‘Cats the Musical,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical homage to the feline world, comes to Kelsey Theater for three weeks in March. West Windsor resident Colleen McMahon Skillman will portray Demeter, a skittish female cat, in the show presented by Playful Theater Productions weekends Friday, March 13, through Sunday, March 29. An opening night reception with the cast and crew follows the March 13 performance.
The musical “showcases me as a performer being sassy and powerful,” Skillman says. “‘Cats’ was the first show I saw on Broadway. When I saw the audition notice for ‘Cats’ only five minutes from my house, I knew I had to audition,” she says. “I knew I wanted to sing ‘Macavity: The Mystery Cat.’”
“The winner of seven Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score, “Cats” ran on Broadway for 18 years, totaling 7,485 performances. The story is based on T.S. Eliot’s collection of whimsical poems, “Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats.”
The Kelsey stage will be transformed into a trash-strewn alley populated by the Jellicle tribe celebrating at the Jellicle Ball. The cats, awaiting Old Deuteronomy’s choice of which cat will be granted a new life, audition for the chance. The characters include the narrator Munkustrap, the wise leader Old Deuteronomy, the playful prankster Rum Tum Tugger, the shunned Grizabella, the hefty Bustopher Jones, and many more.
Expressing themselves in imaginative dance and music, the cats will croon their way into fans’ hearts with unforgettable songs, including “Memory.” Jaimie McMillin of Bordentown portrays Grizabella, the formerly glamorous cat. “Her rendition of ‘Memory’ could rival any other presentation you have ever heard,” says Skillman.
Born in Trenton, Skillman was raised in Hamilton. She began her dancing career at Stewart Johnson Dance Academy when she was four. Her dance teacher, Isobel Johnson, encouraged her to go to New York City often, and Skillman was enrolled in the American Ballet Theater School when she was seven. She also danced with Princeton Ballet and appeared in “The Nutcracker” at McCarter Theater.
Her first professional experience was in the ballet “Sleeping Beauty,” televised live from Lincoln Center. She then appeared in Metropolitan Opera’s “Falstaff.” She performed as a singer and dancer in Atlantic City’s “Hollywood to Broadway” and “Salute to Swing,” and was the featured performer in “The Follies Bergere” at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. Skillman opened for Shirley Maclain, Harry Belafonte, Donna Summer, and the Manhattan Transfer on Monte Carlo’s Sporting Club stage. In 1993 she appeared as one of the Minsky Girls in the film, “Gypsy,” starring Bette Midler as Mama Rose. She later starred in “Rhythm and Rhyme” on Royal Caribbean’s Voyager cruise ship.
Skillman has studied vocals with coaches in New York City and Los Angeles, and with Richard Loatman of Trenton. “My voice also got better with experience,” she says.
Her parents, Marty and Loretta McMahon, have always been her biggest fans. “They sacrificed so much to run me into New York as a child and have been in the audience for every show I have ever done,” says Skillman. “My husband’s parents, Bob and Susan Skillman, have been a wonderful help so I could go to rehearsals.”
She and her husband, Bob Skillman, attended Steinert High School. They did not date in high school but met up years later in New York City. She was working as a lounge singer at the Trump Plaza and he was with clients. “I was singing on the piano when he came in,” she says. He is a sales director with FXALL, a provider of institutional electronic foreign exchange trading solutions in New York City. They married in 2005 and moved to West Windsor. “We were both working in New York City but it was close to the train and we loved the school system,” she says.
Their children attend schools in West Windsor and Plainsboro. Their daughter, 8, is on a competitive gymnastic team. Their son, 6, is involved in wrestling.
Skillman is also a licensed Zumba instructor who teaches classes at Mercer County College. She also teaches at Princeton YWCA’s Breast Cancer Resource Center.
“I am a retired performer and I just come out of the woodwork now and again,” says Skillman. “I haven’t done this much dancing in years, as I used to be a singer and join in as a dancer.”
CATS, Kelsey Theater, Mercer Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor. Fridays through Sundays, March 13 to 29. $20. 609-570-3333. www.kelseytheatre.net.
