What's with the hatred of Cats? — Page 2

The hype from the UK was so overblown. The critics there were gaga over the fact that the audience revolved around the stage during the overture...nothing new -I remember pavilions at the NY World's Fair in '65 that did the same thing.. They didn't use that in NY but had audiences sit on stage, which I believe was a first. The rising tire and cherry picker for Grizabella's ascent to heaven became a talking point just like the falling chandelier was in Phantom and later in Saigon with the helicopter. And ALW, their Rogers and Hammerstein did the music and he always gets praise by the Brits. Plus it was based on poems written by a Brit.. Breaking it down.....score- forgettable save Memory, orchestrations- great, set- very clever , lights- great (except too dark in numbers where the dancers were busting their asses), costumes, makeup wigs- beautifully executed, choreography- truly awful to those in the know, great for average theatergoer, ( I was told Lynne doesn't tap so someone else choreographed that horrific cockroach number with knives and forks), story- stupid, too many boring numbers (that horrible ship/opera number) and truly awful Peeks And Pollicles number that was met with golf course applause at the end. Performers trying to act like cats- ridiculous. A great show to bring the kids to. If you peel away the spectacle, you don't have much there there. A big hit internationally because they joined the bandwagon of overblown hype and it was not Hello Dolly. It won the best musical Tony because as in other years, there was no competition. Just my opinion.

"I just don't see the need to revive it, it ran forever and could wait another decade. "

Les Miserables ran quite long and it has been revived twice since the original run ended.

"

Big difference between Les Miz and Cats

It is like comparing a Cadillac to a Hugo. Les Miz has a story with real characters singing real songs. Cats has , well, Cats."

Yes, Les Miz is much better than Cats but did it really need to get revived twice since it originally closed. It has been almost 10 years since Cats closed so that is a decent time span for revival. No my world would not end if Cats was not done again for another decade but I am not going to be upset if it is, people can choose to not go if they don't want to see it.

You mean almost 16 years?

GavestonPS said: "I think the score is beyond tedious. When the show first opened, I listened to one side of the vinyl LP and never turned it over. "Jellicle Cats" should be a TV ad jingle; if only it were under a minute long!

"

I hate to disagree with you but... While I am not a big fan of the production, I think Cats shows ALW at his best. If I just read the poems I would never think of the many clever ways ALW sets them. It's a charming score--and makes me wonder why he doesn't work more with lyricists who challenge him (though I suspect he just uses whoever he likes to write to his melodies). Comparing it to Starlight Express, which seems to be ALW, and Nunn and Napier's attempt at a follow up, show's this in spades (though Starlight Express, at least the original London production is a childhood guilty pleasure).

GavestonPS said: "And if the hatred of the show seems out of proportion, it may be because many of us who lived in NYC in the 1980s felt the show had been shoved down our throats. It arrived pre-sold on the basis of overly ecstatic British reviews toward the end of a period when everything English was extolled as superior to everything American. I think we all give the Brits their due when it comes to straight plays, but the insistence by American critics that British musicals were also superior to ours was too much!

Or to put it more simply: think COMPANY to FOLLIES to A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC to A CHORUS LINE to SWEENEY TODD to ... CATS. It seemed a huge step backwards.

"
I've never understood this way of thinking. Maybe it's because I'm Canadian, and not American but when I was doing a theatre research paper involving reviews from the late 80s I came across, time and time again, Frank Rich (a critic I mostly admire) praising now completely forgotten, and often mediocre shows because they were American and even writing things like "Thank God for a good old American musical!" I think the backlash killed Aspects of Love (not a great show, but a much better show than the American reviews would show) and just seem off point.

I make sure to have my reading classes on whenever I attend a glass.

I agree with you, Eric. I don't understand that way of thinking that just because Cats isn't as good as Sweeney Todd that it isn't good at all. You could compare and contrast Cats to any number of shows but it's all subjective and ultimately the opinion of an individual. I love Sweeney Todd. I think it's a very well constructed and excellently written piece of theatre but I don't think about Sweeney Todd when I'm watching Cats. I also happen to be of the opinion that Cats is very well constructed and that the poems by Eliot are largely sophisticated and expertly crafted. He was a beautiful poet and I believe Webber did a magnificent job of matching each poem with a melody that made it seem as if the poem was written with that melody in mind. When reading the original book of poems there are lines and phrases that repeat just like the chorus of a song and it makes one wonder if maybe Eliot had music in mind when he wrote them.

CATS is a show that is about quite literally nothing.

Quick! Name the important themes of CATS!

The important theme of CATS is, cats don't tire easily.

Borstalboy said: "Quick! Name the important themes of CATS!"

We as a society tend to praise and worship Hollywood actresses when they are young and pretty, but as soon as they hit a certain age, suddenly we give them crap for "not aging well" and shun many of them from appearing in any more work because they don't look the way they used to.

"It's in this simple message that we all are hoping for a common goal: to be accepted, loved, and granted an opportunity to fulfill our greatest dreams. Seeing an elder among them get the chance to start over is huge. It resonates with people. We are not hopeless. It's not too late."

Thats, like, one number. What about the rest of the show?

No non-revue show is about nothing. Not even ANYTHING GOES.

Updated On: 1/22/16 at 07:50 PM