Sixty years after it flopped big time on Broadway, the largely forgotten Drat! The Cat! has been given fresh new life by director Bruce Kimmel in a delightful, six-decades-postponed West Coast Premiere at the Group Rep Theatre.

Not that there weren’t legitimate reasons why Drat! The Cat! only lasted eight performances at New York’s Shubert Theatre.

It got mixed reviews, its two stars (Lesley Ann Warren and Elliot Gould!) weren’t yet household names, the NYC dailies had been on strike for more than three weeks, and audiences had plenty of Broadway smashes to choose from, among them Fiddler, Dolly, and How To Succeed.

And unlike those three megahits, Drat! The Cat! wasn’t an adaptation but an unproven original, nor did it have Bock & Harnick or Jerry Herman or Frank Loesser writing the songs.

And so this tale of an anonymous cat burglar who fleeced Gilded Age New York rich of their priciest jewels (only to have the police detective charged with catching the thief fall head over heels with his prey) ended up known only by the most diehard of Golden Age Broadway aficionados.

Kimmel’s sparkling revival makes it abundantly clear that it didn’t deserve this fate.

Sydney DeMaria makes a captivating Group Rep debut as New York heiress Alice Van Guilder, who for reasons Levin’s book makes rather frustratingly vague, has decided to devote herself to a life of crime, pilfering diamond after diamond in an amusingly staged opening sequence that has all of upscale New York singing the catchy title song.

Enter fledgling police investigator Bob Purefoy (Alec Reusch), son of recently deceased Chief Detective Roger Purefoy (Lloyd Pedersen), intrepidly on the hunt while clueless to the fact that the russet-haired beauty who’s won his heart with a single touch (“She Touched Me”) is the guilty party.

Not that Alice has any plan to give up thievery any time soon, and certainly not for a man she has disliked at first sight, though as any You’ve Got Mail fan can tell you, instant hatred has a way of mutating into something quite the opposite given just enough time.

Broadway had probably moved on from this 1950s-style fluff by the time Drat! The Cat! debuted just a year before Cabaret took us to pre-WWII Berlin, but even in 2025 there’s still room for a musical that simply sets out to charm, and charm Drat! The Cat! does thanks to Kimmel’s sharp direction and a couple of charismatic romantic leads, and it doesn’t hurt that by shortened a couple of extended ballet sequences that would have necessitated a cast of Broadway-caliber dancers, Kimmel has brought the show in at under two hours.

Leading lady DeMaria proves the perfect blend of ingenue appeal and bad girl sauciness, and she’s got Broadway-caliber pipes to boot, and as his irresistible star turn in Promises, Promises made abundantly clear, no one at the Group Rep does fresh-faced boy-next-door better than Reusch, who is once again a charmer as the hopelessly love-besotted Bob.

Group Rep treasure Pedersen gets to play father to both Alice and Bob, returning immediately after Purefoy Sr.’s hilariously extended expiration as a Cornelius Vanderbilt/J.P. Morgan stand-in, duetting the eleventh-hour showstopper “It’s Your Fault” with the equally scene-stealing Constance Mellors as his blame-casting battleaxe of a spouse.

Featured players Ben Anderson, April Audia, Riley Cromer, Lareen Faye, Amy Goldring, Lee Grober, Doug Haverty, Angie Lin, Hisato Masuyama, Savannah Mortenson, Maxwell Oliver, Rob Schaumann, Nicole Slatin, Melissa Strauss, and Steve Young add plenty of verve as assorted high society members and crime fighters, and not since Mack Sennett has there been a more ragtag bunch of comedic police officers as the ones spotlighted in a couple of slapstick sequences to do the Keystone Cops proud.

Cheryl Baxter knows precisely how to tailor her choreography to fit the talents of a largely non-dancer cast, earning special snaps for the storytelling moves she’s added to the soft-shoe charms of DeMaria and Reusch’s “Holmes and Watson.”

Drat! The Cat! benefits enormously from Gerald Sternbach’s topnotch music direction, in particular from the production’s pitch-perfect five-piece band (Sternbach on piano joined by Tim Christensen, Paul Cotton, Tom Marino, and Craig Pilo).

Scenic designer Audrey Szot’s use of double-sided movable panels gives Drat! The Cat! a just-elegant-enough backdrop while facilitating quick scene changes. Shon LeBlanc merits major snaps for his ritzy turn-of-the-20th-century costumes and comically oversized police uniforms as do Krys Fehervari for her period wigs and Terrie Collins-Grant for her amusing props. Echo Brejcha’s lighting is vibrant, and John Harvey’s sound design would earn top marks were it not for opening night’s Act One glitches.

Drat! The Cat! is produced for the Group Rep by Koushik. Cynthia Payo is assistant director. Cathy D. Tomlin is sound mixer. Robbie Miles is lighting consultant. Maxwell Perry is stage manager.

Had Drat! The Cat! lasted longer on Broadway, L.A. might not have had to wait sixty years for it to finally reach the West Coast. It may not be Hello, Dolly or Fiddler On The Roof or How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, but anyone in search of two hours of good old-fashioned musical theater romance, comedy, and all-around fun need look no further than the Group Rep’s latest crowd-pleaser.

The Group Rep, Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood. Through April 27. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 2:00.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
March 21, 2025
Photos: Doug Engalla

Tags: Ira Levin, Los Angeles Theater Review, Milton Schafer, The Group Rep