Ever been hypnotized by a marsupial?

[Mayonnaise]

Lasolimu... it might help your understanding of the show not to come at it from a "plot" point of view. It's the musicalization of a book of Poems by T.S. Elliot... so yeah.... they shoehorned a little plot in there to try and string them together, but it's often easier to swallow if you ignore the plot and focus on each number as an individual work.

The music is only part of it... Andrew Lloyd Webber didn't choreograph it, and that's in my opinion one of the most impressive things about the show... the way that the cast are recognizable, in many ways simply by their movement, as distinctly feline.

BR... Old Deuteronomy is my least favorite number from that whole show... it's SUCH a pace-kill!!!!

8^)

[Lasolimu]

Lasolimu... it might help your understanding of the show not to come at it from a "plot" point of view. It's the musicalization of a book of Poems by T.S. Elliot... so yeah.... they shoehorned a little plot in there to try and string them together, but it's often easier to swallow if you ignore the plot and focus on each number as an individual work.

That was explained before they started the show, and that's exactly the problem. When I go to a show, I go for the plot and there simply isn't one in Cats. I might be able to forgive that if the music was any good, but like I said, I only really found one song to be in any way memorable. Ultimately, it's not a show for me, and I'm willing to bet that's it's not a show for a good portion of the population and most just see it once because it has ALW's name on it somewhere.

Of course there's also the fact that(this is going to sound odd coming from a furry) I find the characters extremely creepy.

[Mayonnaise]

Well if you find the whole human-feline vibe creepy, and you only want a plot... yeah... you're not gonna like it. But the point still stands that people looking at it from a different POV than yours may have reasons other than Webber-Worship to like it.

I suspect the same intangible that makes the characters "creepy" to you, is what makes them fascinating to many others of us. I know that's a person in a cat suit... not even a remotely anatomically accurate cat suit (ears hinted at with wig design, tails clearly tied around their waists, etc....) but somehow when they move the way they move in that show, my brain reads "cat." It's a really nifty cognitive dissonance.

I once knew a guy who could make you see (not just hear) him as Scooby Doo just with body language and voice change. (Improve theater rocks!) Same deal.

8^)

[hobie16]

Midnight
And the kitties are sleeping
Down by the furnace
And the birdies are cheeping

[LadySiren]

1. I'm a former musical theatre major. Got accepted to ACT in San Francisco, couldn't attend (Dad had about had kittens when he found out, insisted I get a "real" job...I went into politics instead, hah).

2. I love CATS to the point of making my own costume styled after the one in the B'way show.

3. ALW isn't for everyone; his music tends toward the pop-commercial side, which purists often dislike.

4. I regularly watch Ovation...I loved their bio piece on ALW and Phantom. Strangely enough, Phantom is one of the ALW shows I don't care for.

5. If you want plot and storyline, watch Les Miz instead. ;)

[ktulu]

If there are no special effects, booming sound system, occassional 3D glasses, expensive soda/popcorn (unless wife has coupon, usually does), or I can't hit pause to get up and pee, then I probably won't see it. I did work a spot light for a small town theater showing of Sound of Music. I just had to do it for one part, and you know that is not fun/easy to do when the girl is all over the stage and you have no idea where she is going next. I also saw Driving Miss Daisy in a small town theater. That was amusing, the sound was better on the movie though. Plus I can pause the movie, you already know why. The other times I was forced to go in school on a field trip. I guess I'm just another un-cultured, gun-totin, beer drinkin' redneck :D:

Oh, the Disney show's don't count on the above. You can do some really cool stuff when the show sits in the same building for a long time. Man, I was really impressed when they pulled out Nigel at the Finding Nemo show.

[Mayonnaise]

Hey Siren! Which Cat is your costume?

My parents wouldn't let me go into Musical Theater either... in fact they wanted me to give it up as an extracurricular too ("Time to grow up and stop playing around) so I became a graphic artist and animator... but by Junior year I had enough of NOT doing theater and joined the campus Players and I haven't stopped doing college/community theater since (the lines are kind of blurred around here since my college's Players cast outside the student body.)

I like Phantom... but not for the music... again. It has one of the most interesting autonomous changing sets I've ever seen.

8^)

[BRWombat]

Ah... community theater. I loved the shows I did back with the Beaumont Community Players. Haven't done any theater since moving to Dallas -- I get my performing fix through VM now -- but I sure have fond memories.

[LadySiren]

My cat costume wasn't modeled after one of the leads; it was more of a generic dancer costume. I did rep and college theater for quite awhile, which I loved. I'd do it now except...well, this ain't exactly a cultural hotbed. I mean, I could be a re-enactor but that's about it.

My favorite theater story: we did Jesus Christ, Superstar one year at my rep theater. There were some grumbles, especially since our college happened to be next to a convent (which came in handy, BTW, when we did Sound of Music). Our director and costumer were both gay, which have nothing to do with the story except for their outrageously hip sense of style.

Anyway, our dance captain got into a fight with the costumer because she didn't want to wear sandals when dancing onstage. She wanted the corps to wear ballet slippers. The costumer said the dancers would wear sandals or else. The dancer chose the "or else". We came back after a long weekend to find our costumes had all been changed.

Fur bikini bras, mesh bikini underwear for the men, purple satin loincloths, see-through harem pants...yeah, the dance captain was piiiiissed. She bitched to the director who promptly told her to STFU and get into costume. He also said that anyone who didn't like their costumes was welcome to exit stage left. Remarkably, nobody left.

Lets just say it made the temple orgy scene a bit wild, shall we say? Also, our lead, Paul, grew out his hair and beard...and looked just like the well-known images we've all seen of Jesus. It was freaky. People started treating him differently, LOL. We also got a hydraulic lift with a crossbar at the top where he was "crucified" every night. We also had a breakaway noose for Judas to hang himself...it had to be fixed after the first dress rehearsal where he almost hung himself for real.

Ahhhh, good times. :D:

[PatchOBlack]

After reading the above posts, let me offer a few thoughts:

First, just because something is not to your tastes does not automatically make it bad. For instance, I am not a fan of classical opera. However, I would never claim opera is bad. I simply acknowledge it is not my cup of tea.

Second, Cats does, in fact, have a plot and story. However, it is very light on exposition, with nearly no lines spoken that are not part of a song. As such, some folks do not pick up what is going on as easily as some more classical musicals. I can see how that might turn some folks off, but apparently the style worked well enough for the show to be a blockbuster hit, and I doubt it was simply because of people just going to see it once, and only then because it had a famous name attached to it.