What's with the hatred of Cats? — Page 3

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The plot, however vague, is based on an unpublished poem in which a man asks "What's a Jellicle cat?"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.

RaiseYouUp said: "'...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.

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The highlighted first line above is RaiseYouUp's quote of EricMontreal. Eric's remark shows exactly why many of us hate CATS. (In all seriousness, I agree that ALW's work with Tim Rice was much more appealing.

But to put the hatred in context, at least among some of us who remember the 1980s, one has to consider how CATS arrived on these shores as "The Next Great Musical". Had it been a modest off-Broadway show, it would have been hated less AND closed in two weeks. IMO, obviously, since we can never know for sure.

Updated On: 1/22/16 at 09:43 PM

Treasure Island Media presents CATS!

Evic said: "Plus it was based on poems written by a Brit."

Who was American born and didn't change his citizenship until his late thirties.

So what was your point?

I saw the original "Cats" relatively early in its original run on Broadway. Tickets were hard to come by and expensive (for the time). It was rather a status symbol at first to say you had seen it.

I, for one, hated it. The music showed no understanding of the original poems, and more money was spent on modifying the theater than any other production item. The music was boring and irritating (especially "Jellicle Cats". The cleverness of dancers moving like felines wore off in about 5 minutes. The flying tire effect seemed pointless and risible. I did buy a wonderful teeshirt. My first serious merch adventure at a Broadway show.

No interest in seeing it. Don't know if it can be freshened up enough to play for long.

EricMontreal22 said: "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.

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Yes, but Frank Rich was the turning point and it took a decade of his championing SUNDAY IN THE PARK and other American shows before the trend in favor of British poperettas began to abate. Remember that before Rich we had a decade or two of Clive Barnes praising everything British and insisting that Broadway had to embrace rock 'n' roll. (Yes, Barnes liked COMPANY. Everybody has an off day.)

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Eric, I'm now responding to a different post of yours, but in terms of why the music for CATS is so bad, ALW took a slight volume of whimsical poetry for children and scored it as if he were writing AIDA. The bombast and over-production completely overwhelms Eliot. It's no accident that the most successful song in the show does not use an Eliot lyric.

"Memory" is still heavily based on Eliot's Rhapsody on a Windy Night, especially the first one sung at the end of act one. Memory, moonlight, street lamps and gutters... it's all there in the poem. The first verse of the "Grizabella the Glamour Cat" song is also lifted from Rhapsody on a Windy Night.

not that it matters but when i saw CATS in 1982 i hated it from the very beginning...the music is noise for the most part, and with so many look alike creatures on stage the focus was hard to gather...sorry cat lovers this person loves DOGS!...tee hee

Having seen it early in the original run...I got to see the amazing talents of Terrance Mann Cynthia Onrubia Ken Ard ..the amazing Timothy Scott and sit and hear Betty Buckley sing MEMORY like you would never hear it sung again...Was it a great show .no..but amazing performances and visually stunning..I think the music is very underrated...and the talent that came out of that show and kept people working for so many years speaks for itself

I thought it was dreadfully boring. I fell asleep, and eventually walked out. Its the only time I've done that @ a Broadway show. It wasn't bad, just not my cup of tea.

Of course not.....they hate it because it is a boring, awfully choreographed show that relies on spectacle over content.

That's not how I remember 1981- 82.

Right up to the first performance everyone thought ALW & co were out of their minds. The show opened and BACK THEN seemed like the most innovative, happening show since, perhaps 'Hair'. Of course there was a wave of hype, but it was generated on both sides of the Atlantic. Broadway was as desperate for this hit show to arrive as Really Useful and Cameron Mackintosh were keen to transfer it!

Just like with 'Les Mis' a few years later, 'Cats' then became as others have recalled, the "prestige ticket" (as ridiculed in 'American Psycho'- and we see that phenomenon today with 'Hamilton': guys showing they have enormous penises because they could afford to pay $500 for a ticket.

Ultimately, there seem to be 2 strands of hatred for 'Cats':

a) those people who just hate the content and think it's dumb and reductive (I agree)

b) those who object to a perceived cultural imperialism with the Brits throwing their weight around in America's home-grown theatre form. This, I think is a little unfair, since there were plenty of Americans who were very keen and happy to take a slice of the action from this license to print money.

The trend for British pop operas declined- as all things do- because the novelty wore off and people wanted something new, (principally the jukebox musical- so there was a real improvement!)

(I currently dislike 'Cats' for the the way ALW once again shows disregard for other artists, junking Gillian Lynne in a highly disrespectful manner, as documented in 'The Stage' this week.)

I am much more of a cat person than a dog person but while I can't say I HATE Cats the musical, I can say it's just not my cup of tea, I was completely bored with it and have absolutely no interest in seeing another version..... ever.

And there are very few shows that I will say that with - I usually can find something to enjoy in even the least well received shows. But just NO to this one.