By Joseph McDonough
Enquirer contributor

Cats no longer may be running "now and forever" as once advertised on Broadway, but apparently the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical hasn't used up all nine lives.

The latest incantation is a non-Equity touring version that set up its giant junkyard at the Aronoff for a week.

There's basically no plot to Cats. There's some nonsense about the annual Jellicle Ball, culminating in a cat being reincarnated and flown away in some feline flying saucer. Yeah, whatever.

The show is essentially an excuse to show off the athletic dancing and prancing of actors in cat costumes as they sing the tuneful songs set to the poems from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

The young cast (directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford) has the energy needed to please an audience that probably has seen the show multiple times.

Everybody has their favorite cat. Most of those in the full house on opening night Tuesday were purrfectly pleased by the randy gyrating tomcat Rum Tum Tugger (Stan Stanley), the amiable song and dance team of Mungojerrie (Mario Martinez) and Rumpelteazer (Katie Burns) and the acrobatic leaps and spins of Mr. Mistoffelees (Ryan Jackson).

I preferred cats with tales to tell such as old Gus the whimsical theater cat (William Hartery), mysterious criminal Macvity (Cincinnati native Karl Warden), and funny tap dancing Jennyanydots (Staci Rudnitsky).

We all agreed on Grizabella (Dee Roscioli), the tattered glamour cat that has seen better days. Grizabella gets to sing Cats' breakout hit, "Memory," twice. She doesn't disappoint either time. During the second act Tuesday the audience started applauding and cheering when Ms. Roscioli reached the climactic verse.

"Memory" may be familiar and overdone, but it is still the best song in Cats. The song's haunting beauty has the chilling power to pull you in, no matter how many times you've heard it.

That seems to be the reason, along with all the gracefully quick cat dancing, sleek costuming and cool technical effects, that audiences keep seeing Cats. Probably now and forever.

Cats, through Sunday, Broadway in Cincinnati, (513) 241-7469.