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This is the first summer season at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts for actors Reagan Kern, Evan Smith and Christian J. Collins.
And while it’s also Kern’s and Collins’ first time appearing in a production of “Cats” - June 4-13 at the Wagon Wheel - Smith has performed in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical before.
“My sophomore year in high school, we did ‘Cats.’ I’m originally from Alabama. We did it in 90-degree weather, outside, and I was Mungojerrie at the time. It was - I’m having a lot more fun out here, I’ll say!” Smith recalled.
For the Wagon Wheel show, Smith is playing Mr. Mistoffelees, while Kern is Victoria and Collins is Munkustrap.
“Mr. Mistoffelees, he is a sneaky guy. He is usually more kept to himself. He’s a little bit on the shyer side ... but going into it, he helps if need be, and he always wants to be there for everybody, whether he’s vocal about it or not. And once people give him that opportunity to shine, he really takes it by the coat and really tries to make something of it,” Smith said.
Victoria is the little kitten among the felines.
“She’s either the youngest cat or one of the younger cats. She’s very innocent, she’s very naive, that’s kind of how her character has come to be. She’s the one that doesn’t really know what’s going on. This is probably her first Jellicle Ball, so she’s more sitting back and watching everything,” Kern explained. “And then she has a moment in Act I where she’s basking in the moon glow and that’s the Victoria solo. It’s like her moment to shine, and then she kind of just watches everything and then joins in when she can and then watches. She’s very observant.”
Munkustrap is kind of the whole narrator of the whole show, Collins stated.
“He is next in line to be Old Deuteronomy, so he’s there to help Old Deuteronomy get everyone through this ball. He’s kind of the planner of the ball, he makes sure everything is going right. He sits back, he watches. If something’s wrong, he jumps in to figure it out and keep the ball moving along because this is the best night of the year and he doesn’t want anything to go wrong,” he said.
Old Deuteronomy is the one who gets to decide which cat gets to ascend to the Heaviside Layer annually.
The Plot Of It All
On the plot of the Broadway musical, Collins said, “You’re getting to know all of these cats that are coming here. They come here every year, and every year a certain number of them are put up to be decided on who gets to be the Jellicle choice. So you’ll meet Bustopher Jones, you’ll meet Gus, you’ll meet Skimbleshanks, Jennyanydots and then we have Grizabella, of course, who kind of sneaks her way in there. And then one of those cats is chosen to go up to the Heaviside Layer. We don’t know what’s up there, but it’s the biggest honor.”
Kern said she didn’t originally think “Cats” had a plot until she began learning the show.
“But I think that’s some of the appeal, too,” Collins said. “It starts out you think it’s kind of a cabaret, a variety show, and you get to just enjoy the spectacle and you’re kind of falling in love with ‘I really love that one,’ ‘That one’s not my thing,’ but then at the end, you get to put forward ‘Who do I think it’s going to be?’ And then ultimately it’s Old Deuteronomy’s choice.”
Kern said in the show, the cats kind of think if they’re chosen to go to the Heaviside Layer, they get to live another life.
The show, composed by Webber and inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” has been fun for Kern because she’s not playing a human and is able to explore things like different centers of gravity.
“I think with being a cat, we’ve been really grounded and that’s something that’s new for me, and something that I actually am going to be taking into my human life, like staying grounded, even though I won’t be doing paws or anything like that. I think the whole center of gravity part has been really cool in finding that new way of being,” she said.
Smith said, “I also think like, the immersion of it, us being in the round, I think it kind of also plays into, we’re just as much of audience members as the people in their seats. We also think this is just going to be something without a lot of plot, and we’re just going to be like, ‘Oh, we’re just having fun.’ And then stuff starts going downhill for everybody, and we’re like, ‘Whoa! We really have got to keep this ball rolling, keep this party going.’”
