BWW Reviews: Theatre Movement Bazaar's HOT CAT Dances its Way Through Tennessee Williams' Masterpiece

From the moment the Hot Cat cast enters the stage on little cat's feet, purring their way along the black box walls at Theatre of Note, you know you are in for a very creative way of looking at the Tennessee Williams characters from his short story Three Players of a Summer Game in which the character of Brick Pollitt first appears in literature, as well as his Pulitzer Prize winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from 1955, and praised for not only dealing with alcoholism, cancer, and the often unbearable circumstances of family inheritance and conformity, but also with the challenges of homosexuality in the 1950s.

Hot Cat takes a very modern approach to the story, telling it with imaginative and highly intricate movement with the talented cast often saying more with a choreographed group turn of their heads than could ever be portrayed with words alone. Kudos to Tina Kronis for her vision in direction and choreography, and for sharing her deep understanding of the characters with us.

Crystal Diaz is a revelation as Maggie the black cat, all slinky, sexy, frustrated, and bemoaning being barren while her former athlete and now always drunk husband Brick (David Guerra) struggles with the bottle and his feelings for his now-dead friend Skipper who appears on an old 50's style television monitor to speak with him. Guerra moves with grace and generates pure carnal desire, so much so that it is easy to see the reason Maggie is willing to keep trying to seduce him. Their enthralling pas de deux at the end of the show will leave you breathless.

Maggie's venom is unleashed against her sister-in-law Mae (wonderfully rubber-faced and bodied Jenny Soo) who has managed to produce 5 no-neck children, comically introduced to the story as dolls hiked between Mae's legs as footballs to her waiting husband, Brick's brother Gooper (David LM McIntyre).

Eric Neil Gutierrez may not have the girth required to play Big Daddy, but he certainly has the attitude down pat. And we are shown much more of his patriarchal relationship with Brick, wanting him to give up drinking so he can produce an heir to the fortune which is rightfully his.

But it is Blaire Chandler as Big Mama who steals every scene she is in, with just the shake of her red curls. You are never really sure if Mama is as simple-minded as she seems around Daddy or just playing the doting wife to stay on his good side. Chandler, Diaz, and Soo are especially delightful in their opening song about knowing a man by his appetite for biscuits. Lovingly seducing their husbands with the fresh-baked aroma of warm biscuits filled with "yum," the ladies then end the song by throwing the biscuits at the men.

This show was so compelling from start to finish that I could not take my eyes off the actors to take any notes as I usually do because Maggie, Brick and their totally unsavory family never looked so good. It is no wonder Theatre Movement Bazaar has been astonishing and entrancing audiences around the world for 13 years.

HOT CAT is an original play, inspired by an American classic, created by Theatre Movement Bazaar, directed by Tina Kronis with text by Richard Alger. Performances take place at Theatre of Note, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood through June 30 during the Fringe Festival. More information and tickets at http://hff13.org/1355. Enjoy the show's trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAh5XHf7rZ8&feature=youtu.be.

Photos by Darrett Sanders

from left: Jenny Soo, David LM McIntyre, Blaire Chandler, Eric Neil Gutierrez, Crystal Diaz, David Guerra

David LM McIntyre and David Guerra

Eric Neil Gutierrez and David Guerra