Can you call "Cats" a musical?- Page 2

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 2:13pm

spiderdj82---I like your plot synopsis for Cats. And I'm always a bit baffled as to why others say there is no plot.

It's so obviously there, if you don't "close off" to it.

And I agree with the comparison to A Chorus Line. A group of dancers all hoping to be chosen at a single event (the audition). Stepping forward and telling their stories. Waiting for "God" to make a decision as to who gets to move to the next level.

It IS the same plot.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 2:20pm

"It IS the same plot.".

If you say so, but one is brilliant, "A Chorus Line". One is dreadful, "Cats".

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 2:34pm

I disagree, Best12bars. In A Chorus Line there is a process of selection that is in a way rational. In Cats however nothing really connects that way, it all is totally coincidental. That said, I still think it is a musical, because I consider the genre being very wide spread from the late operetta's to modern concept shows and, as much as I lament about it, even jukebox shows.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 3:51pm

What ever it is...

...I hate it.
With a passion.
I think Cats is the worst show I have ever seen, and I saw "In My Life" and "Ring of Fire."

[jimnysf]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 3:59pm

"Cats" once was the worst show I ever saw as well. However, "Lestat" has taken over that spot. I was lucky that "Ring of Fire" skipped it's scheduled San Francisco engagement and went from Buffalo straight to NYC.

[pandajen14]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 4:10pm

It is a musical...

But not a good one.

[Look_Out_Broadway]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 10:51pm

hello!!! So CATS seems to me to be the most misunderstood musical by everyone here!!! Obviously!!!. And let me tell you what CATS is really about cause you obviously are idiots!!! :) So first of all, no one has pointed out that the WHOLE show the CATS are communicating to the auidence... So in my opinion the show is breaking the 4th wall and trying to get the auidence involved with the show somehow. Now its not mean conflict, but the CATS are creating a conflict with the auidence and making you feel like your with the CATS... I know that's kinda weird sounding but i can't put this into words ish... And second of all its based on a book of poems!!! Poems don't have evil conflict in them (usually) and like some have said, its more a themed musical than it is a conflict musical!!! In my opinion, people hate CATS because they watch it and all they wanna do is critique it... HELLO!!!!! Get your heads out of your asses and enjoy something for once!!! Think about it afterward... And like people have said, it is underappreciated, I mean it won so many awards and Best Musical, so it can't be as bad as ya'll think it really is!!!

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 11:04pm

I feel that there is some form of rational decision making on Old Deaut's part...if you notice, all of the cats are very full of themselves and talk about how incredible they are...but Grizabella stands out as the one who realizes that these great qualities can come and go...and she regrets the mistakes she's made and realizes that she is not the greatest cat in all the world...her humility is what gets her chosen. So, like A Chorus Line where the most talented wins the role, the one cat who has the most humility is reborn.

Updated On: 8/11/06 at 11:04 PM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 11:12pm

"hello!!! So CATS seems to me to be the most misunderstood musical by everyone here!!! Obviously!!!. And let me tell you what CATS is really about cause you obviously are idiots!!! :)"

Well, Broadway is pleased to be warned, Look_Out_Broadway. Welcome?

And if CONTACT can be called a musical, certainly CATS can.

[blueroses]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 11:17pm

Oh, I can't help it. I absolutely loved CATS. I saw it when I was a little girl and was completely enthralled.

I did, however, get a huge kick out of Mario Cantone's hilarious snarkfest of the show in Laugh Whore (Jellicle Cats).

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 11:21pm

I think it is pretty boring to watch since I am not really into ballet and such, but I like the music a lot. I just really don't get when people say, "It was horrible . . . it had no plot," when it does but they are just being naive and critical towards it.

[blaxx]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 11:39pm

I think a lot of people have a problem trying to understand that a lot of these shows are called musicals, because that is the way they are identified, not only as musical compositions, but as the musical theatre productions we see nowadays - it's just easier to categorize them that way (imagine if they had to separate them by rock operas, musical comedies, revues, etc.)

For those same simple reasons, CATS is a musical, but of course, you identified it has other elements... it can be close to a cantata for example.

[friedrichVT]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 12:14am

Contact won best musical...no singing,no speaking....a dance concert to pre-recorded music...go figure. Ain't Broadway Grand?

