The story of Cats is that in the 1930s, the famous poet T.S. Eliot wrote a book of cutesy little cat-themed poems for his godchildren
And then 40 years later, Andrew Lloyd Webber found a lost cat poem that T.S. Eliot had cut from the cat book for being too sad for children, and ALW was like “woahhh. A cat….that’s sad. That’s deep, man. I wanna make a musical out of this”
So the producer assigned to the project was like “okay, I guess you could maybe read these cat poems as a satire of 1930s British society? We could probably do something sort of interesting with that, I’m thinking a cast of about 5 and–”
And ALW was like “no. Forget the satire. Also I want a cast of dozens and the most advanced special effects technology ever seen on stage. I’ve taken out a second mortgage on my house to fund this”
And the producer was like “wh– you– wh– do you even have. a plot”
So ALW got a bunch of actors and writers and artists together and they holed up and did cocaine workshopped for 5 weeks, and at the end of it they emerged and said “the plot is that a bunch of cats are having a dance contest for the right to take a ufo to cat heaven :)”
I swear, this post as been going around for years, and the only thing I can think when I see it is, “People who think Cats is weird have never seen a ballet.”
Seriously. Cats is a ballet sprinkled with some opera. It has about as much story as The Nutcracker or The Swan Princess and nobody questions how weird it is for those shows to dress people up as animals and dance around a bare-bones plot for three to four hours.
You don’t go to a ballet for an intensive story full of plot twists and narrative logic, you go to watch exceptionally athletic people in elaborate costumes show off the amazing things they can do with their bodies, set to sweeping musical scores. Sets and special effects optional.
Cats is just that with some operatic singing added in. It’s not complicated.
obligatory Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That re furries. but I’d say there is a contextual difference between a century+ old show like the Nutcracker featuring aesop-esque rats in sexless mascot costumes, and a 1981 furbait dream ballet/orgy making 2 billion dollars from suburban families on vacation in Manhattan
My favourite ballet is about a manic depressive Austrian prince murdering his teenage mistress and then killing himself because his dad’s disappointed in him and his mother didn’t hug him enough.
I completely support the view of Cats as “normal for ballet”.
The T.S. Eliot poem features heavily in the last quarter of the movie, when the old man is reading from it to the Cat Congress.
Carousel, the thing when the palm of your hand beeps you go to this arena and are floating towards your death is just ascending to the Heavyside layer.
The story of Cats is that in the 1930s, the famous poet T.S. Eliot wrote a book of cutesy little cat-themed poems for his godchildren
And then 40 years later, Andrew Lloyd Webber found a lost cat poem that T.S. Eliot had cut from the cat book for being too sad for children, and ALW was like “woahhh. A cat….that’s sad. That’s deep, man. I wanna make a musical out of this”
So the producer assigned to the project was like “okay, I guess you could maybe read these cat poems as a satire of 1930s British society? We could probably do something sort of interesting with that, I’m thinking a cast of about 5 and–”
And ALW was like “no. Forget the satire. Also I want a cast of dozens and the most advanced special effects technology ever seen on stage. I’ve taken out a second mortgage on my house to fund this”
And the producer was like “wh– you– wh– do you even have. a plot”
So ALW got a bunch of actors and writers and artists together and they holed up and did cocaine workshopped for 5 weeks, and at the end of it they emerged and said “the plot is that a bunch of cats are having a dance contest for the right to take a ufo to cat heaven :)”
I swear, this post as been going around for years, and the only thing I can think when I see it is, “People who think Cats is weird have never seen a ballet.”
Seriously. Cats is a ballet sprinkled with some opera. It has about as much story as The Nutcracker or The Swan Princess and nobody questions how weird it is for those shows to dress people up as animals and dance around a bare-bones plot for three to four hours.
You don’t go to a ballet for an intensive story full of plot twists and narrative logic, you go to watch exceptionally athletic people in elaborate costumes show off the amazing things they can do with their bodies, set to sweeping musical scores. Sets and special effects optional.
Cats is just that with some operatic singing added in. It’s not complicated.
obligatory Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That re furries. but I’d say there is a contextual difference between a century+ old show like the Nutcracker featuring aesop-esque rats in sexless mascot costumes, and a 1981 furbait dream ballet/orgy making 2 billion dollars from suburban families on vacation in Manhattan
My favourite ballet is about a manic depressive Austrian prince murdering his teenage mistress and then killing himself because his dad’s disappointed in him and his mother didn’t hug him enough.
I completely support the view of Cats as “normal for ballet”.
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