My Friend, The Cat

Tragedy, it has been said, is when the dog dies. Human characters can suffer terribly through any story, and readers/listeners/audience members remain stone-faced. Remind them of when Fluffy went to doggie heaven, and watch the tears come. Perhaps those moments remind us of our own first childhood pets, and how helpless we felt when Goldie first went belly-up. Perhaps we instinctively can't stand seeing something innocent suffer. Whatever the reason, the loss of a pet is an emotional gold-mine, and Phil Geoffrey Bond's musical one-man retrospective/eulogy/monologue My Friend, The Catcan bring a lump to the throat of even the most cynical and jaded theatre-goer. 

Which is not to say that the show is a complete downer. Far from it, in fact: Bond's anecdotes about his ten years with Chesterson are sweet, funny and endearing. Chesterson chases bugs. Chesterson uses the refrigerator as a cool-down room on hot days. Chesterson tries to drive a car. Chesterson attacks feet in the middle of the night. Chesterson turns Bond's apartments into homes, and is the catalyst for Bond's growth from boy to man, at once a companion and a responsibility. What makes the show extraordinary is how ordinary the story is, and how universal. Anyone who has loved a pet or cherished a friend will recognize something in the relationship between Bond and Chesterson, and can appreciate the anecdotes. 

Performed by Bond seated on a stool and reading from a music stand, accompanied by projected photographs of Man and Cat and punctuated with seven songs that emphasize the emotions of a decade of friendship, the show has a gentle, mellow tone that belies the poignancy of the final fifteen minutes. Said songs, performed by Bond's regular staff of Brandon Cutrell, Alysha Umphress, Lisa Asher and Julie Reyburn, nicely provide breaks from the narration as well as commentary on the story. The opening song, Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn's "My Buddy," beautifully sung by Umphress, sets the tone of love and loss for the rest of the show. Babbie Green's "Dog at the Pound," performed with uncharictaristic innocence and wonder by Cutrell, is sweet and charming. "McCavity," from Cats (naturally), is darkly comic and knowing, performed with plenty of winks by Umphress, and Julie Reyburn, backed by Asher and Cutrell, sings a very sassy "Cat Song" by Laura Nyro. Asher herself performs a poignant "Smile" by Charles Chaplin and Geoffrey Parsons. Ending the show are two more somber songs that nicely comment on the final themes of friendship and loss: John Bucchino's "Temporary," sung with great emotion by Cutrell, and Forster/King & Sager's "One True Friend," sung by Asher with as much hope as poignancy.

But the songs are the icing on the cake, and the heart of this story is just that: its heart. Unabashedly emotional, My Friend, The Cat tugs at the heartstrings in every good way, balancing the sweet with the bitter and emphasizing love over loss.