Drew McOnie Reimagines Cats as Feral Dance Ritual
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- Drew McOnie is creating a new production of Cats at Regent's Park Open Air theatre, 23 years after he snuck out of school at 17 to join the original international production in Germany
- McOnie is layering in street, commercial, jazz and classical dance influences, aiming for movement that is 'more feral' and earthier than Gillian Lynne's iconic original choreography
- The production deliberately recruited standout student dancers — McOnie calls them 'kittens' — and is carving out solos to break through their 'inscrutable exteriors'
- Costumes will not be fully formed cats or masked; McOnie frames the show as 'a ritual that endows the performer with an animal form through which they can express deeply human emotion'
- McOnie called Andrew Lloyd Webber a 'musical architect' with wit, sharpness and rigor, describing their year together on Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats as 'utterly thrilling'
- McOnie said the 2019 Cats film 'isn't a filmic idea' and was 'doomed from the start,' arguing the show depends on live theatrical energy and the 'mass of bodies giving all of their soul to that music'
Why it matters: For theater and dance audiences, this production returns Cats to its origins as a dance-driven show rather than the pop-culture punchline the 2019 film made it. By stripping away fully-formed cat suits and leaning into feral, earthier movement, McOnie repositions a 1981 landmark for contemporary stages while explicitly honoring Gillian Lynne's legacy.
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