Cats Workshop inspired by Ballroom Scene

BWW's article on this workshop says the characters will be played not as cats, but as humans in the drag ballroom scene. I wonder if portraying the characters as humans has been done before, perhaps regionally or abroad.

I assume the uptown ball culture setting is a new concept for the show. It feels promising to me, because it's not at odds with the text. It could give audiences another point of entry into the much maligned, thin plot by way of an alternative explanation for why we're seeing a succession of cats performing numbers about themselves.

I'm a Cats apologist who defends the show against criticisms that it has no plot. Plotlessness might not be a deal-killer for me anyway, but I feel the charge is untrue. The competition for selection to the Heaviside Layer often feels unclear until the end of the show. And the lack of direct conflict bores some audience members and confuses others. But something meaningful does happen for any audience members who connect with the characters.

If you can surrender to the episodic structure, and if a production is well produced and performed, the show rewards you not just with character-driven spectacle and feeling, but with wryly observed satires of various personality types — by Literature-Nobel-Prize-winner T.S. Eliot, no less. I enjoy hearing some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most tuneful music without any truly cringey lyrics. And when productions maintain the choreographic emphasis, the show offers a platform for talented dancers to shine brightly. I hear it was primarily regarded as a dance show before all the buzz took over.

For most Cats haters, I suspect the primary offense is the un-coolness of humans costumed and prancing about as cats. That's fair. It's certainly unnatural. But when performed with a focused intent of storytelling, the campy sensation can be overpowered by narrative craft, music, and the performers' skills.

As with any production, the artistic success of this particular workshop and any subsequent productions will depend more on execution, than on concept. For now, I'm encouraged the concept seems not just novel, but well matched to the needs of the show. By consciously reducing the overt feline uncanniness and by adding another interesting layer of narrative, this take seems positioned to give non-Cats-lovers a way in.

Fingers crossed that this works out.

Updated On: 4/11/23 at 05:22 PM

Haha

Okay it’s not for everyone.

Jimmy, I do agree with you that Cats doesn't follow a plot structure that Aristotle or Freytag would recognize. Or even Robert McKee for that matter. But I'm using 'plot' in less formal sense, something along the lines of – 'a series of causally related events that produce meaningful change'.

I guess I'm using a variation on E.M. Forster's definition of plot:

"... We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. ‘The king died and then the queen died,’ is a story. ‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief,’ is a plot. ..."

The show has such a high proportion of episodic character development and rabbit holes of world building (the Naming of Cats, Jellicle Ball, etc.) I think many people who say "Cats has no plot" are forgetting the considerably less time consuming through line around

— that's a plot. At least as some folks talk about plot. A loose one, for sure! Also one that occupies an oddly small percentage of the show's running time. But because of its placement in the show and its narrative power, I take issue with the idea that the show is plotless.

I learned something, though. You've made me realize that some people who say it's plotless know more about plot than I've realized and may have a specific kind of plot structure in mind. And I'll never be able to defend Cats against claims that it lacks an Aristotelian plot. To that charge — I simply have to roll over.

Updated On: 4/11/23 at 10:22 PM

jimmycurry01 said: "Hair doesn't have a true central plot. It has a concept that weaves together a series of vignettes, the same for Godspell."

Truer for Godspell than for Hair. With the latter, I share Someday's definition of a plot; there is a central plot, it's just not conventionally sketched out (e.g., the heavy use of songs for exposition purposes through the first half of Act I rather than a conventional book). Rado and Ragni were doing a lot of worldbuilding and scene-setting for "establishment" folks who had likely never taken an interest in their kids' lives. By the time you hit "I Got Life," at least, all of the characters have been established and the plot engine is steadily running.

The casting notice for a few roles posted in another thread kind of makes this seem like… an entirely different show that just happens to use the same character names and songs as Cats.



https://www.broadwayworld.com/equity-audition/CATS-Ronald-O-Perelman-Performing-Arts-Center-2022-26472

This is from last summer and I'm fairly certain it didn't end up happening.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Ballroom-Reimagining-of-CATS-and-More-Set-For-Perelman-Performing-Arts-Center-Inaugural-Season-20230614

Again, there is a slim chance at best that this is as unhinged as people think it is, at least if they do it right.

Next I need to see The Nutcracker in a gay ballroom setting.

I would love to see this.

morosco said: "You would have to drug me up enough to be completely unconscious and then wheelbarrow my limp body into a seat in order for me to attend."

That is because you lack artistry and vision.

Good art comes from unimaginable places, it takes visionaries to elevate material from the past and give it new life.

Theater would be nowhere if professionals didn't experiment, risk and try.

Rainah said: "I'm mad they somehow managed to find a concept that makes me want to see cats. In contrast to many here, I think it's inspired"

My feelings exactly!