Our Outing Was The Cat’s Meow!
By 
Our latest corporate outing was dinner and a show at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre. We started our evening in the King’s Wharf Restaurant where we had our choice of four different entrees—New York Strip Steak, Tilapia Filet, Mushroom Ravioli or a Steak & Blue Cheese Salad. After a delicious meal, we found our seats in the theatre.
As it turned out, we were located right on the aisle, which meant that we had plenty of ‘felines’ who interacted with us as they gathered before going on stage—purring, preening and swiping tails. It was a wonderful preview of the elaborate costumes, seeing the cast in all their finery before they burst into song or dance.
The former glamour cat, Grizabella…
Matthew R. Jones as Old Dueteronomy.
Summer Naomi Smart as Bombalurina.
It was a high energy, non-stop production with jazzy and sometimes operatic renditions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical numbers along with stunning dance sequences. Heidi Kettenring as Grizabella gave a show-stopping performance of ‘Memory,’ but equally impressive were the strong vocals from the rest of the cast.
As always the Marriott took full use of their theatre in the round. There was a grand stage piece of a steel cat tower for the ‘cats’ to climb, swing and jump. The audience was literally part of the production with cats leaping into empty seats, running up and down aisles and generally involving the audience in this memorable presentation of ‘Cats!’