Cats

Okay, I have heard MANY reviews on this musical. Mostly that it sucked. I mean, in Man in Chair's Book of Dreams, he was smiling in a picture in front of the theatre with the Cats marquee, and it stated that the photo was taken before he went inside. I am still pretty undecided, although I hate Memory with a passion. What makes it so bad/good in your opinion? I would go see it just to figure out my opinion on this.

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I thought it was boring. There is no storyline that I could decipher and the music is pretty unmemorable (except for the "Memories"). Good dancing, good acting - but just plain boring.

I saw CATS recently on tour expecting to be bored out of my mind, but it wasn't actually that bad.

The Good:
Some of the songs were catchy and entertaining. The show, sets, and costumes are visually appealing.

The Bad:
The plot. There really isn't one. Well, actually, there kind of is. Cats are attending the Jellicle Ball and are waiting for Old Deuteronomy to choose who will go on to live a happier life. But like, I didn't find the plot to follow what the traditional plot has to go through. Each song introduced each cat. Then at the end they choose the cat. The plot seemed very thin.

Gus the Theater Cat's song and the following pirate scene were also boring to sit through.

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Before actually having seen the show, I used to hear that there was really no plot at all. But if you actually follow the songs, and based on what happens at the end, you can see that there actually is a plot, even though the show doesn't place emphasis on it that well.

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ah, so i was incorrectly informed. lol.

soung that would confuse me or make me fall asleep. :-P

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When CATS first opened on Broadway in 1982, there really had been nothing like it before. It was spectacular and different, and despite the decidedly lukewarm reviews it was an event that had to be seen. And for the first few years of its run it was actually something of a status symbol to have seen it or have tickets to it.

And then it just continued to run. And run. And run. And run. And like all of the shows that currently seem to go on "now and forever" it went from being the latest, greatest thing to becoming the punchline of a never ending joke.

There really isn't much to the show, it's true, and its success rises and falls on the production it is given and an audience member's tolerance for whimsy. When I first saw it in December 1982, I was impressed with the show's energy and style, but I also remember thinking that if I ever saw it again, I'd probably be bored silly. When I did see it for a 2nd time, 5 years later, the only thing that kept me from running screaming from the theater was the look of enchantment on my then 7 year old niece's face. It was her first Broadway show.

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Updated On: 4/1/07 at 01:02 PM

Yo Audreytwotwo;

It's one of the shows im doing 4 the bat mitzvah. well, i have only seen the video version. but from that, which was the original cast on tape, itz good. memory is okay. rum tum tugger is interesting. and no one dies, smart 1.

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CATS does have a plot. It has an extremely detailed through line narrative if you choose to look closely enough. It's clear to me that a great deal of thought went into the devising of the order in which things needed to occur in order to tell that story better. It starts off during "The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball" letting you know exactly what the story is and then by the end of the night raps things up with the prostitute Grizabella's being chosen to start life anew.

The poems by Eliot are brilliant. The amount of creativity that went into them, and the wealth of knowledge one very much needs in order to understand each verse, and the comedy, tragedy and underlying themes presented in each one is a difficult task. I will even admit to not being able to understand, sometimes, Eliot's very sophisticated British phrasing.

It is very much a "concept" show due to the fact that T.S. Eliot had drawn up "sketches" for the purpose of using and incorporating the poems into an "evening" and I've always been rather impressed as opposed to finding it ludicrous that Webber, Nunn and Lynn were able to construct an evening of musical theatre, after Eliot's death, with the ban that the Eliot estate put on the inclusion of original material. They were therefor forced to create a "plot" using the unpublished poems of Grizabella, Eliot's "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and fragments based on two phrases:

"Jellicle cats come out tonight, Jellicle cats come one come all. The Jellicle moon is shining bright, Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball".

and the unpublished idea of Eliot's that a cat would eventually travel "Up, Up, Up past the Russell Hotel. and "Up, Up, Up to the Heaviside Layer".

It is very much a story of redemption and exceptance that ends up being a heavy subject matter for a show that is often considered to be a children's musical.

ah.
but i still dont get the reborn thing, but, of course, i dont get andrew lloyd webber. lol

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"up up up past the Russel hotel
Up up up up to the Heavyside layer"


I know it's not "popular" around theater people to like this show, but I totally LOVE this show. Saw it several times on B'way, on tour, and regionally. Maybe it's my dance background, but I can see it over and over.

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I was very excited about CATS when it first opened. I loved the score and of course, it gave me a chance to see some T.S. Eliot poetry I wasn't familiar with. When I saw the show, however, I was teaching my first children's acting class, and I kept saying that my students could do a better job than this road company. The cast was obviously bored with it, and they knew they could get away with anything, because the audience probably wouldn't know the difference.

I just thought it was a mess, and I lost interest in it quickly.

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weak,poor,dated,tourist fave,tired,old

what can i say, im a dog person

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I have to say I don't really understand why people hate Cats so much. It is essentially lacking in plot, BUT my parents took me to see it in NY twice when I was a kid. I thought it was a spectacular thing. Of course, I'm sure that's nostalgia speaking, but still, for families, its a great show--catchy music, lots of neat costumes, exciting make up, the lights, the smoke... If I had seen the show as an adult I doubt I would have been as impressed, but the reason so many people love it, I'm sure, is because we saw it as kids when we first fell in love with Broadway.

Don't get me started on Starlight Express. You haven't lived until you've seen people singing and rollerskating at the same time.