Sound of Music
Telluride Repertory Theatre

'Cate Caplin’s hand was everywhere visible. When passing out kudos for a production, I usually start with the director (in this case choreographer too) and Cate Caplin’s hand was everywhere visible. First, I’ve never seen a TellRep production with such a grand scope of dance and stage direction – every person in every scene moving in a scripted but iconic way. I loved that tableau effects, from nuns with candles to kids with curtains-for-clothes hopping into view like frogs. Second, this production had an interlapping unity and ensemble strength that made it succeed in its own right. Having been a movie and a play and a many-performed favorite, this classic can be tricky, unless the show wins audiences for what it does, not what it compares to. By weaving ensemble acting, solo performances, group songs, dance, tableau and music, Caplin deserved a standing ovation like the cast and orchestra got the Saturday night I saw it …'

Rocky Horror Show
Ray of Light Theatre

"Rocky Horror Show so good it shuts up its audience.... a well-executed live production of Rocky Horror will be a revelation for fans of the movie, because it places the energy squarely where it belongs — with the performers. In Ray of Light's joyously sleazy production at the Victoria Theatre, the near-perfect cast manages to pay tribute to the film while outpacing it in almost every way."
" .... beautifully executed production numbers .... "

~ SF Weekly

Fasten your garter belt, come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab! .... a hilarious, sinfully twisted salute to sci-fi, horror, gender-bending and rock music, all rolled into one madcap musical

~ SF Sentinal

"Director and choreographer Cate Caplin has assembled some great, young, energy-driven singers and dancers for an exuberant musical that rocks the house!"

~ Talkin' Broadway

"Director Cate Caplin's smooth helming of Richard O'Brien's 1973 musical — basis for the undying midnight movie known for its extravagant audience participation rituals — includes fine choreography and respectable turns by an enjoyable cast..."

~ San Francisco Bay Guardian

Smokey Joe’s Café
Heritage Repertory Theatre

Cate Caplin has directed and choreographed a production that moves at the speed of great sounds – barely giving the audience, much less the performers, time to catch their breath…

Every note, movement, step, expression creates a package of performances that makes you forget it’s hot outside because of the theatre heat generated inside…

Cate Caplin has outdone herself.  True, she has great performers and musicians to work with, but pulling together this show in tow and a half weeks, with all the comic and choreographic details that work so well, is incredible!

Spanish Harlem is a tribute to the overall variety and skill of Caplin’s Choreography…Caplin has created a whole escapist worls onstage…Smokey Joe’s Café sparkles…Rollicking, rocking Smokey Joe’s Café…There, is quite simply, nothing bad ab out this production… Shamlessly entertaining…

~ The Daily Press

Things are smoking at Smokey Joe’s Café…
A rollicking review of song and dance…
The proof of Caplin’s confidence and know-how lies in the seeing…
Spontaneous standing ovations and whoops of delight…
Awesome example of the power of movement…
Spanish Harlem – one of the numbers in which (Cate) Caplin proves her
Choreographic skill… It’s all such fun and movingly nostalgic to boot…

~ The Observer

 

Little Shop of Horrors
Actor's Co-Op

Under Cate Caplin’s direction, the show zips along. An amusing goof…Fun…it undeniably works…

~ LA Weekly

Cate Caplin’s direction and choreography are airtight and exemplary. Deliriously campy, this is Co-Op’s sleekest effort to date…

~ In LA Magazine

Director Cate Caplin nurtures the show’s goofy charms, wisely resisting any conceptual updates that might threaten the innocence of “Little Shop’s” Garden of Eden. There’s no denying the rosy bloom of a well-crafted staging as “Little Shop” entwines the audiences in its tendril mercies.

~ LA Times

Dames at Sea
Heritage Repertory Theatre

"Star billing should go to Cate Caplin, Who not only directed Dames, but did it's superb choreography as well...

To straight-facedly deliver a slice of parody and to do it with style and grace, is a gift. Whatever the process, the result is appropriately smashing.
~ The Observer

Cate Caplin has done a fine job directing and choreographing this funny piece of fluff. The ensemble numbers are marvelous and a couple of them stopped the show on opening night.
~ Daily Progress

E-Love
The Victory Theatre

Under the lively, well-paced direction/ choreography of Cate Caplin, Bobbi Stamm (eGirl) and Lloyd Pederson (eBoy) are a crowd-pleasing dynamic duo!

~Tolucan Times

Cate Caplin directs a piece that showcases the talents of veteran character performers Bobbi Stamm (playing as the "e-girl") and Lloyd Pedersen (as "e-boy"). They act well, they sing better, and yes--they dance, too, playing out a mini-tribute to Fred & Ginger! (Cate Caplin also handles the choreography moves.)

~LCP Live


"eLove" is a bright, big-hearted musical, written by Wayland Pickard (original book, music and lyrics) and directed and choreographed by Cate Capin. The story is funny, romantic and optimistic... The choreography is deft and eye pleasing, the actors' natural but precise and well-planned movements giving the illusion of a much larger stage. The Fred Astaire-style dance number is especially enjoyable..."

~Jackie Houchin

Floyd Collins
West Coast Ensemble

... Choreographer Cate Caplin have made use of spaces you didn't know were there and brought to appalling life the Big Carnival (as the movie was called) that sprang up over the dank cave where Floyd Collins, "the greatest caver of his day", lay trapped by a fallen rock for two winter weeks in 1925.

... remarkable... appealing ... haunting... wistful... touching

This production does full justice to all the musical's remarkable values, as well as to its subject and its theme.

~ A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review

RECOMMENDED! AMAZING! IMPRESSIVE! The show peaks at the showstopper, "Is That Remarkable?" with newshounds dashing off Cate Caplin's pencil-and-pad choreography.

~ David Nichols, LA TIMES

Camelot
Fullerton Civic Light Opera

"Cate Caplin's direction of the musical scenes and her choreography add greatly to the the staging's visual interests... A grand and glorious "Camelot."

~ Orange County Register

Cate Caplin had endowed the drama with gifted originality, choreography and musical staging. This musical is a joy!"

~ Fullerton Daily News