Breaking News: CATS to Return to Broadway This Summer; Andy Blankenbuehler Joins Team — Page 3

I'm sorry, but I'm looking forward to this! I can't even call CATS a guilty pleasure; it's something that I've always genuinely enjoyed, and I always thought that the way they went about putting the show together was clever. (Not to mention that when we went to see the show on tour some years ago, we had front row seats, and it was funny to watch the "cats" interact with my younger brother, who was petrified.)

It's just mindless fun, which is what some audiences need when going to the theatre. I don't see the problem.

Phantom4ever, the New York Public Library website has a large collection of rarely seen pictures of the original cast if you're interested in seeing photographs from the original Broadway production.

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=cats+broadway

Well, maybe we'll see some compelling race and gender (and age) change-ups in the casting. It sure was a white show, back in the day (not always, but look over the cast lists after Page). Hell, put Leslie Uggams in, and let Terri White play Old Deuteronomy.

Look out. Here comes Old Deuteronomy.

I saw a touring version in Chicago many years ago and was surprised that I actually enjoyed it. There is that interminable sequence that takes place on a ship with cat pirates or something. And the songs always felt somewhat pretentious. But I will always remember lots of attractive young ladies in those tight fitting body suits.

Maybe Terrance Mann can transition from Rum Tum Tugger into Old Deuteronomy and Charlotte d'Amboise can switch from Cassandra to Grizabella. I would imagine that there are a whole host of other actors and actresses who most likely got their start in this show who are now pretty well known.

"Maybe they could set it in an insane asylum.

"Crazy Cats!"

Where they play all the instruments. Right."

Please, as if Doyle would go anywhere near this mess.

Cats. Now and Forever.

Like bedbugs.

Cockroaches.

Elmo in Times Square.

Oh joy.

ACL2006 said: "I also wondering if maybe the MISS SAIGON revival gets PPD until summer 2017 so it doesn't compete with CATS.

"

It competed with Cats in London, and did just fine. I see no reason to wait. 2016 hasn't turned out to be the greatest season so far, so the competition maybe less than 2017. No reason to wait.

Webber didn't understand the lightness of Eliot's little poems, and he really didn't understand cats as animals, and this show still blows.

Updated On: 1/21/16 at 01:15 PM

Phantom4ever, the New York Public Library website has a large collection of rarely seen pictures of the original cast if you're interested in seeing photographs from the original Broadway production.

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=cats+broadway

Unfortunately, these are just production photos of the original 1982 Broadway production. There are no photos of the house/auditorium at the Winter Garden Theatre which was visually as breathtaking as what was being performed on stage.

orangeskittles said: "CATSNYrevival- I wasn't aware TS Eliot rose from the dead in the 1980s and purposefully decided to write a musical about cats dancing around a garbage dump in spandex.

"The mess" I was referring to was actually the attention surrounding the first Broadway revival of a musical that ran for too long based on overhype that makes Hamilton look like a sleeper hit in comparison. Literally everyone will be waiting to pounce on this and call out the show for the flaws everyone ignored when it was successful.

Anyway, Doyle doesn't do dance shows and without the dance, there's no point to doing Cats, because that book can't carry the show without the shiny distractions.

First of all, please don't say "literally everyone will be waiting to pounce on it.." I know I won't and, based on some of the posts on this board, many others won't be as well. So no, literally everyone will not be waiting to pounce on it. Some people will be waiting to pounce on it.

Who cares? If ever a show was critic proof this is it. Are the critics what you mean when you incorrectly state that "literally everyone" is waiting to pounce?

As far as word of mouth goes, in my humble opinion the only people with the right to point out the flaws of the original are people who actually saw the original. Other people have no basis of opinion upon which to stand.

I would imagine that people who disliked the original will, for the most part, not attend this production so they aren't going to be able to express any informed opinions of this version.

Similarly people who never saw the original and are seeing the show for the first time have no basis of comparison upon which to express their opinions as to what the flaws were the first time around.

Finally for people who did see it the first time, enjoyed it, and come to this one....well their opinions will no doubt be shaped by the quality of this production. Some will probably like it, some will probably not. Welcome to the world of the theater.

Love the show, hate the show....but don't condemn it without even seeing what a re-imagined production can do for it. You might just be pleasantly surprised if you keep an open mind.

"

Ultimately, "Cats" and "A Chorus Line" aren't all that different, which is why I think they struck a chord with wide audience appeal and ran for so long.

Both shows are light on plot. In fact, their plots can be amply summed up in one easy sentence:

A group is gathered together to tell their stories and choose some (or one) among them who will get a chance to fulfill their dreams.

Same plot for both.

And one character in each musical gets a second chance, a "rebirth," to start over (Cassie or Grizabella).

It's in this simple message that we all are hoping for a common goal: to be accepted, loved, and granted an opportunity to fulfill our greatest dreams. Seeing an elder among them get the chance to start over is huge. It resonates with people. We are not hopeless. It's not too late.

The final moments of the cast selection in ACL and Grizabella's assent to the Heavyside Layer both had me in tears. I was far from alone, as nearly two decades on Broadway confirmed.

As a "millennial" (puke), I just feel like I dodged a bullet. The video gave me nightmares enough.