Cats (1998)

Not the movie – the filmed recording of the stage show. It’s been years since I’ve seen this, so it was fun to revisit it when Andrew Lloyd Webber put it up for one of his free shows. I’ve never been an enormous Cats person (of the “big three” of the ‘80s – Cats, Les Mis, and Phantom – I was always a Les Mis girl,) but even if I still don’t get why it ran on Broadway for actual decades, but doesn’t mean I don’t find it enjoyable.

 

Wait, a plot summary? Don’t you know this is Cats we’re talking about? But seriously, folks…. Based on a collection of T.S. Elliot poems, the show features a group of “Jellicle” cats gathering on the night of the fabled Jellicle moon, when one of their ranks will be chosen to be reborn. While they wait, they introduce themselves to us.

 

One of the first reasons I knew the movie version was in trouble was when they cast a bunch of big-name actors for assorted roles. From what I can glean, the biggest part of the appeal of Cats is the dancing, the musical way the ensemble moves like cats. And most anyone on Broadway will tell you, it’s not often the big names who do the best dancing (I think back to the filmed recording of Newsies, where you can always tell the dancing’s about to get really awesome when Jeremy Jorden goes off to the side and sits on a box, letting the ensemble take center stage.) Cats isn’t really a star vehicle kind of show, because it depends heavily on a level of dancing you’re more likely to find in the chorus. As such, the show is, if nothing else, a visual treat. The performers walk the line between “cat” and “cat-like” well enough that it only rarely comes across as creepy, and the show features some impressive moves from multiple remembers of the cast.

 

As for the music, I know “Memory” is the big-ticket number, but I’ve always been fonder of some of the less “liftable” songs in the show, the ones that are extremely specific to whatever cat is currently being introduced to us. In particular, I like “The Rum Tum Tugger,” “Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer” (they’re my favorites – I really enjoy those Cockney cat burglers,) “Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat,” and “Mr. Mistoffelees.” They’re nothing revelatory, but they’re catchy, they’re fun, and they’re enthusiastically performed, which, in my view, are the best qualities of Cats.

 

I’ll also mention that I get a kick out of the costumes whenever the cats themselves “dress up” to represent different animals in a couple of the numbers, using whatever is on hand in the junkyard to mock up costumes for themselves. From mice to cockroaches to an assortment of dogs, it’s always clear what they’re dressing up as, but the odds and ends they use to achieve those looks are fun and creative.

 

Warnings

 

A few scary moments for kids and a few aggravating racist remarks (there’s a song where they mention Pekinese, so “of course” they have to throw a few Orientalist jokes in there, sigh.)