Tom Hooper’s 2019 adaptation of “Cats” unfolds as an absurd and frequently nonsensical array of light and color, with actors bathed in ill-conceived CGI fur against a similarly invented London backdrop.
Fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway blockbuster, and anyone familiar with the movie’s viral trailer that stoked excitement and horror in equal measures, will know that sounds about right.Hooper’s “Cats” adaptation delivers on those expectations and then some, which makes it a fascinating mess of exuberant musical numbers and scintillating digitized sets.
Those human-cat terrors already looked ridiculous slinking about a giant junkyard set in body-suits; who thought that closeups would actually improve the show?But there’s the rub: The argument against “Cats” also makes the case for its existence, because everything ludicrous about the show has been cranked up to 11, with a restless artificial camera and actors so keen on upstaging one another
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