The “Jellicle” cats were in the junkyard singing and dancing at the Harvey Auditorium April 12.
This performance of “Cats” by the Bakersfield Music Theater was the last of three public showings.
Many of the spectators and actors alike had fun and enjoyed the final show.
“I enjoyed every bit of it,” said Madeline Grahek, who played the role of Electra. Grahek is a 20-year-old BC business marketing major and one of four BC students who were in the play.
“I enjoyed the entire thing from the beginning of the overture to the ending of the bows. It was so much fun,” she said.
“It was really good, actually,” said Kinsey Love, 11, who attended the performance with her mother Shannon Love, 40.
“I got to recognize a lot of dancers I knew. It was fun, like, watching them sing and dance at the same time.”
Shannon Love said, “My daughter dances at [Civic Dance Center] so we came to support a lot of the dancers that were in it.”
“The only thing I didn’t like was how long it was,” Kinsey said amid giggles. “I was getting kind of tired.”
According to Grahek, Kevin Trueblood, who was meant to play the role of Munkustrap, one of the main narrators in the performance, hurt his back “after [their] Thursday morning young peoples’ concert that [they] do for students around Bakersfield.”
Love said, “I didn’t know. I thought they had an understudy that covered his part. They actually took that out and worked the whole thing around it. So, the fact that these dancers and everybody came in early and reworked the whole thing to make up for that . I think that’s amazing that they pulled it off.
“I’d seen it before, not here, but a national production in Minneapolis where I used to live.”
Seeing “Cats” for the first time, Saveena Smith, 12, said she “kind of” understood the storyline but wasn’t quite sure.
According to Grahek, by knowing the other performers, it created a fun environment for rehearsing and performing.
“I enjoyed the company of the cast,” said Grahek. “A lot of us were friends before. So, we all could easily relate to each other and be very comfortable with learning the hard lyrics and hard dancing.
“We would do anything and everything to become a cat.”