Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Lesley Butler, Maximillian Chase, Peter Grant, Susan Hedges, Samuel Raymond Heller, Mark Lacey, Edwina Lee, Steve Macfarlane, Robert Southworth, Peter Turner, Ozzie Yue.
Life on Lark Lane is purr-fect for the Moggies, everything they could ask for, all they desire, is there to be enjoyed. All the furry feline’s nine lives are spent doing what cats do best, taking a stroll through the park, fine dining, watching the world go by with good friends and the only blot on the social calendar is having to deal with the squirrels, who are to be avoided just because they’re nuts.
Life is good for the Moggies, however dark clouds appear in the shape of the fat cats and their leader Fluffimus and Lark Lane and everything the Moggies know is soon under threat.
The brain child of one of Liverpool’s most recognisable and wonderfully creative story tellers, Cathy Roberts, Moggies has kept Liverpool entertained with her feline friends and their associates for so long now that they have become an institution all of their own accord, people ask her where they are when she decides to rest them, people care about them, which is only to be seen as natural seeing as how rich and cool the stories that Ms. Roberts provides for the radio and in her excellently conceived book.
One stage further, one more move and the Moggies come to life in the form of Moggies The Mewsical, put together by the writer and the equally creative director and songwriter Brian McCann and there is no need to paws, no need to re-fur to any other musical involving our feline friends, for as the lives of Moose, Mo, Lefty and Dutch come under threat, the music, the situation, the respect, are all larger than life and provide a night at the Unity Theatre that is fun and outstandingly clear; it is an evening in which imagination is rewarded fully.
With local legends, Steve Macfarlane, providing superb voice, and talented musician Susan Hedges giving incredible gusto to the world of acting and being alongside the very superb Robert Southworth as Dutch, Moggies The Mewsical is one that resonates with the audience because the lives created by Cathy Roberts resemble the life of those constantly under threat by those wishing to keep redeveloping the city of Liverpool without any forethought to the lives they are set about disturbing and destructing.
A play with the right cat-itude and a play that will fill any audience with amews-ment, Moggies The Mewsical is the production to see.
Ian D. Hall