[Isabella2]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 12:47am

"major kudos, elphaba. this show's extremely underappreciated."

UNDERAPPRECIATED? are you KIDDING me? It ran for like what, 20 years and is loved by every putty headed idiot nation wide. how is that underappreciated?

Oh, wait i get what your saying, underappreciated by people with intelligence... right.

Honestly, and this is the nicest way i can put it. CATS is a joke. It a musical that should have never been sent to broadway. A musical unworthy of the title "musical". In my mind, a terrible piece of crap.

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 9:31am

I say why call cats anything? They don't come when you call them.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 9:48am

Cats is fluff. I mean, most musical comedies are, but this is bad fluff. It's boring fluff. No good songs. No good jokes. Just a bunch of people running around in Cat costumes.

[Look_Out_Broadway]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 11:58am

to ghostlight2, "welcome?" meaning what??? and i've finally decided that you can't like CATS or think its good... you love it or you hate it!!!!!

[mikeyb16]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 12:48pm

i'd say CATS is mainly Musical Type too. I recently saw the 25th Anniversary UK Tour and i can honestly say it was really good. Alot of you can say what you want but i'm just being honest of my opinion

[kover22]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 12:54pm

CATS is the reason that I love Broadway!! It was the first show I saw on Broadway and I will never forget it. I am sad that so many people don't like this show. It has beautiful dancing, beautiful songs, humor and amazing people have portryed the characters. What is not to love?? I even like the plot!!! JMO

[Hawker]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 2:29pm

"I like to refer to "Cats" as the show that marks the de-evoultion of the musical theatre.

Easily THE example of the collapse of the musical theatre as an art form."

Yeah. Musical theater as an art form has really hit bottom. Since it first appeared on Broadway we've had "Sweeny Todd", "Sunday in the Park", "Ragtime", "The Lion King", "Parade", "Urinetown", "Avenue Q", "Light in the Piazza", and "Les Miserables" (you can name another 10, I'm certain) that have been artistically exceptionally well-crafted.)

A snob might suggest, in the same vein, that the evolution of R&B was a seminal element in the deevolution of big bands.

A pity. Just think how textually richer the world would have been today if every artist aspired to be the mext Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey and had not R&B ultimately inspired those radicals Elvis, Buddy, Holly, and the Beattles.

[Hawker]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 2:35pm

"Cats" is awful. "A Chorus Line" is brilliant.'

Absolutely. It's infinitley more ingenius to sit down with a tape recorder, record the stories of 1,500 Broadway dancers, and to musicalize that than it is to take a collection of poems by T.S. Elliot written for hsi grandcholdren and create a piece of theater that results in one of the most famous 10:30 songs in the history of musical theater.

[Hawker]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 2:40pm

"I call it a crime against God and Nature... ."

No matter how many times I experience it, I'm still completely dumbfounded by expressions of abject contempt for a piece of theater that doesn't arise to certain standards while often the same people who voice such contmept are silent when an exhibition features a statue of the Virgin Mary covered in excrement.

We live in interesting times.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 2:58pm

I love CATS.
Always will.
I think the people who don't like (AKA 99% of the people here) are just snotty little ****s who can't appreciate good entertainment.
I hate how CATS has such a bad rep. Appreciate it for what it is: a terrific dance show with great songs and great characters.
And it DOES have a plot, however small it may be.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 4:43pm

I worked on the original Broadway production and was involved with the creative team, and trust me, they were not trying to make any kind of "plot" musical. Trevor created some sort of thru-line but that's it. The show had more or less made its money back before casting was even finished and during rehearsals numbers were moved around randomly with no build-up of tension. If it "felt" good they kept it.

Most of the people involved (with the exeption of ALW and a few others) didn't think much of the show either...but most didn't care because they were all raking in the cash!

So glad they've changed that litter box. Now only if we could get Mama to leave town...

[matt schneider]

Posted: 8/12/06 at 4:46pm

I heard that musicals have all 3 aspects of theatre

opras dont have dance

plays dont have songs

and jukebox musicals dont have words

So it is a jukebox musical in my opinion. Haven't seen it since I was 8, and fell asleep after 3/4th of it, so I'm not sure.