be reborn.

EU: Your role differs from most in the production because you don’t do a whole lot of dancing and slinking around.
SL: Deuteronomy does no dancing at all [laughs] which is awesome because I’m not a dancer.

EU: So, that was a big plus for you.
SL: Yeah, basically Deuteronomy sits on a tire the whole time and watches the tribe who are, in fact, performing for him. They tell their story in hopes of being the cat that’s reborn.

EU: I imagine rehearsals aren’t nearly as grueling as for you as they are for your cast mates.
SL: Exactly. We’ve been out for almost a year and back in New York City where we had rehearsals myself and the actress who plays Grizabella, who sings the song ‘Memory,’ we were not involved with a lot of the rehearsals because we don’t have to dance in the show. So my fellow actors, they had some grueling times, really hard rehearsals, so my hat’s off to them.

EU: One thing people immediately think of when they think of CATS is the makeup and the costumes. What’s that process like?
SL: Well it depends on which character you are. Some of us can get ready relatively easy if we’re rushed, but usually we get to the theater about two hours before hand and usually an hour is good for people to get their makeup on because in addition to makeup we also have physical warm-ups we have to do… We had classes for the makeup when we were in New York and since we opened people have developed their makeup much more. We haven’t changed it; we’ve just refined it a lot. Most of [our makeup] is quite good. It also helps that you have a lot of smoke and a lot of light [effects] which makes it look even more interesting.

EU: What’s your favorite number in CATS?
SL: Probably ‘The Jellicle Ball.’ I love watching [it]. I’m the only one who’s not really dancing in that, I sit and watch the cats, and some of [the actors] are really close friends of mine, so watching them out there is really a highlight for me every night.

EU: What are the best and worst parts of being on tour?
SL: That’s a good question. The best part is seeing the country. Also in the tour you develop relationships with people and you get to become good friends with people. I think when you’re on tour it speeds the process up. We’re together all the time and for me I would say that’s one of the highlights, just becoming friends with some of the people. We have a large cast so you’re not going to become good friends with everyone by any means, but everyone in the cast has found the one or two people they feel comfortable with, and so it’s nice going through this experience with them. The worst part is the bus… They need a relativity young cast to do this because the bus ride is quite grueling. Sometimes we’re on the bus for 12 hours… That can be really rough on the body, particularly on the dancers.

EU: How has your experience with CATS differed from other productions you’ve been in?
SL: It’s the most fun I’ve ever had, actually. I’m the oldest in the cast so the other “kittens” keep me young, I guess.

EU: In addition to acting you’re also an English teacher.
SL: I taught literature in China for two years. In fact, I’m based in China. Right before CATS I was teaching British and American literature at a university in Beijing.

EU: Since CATS is based on T.S. Eliot’s poetry it must be kind of a special show for you.
SL: It’s cool; it’s totally cool because a lot of the audience doesn’t realize their listening to poetry. I’m not sure T.S. Eliot would be thrilled that his poetry is being performed by dancers and stuff like that [laughs] but to have the poetry of T.S. Eliot heard by millions and millions of people around the world is pretty cool. Andrew Lloyd Webber did a really good job of musical-izing it.

EU: So would you say it’s a good musical to sort of introduce kids to poetry?
SL: It’s good for everyone… We’re usually sold out; [Jacksonville] is our last stop on the tour… Looking back we’ve had a big mixed crowd… We’ve had, in the past, huge standing ovations which makes us very happy. It’s pretty much [a show] for people of all ages.


CATS arrives in Jacksonville on June 27th and will run until the 29th. Tickets range in price from $32 to $60.50. For more information on the show or to purchase tickets, visit artistseries.fccj.org or call (904) 632-3373.