Cats- It's Reception Then And Now

Cats is one of the most ridiculed shows there is nowadays, even hated- Now it may seem ridiculous, but the show is actually pretty good IMO. I know it was considered groundbreaking at the time, but why do you think that was? It  was such a long running success, but then what made people lose their respect for it over the years? Were people just sick of it? Why did Phantom Of The Opera, another ALW show, outlast it's run on Broadway and become the longest running Broadway show in history and it did not? 

Completely agree- Cats most certainly has a story, I've always been aware of that. 

Soaring29 said: "Do you think Phantom will ever close? I knew it would make it to 30 years, but do you really think it will make it to 40? Seems crazy, but then again, it will be running on the West End for 32 years this year and Les Miserables will be running for 33 years on the West End this year. Les Mis will probably make it to 40, but it just seems crazy that Phantom has been on Broadway THIS LONG with no sign of leaving, lol."

PHANTOM has reached such unprecedented heights in musical theatre history that it has no comparable peer it can be judged against. I think guessing when it might close is foolish because it could burn money probably for a good long while before it opts to close. It has a well established pattern of when it’s lean weeks are and when it’s high earning weeks are 

First and foremost, before touching on the material itself, the one reason CATS because such a huge sensation in the early 80s was due in part to its staging.  Both the New London Theatre (for the original 1981 London production) and the Winter Garden Theatre (for the 1982 original Broadway production) were gutted and turned into a semi-in-the-round theatre.  The orchestra pits were removed (the orchestra was hidden in the wings of each theatre) and the stages blended with the theatre floor.  Trap doors were created in between the audience's seats so the cat performers would exit and make entrances in random areas of the theatre during the performance.  Also, enormous pieces of "junk" pieces were placed throughout the entire theatre so when you walked into the theatre, you felt like you were entering the world of the cats.  You were seeing the show thru a cat's point-of-view.  The interactive nature of the staging took what was an almost plotless musical into a refreshingly new theatrical experience.  It wasn't just only on the stage but in your seat as well.  

Sadly, this elaborate staging wasn't possible in the theatres where the touring productions played so many assumed the tour was how the show looked on Broadway (or London).  In a regular proscenium theatre with an orchestra pit you did not get the same experience as you would have on Broadway or in London for all the obvious reasons.  You DID see CATS but you did not experience CATS.  

Audiences returned numerous times to see CATS at the Winter Garden Theatre (and the New London Theatre) due to the experience it was.  Entering that theatre and entering the world of CATS was something to be seen and word-of-mouth was more about that than the actual show itself.  You got your money's worth all around.  This kept the tourists coming back to it for 18 years on Broadway.  





 

Its

It is still the worst experience I have ever had in a theatre in over 40 years of theatre going.

As for now, I'd rather sit at home brushing my hair with a potato peeler than ever put myself through it again.

 

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 11:12 AM

At the time of its Bway premiere, it was clear that it was a mindless show with a few really great tunes, swell set design, and a delivery system that would work amazingly well for folks who don't speak English , i.e. foreign tourists. Not a single theater goer I knew then thought anything more of it, and many thought much less. But it was the shiny new object in an abysmal year.

What exactly is lowbrow? Certainly not the T.S. Eliot poetry, I hope.

I understand that part of it, the look and spectacle elements of the show can be seen as lowbrow, but the poetry itself, even as verse written for children, has never struck me as being lowbrow. It reads as if he was writing for some pretty intelligent children. That's what I was seeking to clarify. And there is additional poetry worked into the show including The Moments of Happiness and Rhapsody on a Windy Night for Memory. Even the unpublished work for Grizabella with references to Tottenham Court Road which for Eliot would have been a prostitute district, I imagine, wasn't written with children in mind.

Balcony seats just aren't a satisfying experience for me- Quality over quantity. 

 

I enjoyed it quite a bit as a kid as a well- the film version is spectacular and I think the show's score is highly impressive as is the dancing.