COOL CATS HAVING A BALL.

Byline: - Daily News

LANCASTER - Eighty-five actors - most of them middle school and high school students - are dancing around stage as singing cats in a production of ``Cats'' sponsored by the West Antelope Valley Education Foundation.

Put on by the local nonprofit Acme Acting Company, the musical was performed for more than 6,000 schoolchildren in daytime shows this week, and it will open to the public tonight at Lancaster Performing Arts Center.

Public shows will be at 7 p.m. today, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the theater, 750 W. Lancaster Blvd.

One of the the longest-running shows in Broadway history, ``Cats'' is based on poet T.S. Eliot's ``Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.'' The musical ran for 21 years in London and 18 years on Broadway.

Acme's cat costumes were created by hand-painting spandex body suits and adding furry heads, mitts, anklets and tails, said Bev Mewborne, who produced the show and whose husband, Mark, directed.

``We didn't copy the Broadway show. We looked at how they did it, and we figured out how to do it,'' she said. ``The effect is stunning.''

Tickets are $10 for children age 12 and younger, $14 for students and seniors age 62 and older, and $16 for general admission.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only) As Rum Tum Tugger, the spoiled, fickle pet, Michael Wells, center, sings to other feline critters in a local production of ``Cats.''

(2 -- color in AV edition only) In the Acme Acting Company's local production of ``Cats,'' Stan Ulvin as Old Deuteronomy, center, presides at a ball before naming the cat to be reborn in a new life.

(3 -- color in AV edition only) Eighty-five actors - most of them middle school and high school students - fill the stage in the local production of ``Cats.''

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer