1 post tagged “moscow cats”

My mother turned 78 this month. For her birthday, Adam and I took her to the Palace of Fine Arts to see the craziest thing I've ever heard of...the Moscow Cats Theatre.

When I discovered the show I was totally excited about it and bought tickets right away. (I found out later they are coming to Campbell and San Jose, but whatever.) I'm a total cat person and thought it would be hysterical. It got great reviews:

"This show is the cat's meow" - NEWSDAY

"Cats Incredible!" - People Magazine

"Fantastic!" - Time Out New York

"Genial entertainment... just the ticket" - The News Times

"Spec-cat-ular" - NEW YORK POST

"Hilarious" - CBS News

"Don't miss!" - Village Voice

"Purrrr-fect Family Fun" - FAMILY MAGAZINE

So, off we went! On the way to my mom's Adam says to me (in a totally normal voice): "If I don't see some cats jumping through rings of fire today, I want my @#$%&*$ money back." Oh man I thought I was going to pee. We picked up Mama and made the pilgrimage to San Francisco. Adam snapped one of his famous self-portraits while we were waiting for the show to begin...

Meet Yuri Kuklachev, with two of his 120 cats. (Most of them stay in Russia, while a select cast of 25 goes on tour.)
The idea of performing cats came to Mr. Kuklachev in 1971, he said, when he found a stray begging for food by performing on its hind legs and doing somersaults for onlookers. Mr. Kuklachev, the son of a truck driver and a factory worker, had attended clown school. He realized he and the cat might be able to do something together. He named her Strelka, and soon she was performing with him at the Moscow State Circus.

Mr. Kuklachev did an act which would become well known as “The Cat in the Pot.” A cat would sit in a pot. He would take her out, and she would keep jumping back in again.

In 1988 Mr. Kuklachev left the Moscow circus, and in 1990 he founded the Cats Theater. It is very popular in Moscow, Mr. Kuklachev said, and over the years he has traveled to 80 countries and won many awards.

The disco ball part was cool. They dimmed the lights and played house music while the cat walked on the ball, projecting light patterns all over the theatre. Neat.

WHO KNEW that our very own Onyx kitty has some Russian Performing Cat blood cursing through her veins! Those of you who have seen Onyx and Adam perform the Tunafish Opera will get a kick out of this. Natasha (I don't actually know her name) announced that they were going to celebrate one of the cat's birthdays by singing—you guessed it—Happy Birthday. All the performers gathered 'round and began... "Happy Birthday to you"....silent pause while she hands the mic over to Fluffy (see photo below). Fluffy starts belting out some crazyass meows! Just like Onyx! This continued for the remainder of the song while the audience rolled with laughter. Hysterical!
OK, so all of the Moscow Cat photos above came from their PR people. In reality, Mr. Kuklachev looked more like this today... Kinda creepy, huh? AND he mimed too...a lot. It seems like he and his cast may have had more than a few vodkas before the curtain went up. The show is a silent clown act set to Russian DJ music. For reasons unbeknownst to me, they had a ballerina for one scene; not the en pointe kind, just regular. Maybe it was supposed to be a dream sequence. I'm not sure. Must be a Russian thing.

The cats do things like walk a tightrope, climb an extremely tall pole and jump down into Natasha's arms, jump through hoops, lay on their backs and spin balls with their paws...you know, the usual. 

I don't know that I'd call this a fantastic, must-see, but THE CATS were pretty impressive.