Mad Cat, that feisty Miami Shores theater company is skewing from its usual lineup of plays and kicking off a contemporary concert series, Mad Cat Live!
It was hard for me to wrap my mind around exactly what they were doing, but, as they pointed out, the company has a long tradition of interweaving live music into its theatrical productions. Furthermore, several of its core members are trained musicians from such prestigious schools as Berklee College of Music (almost right next door to where I went to college — Emerson in Boston) and University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Photographer: Elijah Peck
The Mad Cat LIVE band
So they are hauling out The Mad Cat Live! band with local musicians Darren Bruck on guitar and Jim Camacho on vocals and bass (guitar), then pairing them with company members and veteran professionals Matt Corey (multi-instrumentalist), Erik Fabregat (guitar and vocals), Brian Sayre (drums and percussion) and Steph Taylor (vocals and keyboards).
Musical direction will be by Mad Cat's founder and Miami Renaissance man, Paul Tei.
This first concert will explore Paul and Linda McCartney's (according to Mad Cat) "misunderstood masterpiece," RAM.
The album was recorded amid Paul McCartney's legal action in Britain's High Court to dissolve his current band, following their break-up the year before. It is the only album credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney.
Mad Cat explains the album this way:
An initially dismissed album that gained momentum as time passed, RAM proved to be a seminal moment for The McCartneys as they crafted a musical landscape unique to the environment the album was borne in, none other than the Mull of Kintyre countryside in Scotland. The album grapples with a transitional time for the McCartneys, displaying an earnestness and bravery that has come to define a movement of rock & roll that is still largely resonant today.
Mad Cat’s presentation of RAM will take place two nights only: Friday, July 31 and Saturday, Aug. 1 on MTC’s 330-seat MainStage at 8 p.m.
To open the performance art, the evening will begin with a short introduction on the relevance and history of RAM. To close, the musicians will be on hand for a Q&A to "discuss the impact of the music and to get to know the band," according to Mad Cat.
Thursday's sound check hosted a group of music students from across South Florida.
Tickets on are on sale now and only $20 per ticket for RAM plus applicable service fees. Tickets may be purchased online at www.madcattheater.org or on MTC’s website at www.mtcmiami.org.
The Rest of the Season
Mad Cat’s Season 15 of original work will continue with company member Theo Reyna’s (The Scottish Play) world premiere play Lazy Fair, a new comedy that explores the limits of human greed, and will take place Aug. 20 through Sept. 6 in the SandBox at MTC.
Also, a free and open to the public reading of company member Jessica Farr’s (Blow Me) play Party Girlspresented as a part of the South Florida Theater League’s Summer Theater Fest is on Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. in the SandBox.
The MTC box office is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Call 305-751-9550.
