Ivins, UT - This autumn near St. George, Utah, Tuacahn Amphitheatre offers an exciting lineup for the fall 2006 Broadway in the Desert theatre series. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long running Broadway hit, Cats, will play the outdoor venue Sept. 14 – Oct. 21, 2006 (except Oct. 14) and Odyssey Dance Theatre’s Halloween dance concert “Thriller” plays the amphitheatre Oct. 27, 28, 30, 31. Derryl Yeager directs and choreographs both productions.
Yeager, a frequent Tuacahn collaborator and artistic director of Odyssey Dance Theatre, brings Andrew Lloyd Webber's astoundingly successful musical to life in the outdoor amphitheatre for the show’s Southern Utah debut. Tuacahn audiences may know Yeager’s work from Tuacahn’s first two productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as well as numerous other shows that have played the outdoor venue. He has a special connection to this particular show, too—Yeager played for two years in the national tour of Cats several years ago!
Cats is a musical fantasia, the story of a group of characters who tell their tales through song and dance. A junkyard marks the setting for the annual reunion of the Jellicle cats at the Jellicle Ball as the eldest of their special breed of cats, Old Deuteronomy, seeks to select which of the many cats in the neighborhood will be reborn to begin another life. Each of the potential cats, such as Jennyanydots, Rum Tum Tugger, and Bustopher Jones, pleads his or her case to Old Deuteronomy. Ultimately, however, it is Grizabella's plea for a new life that wins the old cat over. This moment marks one of the show's highlights
