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Other articles by Kathleen Allen:

Review: Cirque delivers, but show gets old All of the other reindeer are hilarious 'Hair': Take a trip back in time to the Age of Aquarius Christmas truce in song Noir-ish spoof next for Invisible Theatre We're giving away books on baking He envisions group nude shot among cacti Tucson's airport proudly displays works of many prominent local artists 'Oh l'Amour': You might fall in love with it 'Saltimbanco'

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"Cats" has had too many lives.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which Broadway in Tucson has brought here for an eight-show run, should have been done for by now.

Really now, it was born in London in 1981, and has played over and over again around the world — it's been in 26 countries and more than 300 cities and has been translated into 10 languages. It's even made several stops in Tucson.

And though it has T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" as its base, it's a tech show on steroids more than anything else.

Fancy lights, lots of smoke, an oversize junkyard, magic tricks, all dazzled the near-capacity opening-night audience at the Music Hall Tuesday.

As did some high-stepping choreography, impressive makeup and costumes, and a non-union cast that slinked and slithered and shimmied around the stage making us believe that they were, in fact, cats.

No, the problem with this show isn't the cast — they were energetic, most were in solid voice, and even more were talented dancers.

The problem is it's too long. And the music, with the exception of "Memory" (sung by Grizabella and given full, crystalline voice by Tricia Tanguy), is forgetful, and sometimes painful — at one point, it sounded like a dentist drill was a band instrument.

And in this production the band, at times, sounded tinny — it almost seemed as though some parts had been prerecorded.

OK, OK, admittedly it's a bit of heresy to not like "Cats" — though I haven't always been this way. The London production back in the 1980s was grand fun. So was the New York production. And the Los Angeles one, but less so.

But this play just doesn't wear that well.

Now back to this production, directed by Richard Stafford. Rum Tum Tugger, always a favorite among audiences, was given a fine rock 'n' roll swagger by Zander Meisner. Christopher E. Sidoli made Gus, the theater cat, a touching character, and he got a chance to show his operatic chops in "Growltiger's Last Stand," a bit that puts Gus in the lead role as a pirate cat in a little play-within-a-play reminiscent of the Uncle Tom's Cabin scene from "The King and I." If memory serves, that was not in the original.

Personalities were distinct and endearing in this production.

But it's not enough. This may be one of the most popular musicals of all time, but, frankly, I just don't get it.