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

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 8:19am

Shortly after the show opened in New York, I remember watching Randy Newman - of all people - telling some tv host - Tom Snyder I think it was - how much he hated it.   And adding that the only thing he enjoyed was the experiential absurdity of paying a whopping and up to that point unparalleled $45 top ticket price to see it.   $45 dollars!   If we can even imagine that by today's standards.

I don't think it's a bad show.  But overexposure can certainly demonize anything, especially a musical that's foreign, big on production, allegorical, quirky and seen by many as thin (and by some as shallow) with pretensions to grandeur... and, all together now, about cats.

Updated On: 1/22/16 at 08:19 AM

[evic]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 9:27am

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.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 10:18am

My hatred of the show, is that I want a plot if people are going to touch themselves and prance around for 2.5 hours.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 10:36am

"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.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 10:47am

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.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 1:18pm

"

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.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 1:45pm

Cats closed in September 2000, it'll be almost 15 years since it closed not almost 10.

[RaiseYouUp]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 1:47pm

You mean almost 16 years?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 1:49pm

Big difference between Les Miz and Cats

It is like comparing a Cadillac to a Hugo.

 

Best auto-correct typo in the history of great auto-correct typos!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 1:57pm

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).

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:01pm

henrikegerman said: "Shortly after the show opened in New York, I remember watching Randy Newman - of all people - telling some tv host - Tom Snyder I think it was - how much he hated it.   And adding that the only thing he enjoyed was the experiential absurdity of paying a whopping and up to that point unparalleled $45 top ticket price to see it.   $45 dollars!   If we can even imagine that by today's standards.

I don't think it's a bad show.  But overexposure can certainly demonize anything, especially a musical that's foreign, big on production, allegorical, quirky and seen by many as thin (and by some as shallow) with pretensions to grandeur... and, all together now, about cats.

 

 

"

 

Say what you will about Cats, but ALW does have some sense of what works on stage, unlike Randy Newman as he has proved a few times. 

 

I agree with your take on why it is demonized.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:07pm

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.

 

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:15pm

"Cats closed in September 2000, it'll be almost 15 years since it closed not almost 10"

 

Sorry when I went to look up the close date I did not have my reading glasses on - lol

Updated On: 1/22/16 at 02:15 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:19pm

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

[mamaleh]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:35pm

I thought CATS was an overly hyped bowl of kitty litter.  Glad I saw it via standing room and didn't waste too much $$.  But let those who enjoyed it do so again.  Go figure.    

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:40pm

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.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 2:54pm

I am not a huge Cats supporter--and see no need for a revival--but I agree with you completely.  I think it's completely snobbish to deny that the show, and the songs, *work*.  And in its way, it was very experimental and even brave to be done.  I do see the point that the heavy promotion of it, and the constant commercials, are a turn off (Cats really was the start of that heavy marketing CamMac driven machine)--I remember as a kid living in Edmonton and seeing the commercials that Cats was playing in Calgary and then having a babysitter go there to see it, being very jealous--but, A Chorus Line and 42nd Street aside, that's sorta what Broadway needed at the time (I know I'll get a lot of shaking heads for saying as much).

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 3:50pm

CATS is a show that is about quite literally nothing. 

 

Quick!  Name the important themes of CATS!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 4:12pm

Literally. There's that word again. best12bars already explained the themes perfectly in the other thread.

 

"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."

Updated On: 1/22/16 at 04:12 PM

[artscallion]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 4:19pm

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

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 4:37pm

Quick! Name the important themes of Anything Goes!

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 5:43pm

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.

[RaiseYouUp]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 7:03pm

"While I am not a big fan of the production, I think Cats shows ALW at his best."

I disagree. I think Cats is probably ALW at his worst. Evita is ALW at his best.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 7:50pm

"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

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/22/16 at 8:46pm

It's not one number. Grizabella spends the entire show seeking forgiveness and readmittance into the tribe and the other cats continually reject her.  Eliot describes her as frequenting Tottenham Court Road which for Eliot was still a prostitute district. This may be one of the reasons they no longer accept her. It may seem absurd but Eliot spends every poem assigning human characteristics to each cat.

 

The plot, however vague, is based on an unpublished poem in which a man asks "What's a Jellicle cat?" This verse is sung near the top of the show and sets up the evening which sets out to explain why Jellicle cats are unique. Not unlike A Chorus Line, each cat comes forward to "audition" for the opprtunity to travel to the Heaviside Layer to be reborn. The elements of acceptance and rebirth are present throughout the entire show.