Georgina Pazcoguin on Playing Victoria in The New Broadway Revival of ‘Cats’

Georgina Pazcoguin, a New York City Ballet dancer, stars in the new Broadway revival of Cats as Victoria — the ballerina cat.

Georgina Pazcoguin On ‘Cats’

The character of Victoria was a natural fit for Pazcoguin, who has been with the New York City Ballet company since 2003. “She is featured in a lot of the dancing parts and she, as a character, represents purity, and youth, and her whole life is ahead of her,” Pazcoguin said of Victoria in an exclusive interview with uInterview. “Everything is new to Victoria, and Victoria also is very integral to the plot as she’s the first cat to truly accept Grizabella and actually touch her at the end,” Pazcoguin added, referring to the musical’s central protagonist.

Cats originally premiered in London’s West End in 1981 before it made its way to Broadway the following year, running from 1982 until 2000. For the Cats revival that launched at the Neil Simon Theatre earlier this summer, Pazcoguin explained that the approach was to keep the essence of the original production, but to subtly freshen it up.

“The creative team did not wanna bring back Cats as a brand new production. So, I believe it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who approached Andy Blankenbuehler to breathe some fresh life into the choreography and into certain aspects of the musical,” Pazcouguin revealed. “It was an ever-changing equation to find the balance between old and new. So, as someone who’s seen Cats before, you’re gonna see the Cats that you know and love, but you’re going to see — Andy’s an amazing choreographer, and the additions that he’s made are maybe gonna draw your eye to something brand new you’ve never seen before, or maybe put a different emphasis on a movement that was already there but makes the storytelling clearer.”

While the new choreography is undoubtedly a treat for audiences to take in, for Pazcoguin, some of it proved to be quite difficult to master – even for her, a professional dancer. But, more difficult than mastering the challenging steps was the singing.

“We’re all shown to our best abilities, but every single one of us was asked to do something that we’re not comfortable doing,” Pazcoguin said of the singers, dancers actors in the new Cats production. “So, I find myself singing and I sing the chorus with the other singers, but that’s not necessarily what I consider a forte of mine. I’m singing in a two-hour plus show, and dancing a million different styles. The ballet I can obviously grasp, but the ever-changing of styles throughout the evening does take a certain toll on the body and it requires a certain energy.”

Cats is currently playing at the Neil Simon Theatre.