A week and a half before “Cats” was to make its debut at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Mesa, we stopped in on rehearsal to see how things were going for the show that’s bringing the world’s most popular contemporary musical to the realm of dinner theater.

In a room backstage, director Marc Robin was leading some of his actors through the dance moves of “Macavity,” a spicy jazz number about a dastardly cat.

The hirsute costumes weren’t there, nor was the makeup that will transform the Broadway Palm’s 20 actors — some local, many brought in for the show’s eight-week run here and subsequent 10-week stop at the Palm’s sister playhouse, the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Pennsylvania — into the beloved Jellicle cats of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-holding longest-
running Broadway show. But even without proper props, the actors channeled catlike sensuality.

One by one, they came to life, slinking across the floor like feline Fosses in tight workout wear, writhing gently and arching their backs like cats in heat, with braided pieces of rope trailing as tails from their waists.

“Macavity’s a mystery cat/He’s called the Hidden Paw,” crooned Motique Korman up front, the company’s Rumpleteazer, before sliding back on her belly to join the others.

Actor Matt Brewer, the show’s Munkustrap, stared from behind the director’s table, fanning his face in response.

“I need a cigarette,” he said.

Debuting in London in 1981 and launching on Broadway the following year, “Cats” — a musical inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” with less of a plot than a reason to assemble a curious cadre of rough-and-tumble felines for an annual ceremony — simultaneously earned kudos for its memorable songs (“Memory,” “Mr. Mistoffelees”) and chides from critics (some, like New York Times critic Frank Rich, sounding the temporary death knell for American-born Broadway hits) until it closed in New York nearly 18 years later, in 2000, after 7,485 performances.

But the big question: Can a show as big and as well-known as “Cats” land on its feet as dinner theater?

Sure, says director Marc Robin, who’s also choreographing the show. “The whole show isn’t this sexy,” he says.
But when the show opens tonight in Mesa, it’ll be a different beast from its well-loved Broadway counterpart: For one, instead of the musical’s Jellicle Ball taking place in a junkyard, it’s in an abandoned amusement park, with pieces of the set — including a broken rollercoaster track — spilling out into the audience.

“I was really encouraged to think out of the box,” says Robin, 42, who put the show together at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre in his hometown of Chicago last year using the same concept.

“I wanted the show to be really colorful and fun, but mysterious.”

Robin has injected more dancing into his show (he dubs it “ ‘Cats’zilla”) and looks to his actors to emphasize the cattiness — so to speak — of his actors. (On the director’s table was a copy of “The Encyclopedia of the Cat.”)

“It’s important for me that audiences think they’re watching cats, not actors in unitards playing cats,” Robin says.

The Broadway Palm version will also borrow the Chicago production’s costumes. Sets for the Broadway Palm show were constructed in Pennsylvania.

The Broadway Palm wanted to stage “Cats” for years, but only recently, after a U.S. tour, could the playhouse secure rights for the show. The company, which runs three theaters (including one in Florida, where “Cats” rights couldn’t be obtained), is making its largest single-show investment for the production.

There’s a hitch for companies looking to do “Cats”: Webber demands that they use special keyboards and equipment for the show’s 10-piece live orchestra, Broadway Palm musical director J.R McAlexander says. That prices smaller theater companies out of the market for doing the show.

Phoenix actress April Monte, 29, is making the jump from rabbits — she was the star of Childsplay’s Christmas production of “The Velveteen Rabbit” — to felines as Jellylorum in “Cats.” It’s the first time she’s worked for the Broadway Palm but she knows the company hasn’t done a show like “Cats” before. She’s certain the dinner theater audience will respond well.

“It’s a little different than what they might expect,” she says. “But I think Mesa’s audience is ready for it.”

Longest-running Broadway shows

Andrew Lloyd Webber based the show on the poetry of T.S. Eliot (American expatriate in Britain, died in 1965) and “Cats” pop hit “Memory” is based on lyrics Eliot never published; they were given to Webber by Eliot’s wife, Valerie Eliot, when he began working on the musical.

Webber originally imagined the work as a concert piece for children.

50 million people worldwide have seen the show.

Most interesting “Cats” merchandise offered in the past: A face-painting set for recreating “Cats” at home, ceramic figures, Christmas ornaments

Can’t catch “Cats” stateside? Try productions in Germany, Hungary, Spain, Japan and Poland.

A production in Shanghai closed four days early in March 2003 due to SARS, though it set a box-office record with 80,000 attendees over a 53-show run.

Want to prevent your cat from developing hair balls or static electricity on its coat? According to the Web site www.wackyuses.com, it's as easy as rubbing Alberto VO5 Conditioning Hair Treatment into its fur.