Running in the country since 1983, Cats, performed in Japanese by the Shiki Theatre Company, has been presented in a number of major cities including Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Shizuoka, Hiroshima and Sendai. Pulling in more than 5.7 million people over the course of almost 6,000 performances in Japan, the musical has returned to the city of Tokyo after an absence of eight years.
The specially-designed Cats Theatre can accommodate a capacity of 1,200 on two levels of seating. The seating surrounds the round thrust stage in a 220° semi-circle. The audience is situated very close to the performance - there is only a distance of 16.5m from the lip of the stage to the back row of balcony seating.
The Cats Theatre employs an Adamson SpekTrix system comprised of eight SpekTrix and four SpekTrix Subs. The system is ground stacked on stage and aimed to provide audience coverage for both floor and balcony seating. The compact size of the SpekTrix system allows it to become easily concealed among strategically placed stage props. Shiki's Kaname Morishita surmised that: "because the SpekTrix loudspeaker has 120° of horizontal coverage, it's a great fit for this theatre, which has a semi-circular seating arrangement that extends 220° around the stage."
The Shiki Theatre Company is responsible for having built a number of both temporary and permanent theatre auditoriums within the country in which to house their performances. Collectively, the theatres present 2,800 shows per year.
"This speaker has the high end sound that we love, and nice 'punch' in the low end," said Shiki's Tsuneo Yoshido, chief sound engineer for Cats. "Right now, it's only The Cats Theatre in Gotanda (Tokyo) using the Adamson speakers, but in the future we'd like to see them in other places. We're planning to use them for our new productions."
Cats is slated for an open-end run in Tokyo, with tickets currently on sale for performances up to November 11, 2005.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