An Icon’s Resurgence
Collins said Webber is an iconic composer. “Cats” is Collins’ first time ever getting to do one of Webber’s pieces. He grew up on Webber’s shows like “Phantom of the Opera,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and others.
“He has the catchiest melodies, they’ll get stuck in your head. You’ll be singing ‘Memory,’ you’ll be singing 70 different versions of ‘Jellicle.’ We know all the rhythms, and there’s a million different ones,” Collins said.
Webber is having a bit of resurgence right now, he said. In 2016, Webber had about four shows on Broadway, then had a dip, and recently he’s being “hyped” back up with revivals of “Sunset Boulevard,” “Evita” and “Cats.”
“So it’s really exciting to get to do this iconic material that we kind of all grew up with, but we get to put our own spin on it,” Collins stated.
He said Artistic Director Scott Michaels is very focused on the Jellicle Ball being a giant party that everyone is having fun at.
Smith said it’s “Cats,” but “we have something extra to bring to the table, of like, we are our own people, obviously, but we also have this huge dystopian set-up and we have things to climb on. Also, the round again, bringing all that in. And then, obviously, I think, first thing is like read and listen to the lyrics, listen to the music, and do it justice but then try to make that extra step to bring what we have to the table.”
Watching a video on Wagon Wheel’s Facebook page of the cast rehearsing the first dance number, one can see how much of a workout the cast gets.
Kern said, “It’s such a workout! Even wearing our tank tops and like our shorts for rehearsals, we’re dripping (sweat), and I’m thinking about getting into costumes and the fur and the unitards and all the layers, and our wigs.”
Collins joked it might be the first time the Wagon Wheel has a pool on stage with all the sweat. He said the video posted online is just the cardio and doesn’t show all the leaps and turns.
Kind of as a rule, Smith said they can’t fully stand up either at any point in the show. They have to have physicality like cats and be hunched over.
“It’s a lot in the lower back. Me and Chris were talking about it the other day, our lower backs are killing us after. You can’t fully stand up because then you’re human, but we’re humanlike in this version. We’re not fully just cats, we’re like evolved into something more, but we fully don’t either crawl in the ground, roll in the ground, jump, turn or hunch over like this,” Smith said.
Getting To Know You
Smith, who will be at the Wagon Wheel for the first three summer shows before going to North Carolina for a production of “West Side Story,” is originally from southern Alabama. He started in competitive dance when he was younger, following his sister, who was one of his biggest inspirations. He went to New York and did a production of “Godspell” in Central Park. “That’s what really got me into theater,” he said. He now goes to Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.
Kern, who will be at the Wagon Wheel all summer, is from northern Minnesota and lives on Lake Superior. She also started in competitive dance and “I come from a community where our community/regional theater is very popular in Duluth where I live, so coming to Wagon Wheel it’s been really cool to see kind of that same community support.” She also goes to Shenandoah Conservatory, and she and Smith both finished their freshman year.
From New Orleans, La., Collins’ two older sisters and both parents also did theater in high school. He, however, was obsessed with theater, doing his first show at age 9. By the time he got to high school, he had worked at every major theater in New Orleans. He went to New Orleans Center for Creative Arts for musical theater, and just graduated from Florida State University, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre.
“I showcased, I got an agent and now I’m here before I go do another contract somewhere else and then I’m going on my first national tour starting in the fall. So this is my first jumping-off point,” Collins stated, noting he can’t say any more about the national tour.
He is only at the Wagon Wheel for “Cats” and “Carousel” before starting his next contract.
“Wagon Wheel has always been, a ton of my friends have done it, so it’s always been a huge goal of mine, and having it to get my butt to work, get myself in shape before I head off on this crazy year. It’s really exciting and I’m making tons of really great friends and meeting lots of awesome people,” Collins said.
For tickets to “Cats,” call 574-267-8041; visit the box office at 2515 E. Center St., Warsaw; or visit the website at https://wagonwheelcenter.org/event/cats-musical-wagon-wheel-2026/
