Last month, I had the pleasure of attending Kitty Bungalow’s CATSravaganza. Previously, I had not heard of this “mewsical” event but I am SO glad that it’s on my radar now!
I was more taken by the organization, Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats than the actual one night only fundraiser show, which took place at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood. Kitty Bungalow is is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that rescues, neuters, socializes and finds homes for feral kittens while providing outreach, education and Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) services. It’s the only 100% feral cat socialization facility in all of southern California. Every year, they hold a fundraiser event in the form of a celebrity filled musical so Kitty Bungalow can continue its mission of ending the proliferation of homeless cats.
This year, the show starred Mindy Sterling (Con Man), Kirsten Vangsness (Criminal Minds), Nicole Sullivan (Black-ish), Bethany Joy Lenz (One Tree Hill), Maiara Walsh (Switched at Birth), Emily Deschanel (Bones), and Fred Willard (Modern Family) to name a few. Nicole Sullivan stole the show. She is just as amazing as you think.
The show, “Hamilton’s Cats,” tells the story of a small-town cat rescue that decides to put on the musical Cats as a fundraiser for their organization. Sadly, no one is interested until they discover Andrew Lloyd Webber plans to attend. Now everyone wants in on the action!
The awesome thing about this event is that there is such a mix of celebrities and during intermission, many of them offer up goodies as an auction for the fundraiser. For instance, Kirsten Vangsness auctioned off a personal tour of the distillery that she founded. None of the auction items went over $500 so it stayed within the realm of possibility, if you’re interested in saving up for this event in the future. I would!
The show itself though was a bit of a mess because you’ve got too many celebrities with no time to appropriately schedule rehearsals. So some people sang flat, some people sang who had no business singing, some people sang too many songs which made the show run quite long. I’d say less musical numbers in the future. My favorite musical numbers came from Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz, both of whom I had the pleasure of watching for years on One Tree Hill. Both of whom have the chops to sing, the only chops amongst this cast if I’m being frank.
Back on track… the show itself really needs to be more clear in their branding and focusing on capitalizing off of one musical at a time. In this case, the show involved an Andrew Lloyd Weber plot. It was a musical within a musical in that the characters were putting on a production of Cats. But the promotional material for this event involved Hamilton and they threw in 2 Hamilton songs as is, without changing the lyrics to make it fit the musical that they were actually doing, so it made zero sense. Everyone wants to capitalize off of Hamilton but it falls flat when there’s literally no logical reason to do so. If they need a volunteer Creative Director for next year, hit a sister up because whoever told them they could mash-up Hamilton and Cats had no vision for how to do it correctly and any legit musical theatre fan will not steer you wrong.
All of that said, the show aside, I’m highly considering volunteering at Kitty Bungalow in the future and hope that if you’re in the LA area, you do so too because they are doing the Lord’s work over here for these poor cats!
For more information, visit Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats.