Comparing Cats To A Chours Line?

I was at In the Heights this afternoon. During intermission when I went out for a smoke I overheard a conversation that a guy was having. He said that Cats is pretty much the same show as A Chours Line. The characters go up and tell their story and then go back. He said that he doesn't understand why Cats is this show that people hate and yet A Chorus Line is considered this classic Broadway musical.


I honestly didn't know what to make of this comparing Cats to A Chorus Line. I thought I would share it with you all here.

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Haha, all I have to say is Haha!

What was he smoking?

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It's a valid comparison. They are both heavy dance musicals and they both share the same concept featuring characters stepping forward one by one to tell their story hoping to be accepted.

Except, y'know, ACL was... good.

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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 an effort to tell that story better. It starts off during "The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball" letting you know exactly what the story is, introduces you to each cat, and then by the end of the night raps things up with the prostitute Grizabella's being chosen to start life anew.

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 of theatre 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 They were therefor forced to create a minimalist plot using the unpublished poems of Grizabella, Eliot's "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and fragments based on two phrases:

"Jellicle cats come out tonight, Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball" and the unpublished idea of Eliot's that a cat would eventually travel "Up, Up, Up past the Russell Hotel" and "Up, Up, Up to the Heaviside Layer".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 acceptance that ends up being a heavy subject matter for a show that is often considered to be a children's musical.

Updated On: 5/18/08 at 09:29 PM

Before I saw the show, I just went along with most people in thinking it was a show without a plot. How many people who think it doesn't have a plot have actually seen it and aren't jumping on the bandwagon like I made the mistake of doing? I agree with CATSNYrevival on this one.

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For what its worth -- literally EVERY dancer in the current cast of A CHORUS LINE has been in some production of CATS.

Back in the 80's and 90's -- EVERY dancer in any production of CATS had appeared in some production of A CHORUS LINE.

Ironic?

Many actually made their Broadway debuts during the Broadway run of CATS, including Charlotte d'Amboise who played Cassandra in the 1st Nat'l Tour then Broadway.

I know Charlotte D'Amboise was Cassandra, and I actually saw Jessica Lea Patty in the first leg of the 5th National Tour of Cats. I was talking about the ones I specifically mentioned, Deidre Goodwin, Nick Adams, Jessica Goldyn, Katherine Tokarz, Will Taylor, Jason Patrick Sands, Mike Cannon, Jeffrey Schecter, Jennifer Foote, Heather Parcells, Natalie Cortez, Dena DiGiacinto, Bryan Knowlton, Jason Tam, James T. Lane, Michelle Lone, Mara Davi, Joey Dudding, and Paul McGill. Can anyone tell me when THESE people were in Cats?

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CATS ran for 18 years on Broadway and sprouted numerous national tours. Good luck trying to get info on when those on your list appeared in any particular cast of CATS.

Your best bet is to contact each one individually as thousands upon thousands of dancers appeared in CATS throughout its lifetime and even diehard ardent fans most likely have years missing on their cast logs.

No. I enjoy them both.