Preparations well on track for Cats

The director of Rotorua Musical Theatre's most expensive production once performed in a professional production of the show that toured New Zealand.
Dean McKerras is a dancer and dance teacher from Palmerston North and has directed and starred in Cats before.
The Rotorua Musical Theatre is putting on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in March and rehearsals are well under way.
Rotorua Musical Theatre secretary Richard Marshall said the production was enjoying the biggest budget the theatre had tackled at almost $200,000.
Les Miserables in 2001 had been its previous most expensive production at just under $100,000.
The cast had been rehearsing since late last year and had recently had a nine-day Cats bootcamp.
Since Mr McKerras' dance studio in Palmerston North re-opened in February, he had wanted to get 80 per cent of rehearsals done before school holidays finished.
From now on he will be in Rotorua at weekends leading up to the show.
He said there was a lot to learn as every piece of music in the show had a dance to go with it, but the cast was handling it all well.
"The cast has been amazing," Mr McKerras said.
The 31 cast members were very talented and rehearsals were going well.
"It's fantastic that we were able to cast completely with locals." A lot of Cats productions had to get professionals in to perform the lead roles, but not this one, Mr McKerras said.
Lately he had been inspired by the movie Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, and was planning to take the cast to see it.
Previously Mr McKerras directed and choreographed an amateur version of Cats in Palmerston North in 2007.
He also played the part of Tumblebrutus and understudied the part of Mungojerrie in a professional production that toured New Zealand in 1995.
He got into musical theatre at school in Wanganui, then studied teaching and got a dance and education qualification before opening his own dance studio.
Mr Marshall said including the production team, orchestra, wardrobe, make-up and front-of-house staff, about 90 people were involved in the making of the show.
He was happy with preparations for Cats and so was the cast.
"The cast are ecstatic, over the moon, buzzing," Mr Marshall said.
Ticket sales were going well - if people wanted good seats they needed to book soon.
Mr McKerras said Rotorua could expect "the magical experience that was Cats" and the audience would feel like they had spent the evening with cats.
"There's something in it for everybody."
The show is at the Rotorua Civic Theatre from March 18 to April 2. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster or www.ticketmaster.co.nz