REVIEW: How To Live A Jellicle Life, Headgate Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Paul T Davies reviews How To Live A Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Movie Cats at the Headgate Theatre, Colchester.

How To Live A Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Movie Cats.

Headgate Theatre, Colchester.

9/2/21

4 Stars

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Sliding easily in through the cat flap of comedy, Linas Carp’s affectionate, hilarious show takes the film adaptation of the musical Cats, and demonstrates how we could follow the principles of Jellicle and improve our lifestyles and general outlook. It doesn’t matter if, like a high percentage of the audience, you haven’t seen the film, the musical is so well known we all have a base knowledge of it- even if you didn’t want to!

Dressed in a beautifully “home-made” outfit, swigging from a carton of milk, and busting some great, feline, dance moves, Carp is a hugely likable and endearing, and has quite an obsession with the film! Presented in the form of a TED talk, this is NOT Death by PowerPoint, quite the opposite, as he uses graphs, GIFs, and grooves to baptise us with our Jellicle name and help us to find out which Cats character we are. It’s a perfect night out post lockdown, and the hour passes in constant smiling and laughter. Oh, and if you’re not a fan of James Corden, it’s worth it just for Carp’s treatment of him!

He defends the film, which got a rating of 19% on rotten tomatoes, so passionately, you begin to think that maybe, just maybe, it would be worth a look, which would be a forgiving and Jellicle thing to do. Luckily, there are other ways to live a Jellicle life, and, although we can’t ascend the Heaviside Layer, Carp’s keen and quirky observations make this a joy of a show. You’ll leave feeling like the cat that got the cream!

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