VALLEY WEEKEND : ‘Cats’ Crew Starting to Use Up Its Nine Magical Lives : The acting shows glimmers of talent, but the cast seems exhausted by demands of its tour, and the music is top-heavy with synthesizers.

Since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” long ago ceased being merely a show and became a business enterprise, with multiple touring companies crisscrossing the globe at any given moment, one must approach it in a business-like manner.

So, at the Probst Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, one wonders why there are visible bulges and wrinkles in the supposedly magical moon glowing down on Webber’s motley collection of back-street felines. One wonders why such marquee creatures as Rum Tum Tugger (J. Robert Spencer), Grizabella (Jeri Sager), Old Deuteronomy (Doug Eskew) and Gus the Theatre Cat (Andy Gale) go in and out of earshot over the Probst’s unreliable sound system.

One also wonders whether the audience at the Probst--drawn mosty from Ventura to the west San Fernando Valley--isn’t getting a bit cheated on what is reportedly the first “Cats” to perform between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the first touring production appearing at the theater.

This fourth national touring group of “Cats,” on the road since 1987, is showing signs of wear and tear. While original designer John Napier’s spectacular alley set--with junk spilling off the lip of the stage--can’t possibly travel, the set version here reproduced by Raymond Huessy is even smaller and less menacing than the last touring “Cats” this reviewer saw.

Stanley Lebowsky’s orchestrations sound top-heavy with synthesizers, economical for the road but a harsh medium for a Webber score, which dallies in rock, jazz and even faux-royalty marches.

The road, though, appears to be toughest on a cast required (with a couple of exceptions) to be dancers first and singers second. Gillian Lynne’s original choreography, with its heightened expressiveness and athletic demands, made “Cats” unique among musicals. But this ensemble seems exhausted by the demands. Billy Johnstone’s and Dana Solimando’s Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer can’t get together as a pair, and the always-long dance number, “The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles,” is clunky and unending.

Other than Joseph Favalora, who puts on a clinic as a whirling, dynamic Mistoffelees, the choice moments of this edition are of the quiet, sedentary, acting kind. Gale does remarkable double-duty as Bustopher Jones and especially as Gus, who keeps himself alive with the memories of his past theater greatness. And Sager’s Grizabella delivers “Memory” with an undercurrent of pain that makes her final redemption more than a simple happy ending.

It could all be so much more, even considering the slightness of the show before it ever hit the road. And if the Probst center is to have a profile as a venue fit for Broadway shows, it will need to be more than a tour stop for tired versions of them.

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DETAILS

CATS

* THOUSAND OAKS: Probst Performing Arts Center at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Tuesday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $25-$45.50. (805) 583-8700, (805) 449-2787, (213) 480-3232.

* ALSO: Oct. 3-8 at Pasadena Civic Center and Oct. 16-18 at McCallum Theatre, Palm Desert.