CATS doesn't lack a plot...it has no plot to begin with. Read the poems. TS Eliot wrote some damn good work, with his Old Possoms being one of his greatest. I'm gonna disagree with that too. The book of poems does not have a plot. Eliot had intended for it to have a plot, but due to a publishing deadline had to drop it. But, the show does have a plot. It has a concept just like COMPANY has a concept. And the fact that the creators of CATS were only allowed to use the words of Tom Eliot, that they were able to produce a "story" and or concept using his unpublished poems and fragments is an achievement in and of itself.
The idea for a celebration to take place between all Jellicle cats was Tom's and Tom's alone. All cats were invited to come "with a flute and a fife and a fiddle and a drum". When he wrote that all cats were to eventually go up, up, up past the Russell Hotel and up, up, up to the Heaviside Layer the concept for an evening was already born through him. That did not come from Andrew Lloyd Webber or Trevor Nunn... not even the idea for the show to take place in a "wasteland" was original. That was all Eliot...
Updated On: 8/30/04 at 12:02 AM