h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Cats- The Musical - A10766739
Author: mozz_kitten - U3602920

I really dont know what to write

Hi Mozz

well, it's a good start - but I don't really think it's quite ready for Peer Review yet.

Perhaps you could take a look at the Writing-Guidelines?

another good place to start, if you're not sure how to go on, is the Writing-Workshop. If you want to put your entry in there, first you'll have to take it out of Peer Review, and then put it thre. The procedure is pretty much the same.

Good luck!!

Hi Mozz,
Do you need help with moving this?
Go to the PeerReview page and click on the little x at the end of your listing. This will remove your entry from PeerReview.
You can then resubmit it and this time select Edited Guide Writing Workshop from the menu.
You will be met there by researchers willing to help you with the entry.

W

Just a few pointers for when you come to write a bit more Mozz (hope you don't mind)

You could put a bit more in about the development - how the choreography developed, the use of the revolve/set at the New London Theatre, the original cast - Judi Dench was in it I seem to remember until she tore her achillies; Brian Blessed, Elaine Page, Paul Nicholas... any other famous cast members.

Funnily enough, I was chatting about this with my boyfriend only last night, and regaled him with the songs, much to his chagrin. Yes, Judi Dench was set to play the original Grizabella but when she injured herself Elaine Paige took over - it was her big break, I think. Weird to think of Judi Dench doing it, as Elaine Paige has become so linked to the song 'Memory'.

Cats did tour for a while, not sure whether it still is. The set is so complex that it must be tricky to find theatres that can accommodate it. I think (from my Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals book - yes, I'm sad enough to have one) that the New London theatre had to be rebuilt to a certain extent to suit the set.

It's one of the first shows I remember knowing as a child, and I went to see it just before it closed its mammoth run - it was great.

Lbclaire

Lbclaire - hello fellow sad person! for I too have an Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals book, unfortunately it resides in the storage facility known as my parents attic! so for the purposes of this entry, I am relying on my not too great memory (bad pun alert!)

I've seen the show a couple of times, but unfortunately didn't get to see my cousin when she was in it (just before it closed)

Wow - that your cousin was in it. That might have been the one I saw as I saw it just before it closed.

I have a similar storage facility at my parent's house. I think most people do .I think my Andrew Lloyd Webber book is on one of our bookcases - along with my Rocky Horror books, my Les Miserables book, my Miss Saigon book...

So if Mozz_kitten wants any help with this, I can dig out the book.

Lbclaire

hmm wow you guys really enjoy Andrew lloyd webber productions...
I was in cats once, I played Jemime(I could never pronounce it), she's the other cat that sings Memory... Hmmm I miss it it was my favorite.
-As soon as i'm done With Jesus Christ Superstar I'll work on this one, promise!
----Amelie aka Mozz Kitten

I may be the only person ever to give a performance in 'Cats' that was influenced - kind of - by Adolf Hitler. Let me explain...

I was playing Gus, the Theatre Cat, in a production at Bradford University last November. Not long before the production I saw the great movie 'Downfall', about the last days of the Third Reich. In that film, Bruno Ganz as Hitler keeps one hand constantly trembling, to reflect the illness Hitler suffered from towards the end of his life. In 'Cats', the verses introducing Gus mention that '...he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake...', so I thought I'd nick the idea of the shaking hand. Most people I spoke to after the show understood why I'd done it, but one friend of mine said that she saw the hand and thought I was really nervous!

Lol kind of funny!, and its good that you got such a good role iv'e dont it twice both not so important characters wait no, cos i think rumpletiser aply's as important. correct?
-Amelie

Cats is my least favourite musical that I've ever seen or heard, but this is a good start on an entry about it!

I agree that writing about the famous folks who were in (or nearly in, in Dame Judi's case) the original production would be a great idea. You also need to mention 'Memory' - not a song I like, but it is very popular, and is one of only two songs where the lyrics aren't lifted directly from T.S. Eliot's poems.

You mention its reign as longest-running show on Broadway, but not the equivalent on the West End. Les Mis is about to overtake it in London, though!

I always think that Cats is very similar to A Chorus Line (which is six years older). In A Chorus Line, a bunch of dancers come along, they sing a song about themselves, something exciting briefly happens (one of them breaks an ankle) and then a bunch of them get selected, seemingly at random, to go to the next level and join the cast of a show. In Cats, a bunch of cats come along, they sing a song about themselves (or someone else sings a song about them), something exciting briefly happens (Old D is kidnapped for about five minutes) and then one of them gets selected, seemingly at random, to go up to heaven on a tyre.

Keep going with this entry.

huh wow good comparison...
I think I metioned in the entry about the fact that
It was the longest running show it's in 5th place now, Phantom is currently topping at 1st.

On another note it seems that once again
I have bit of more than I can chew so I will get to Cats whan I have the time

-Mozz Kitty

What I meant was that you wrote:

"When it opened in London in 1981 it became a sudden hit. On 19 June 1997 it became the longest running Broadway musical until the 9th of January 2006 when overtaken by The Phantom of the Opera."

You mention that it became the longest-running Broadway musical, but not that it is the longest-running West End musical as well (until 8th October this year, when Les Mis will overtake it). In terms of Broadway it is indeed still number 2. Of course, in London, Cats is way behind The Mousetrap, but that's a play rather than a musical. And in New York, both Cats and Phantom are way behind The Fantasticks, but that ran off-Broadway, not on Broadway.

Hi Mozz!

Great that you're taking this on and all that; and, I love what's been going on with JCSS. Still, if you're time is too tight to work on this right now, perhaps it would be best to remove it from PR for a time.

I only mention it because I was so disappointed when I opened it from PR to see how short it was. I was afraid that you'd gone all cheap on us!

I expect that, when you have the time to finish this, it will be a work of art. If I may, here are some thoughts for that time.

One: it may seem out of scope for the entry, but I'd like to have seen a mention of why T.S. Elliott wrote the poems. I believe it was as entertainment for nieces and or nephews on his occasional visits. I seem to remember that they kept asking for more, until there was enough to compose a small volume.

Two, you could mention the various settings that have been used in producing the musical: garbage dump, alley, etc.

Three, a mention of the dogs. No one seems to remember the dogs.

Four, some description of the costuming, and maybe a list of characters.

You get the idea. I'll be looking for it when it's really ready for PR.

The dogs... They're even more disturbing than the cats!

Maybe I have a problem with singing animals... That would be rather hypocritical, wouldn;t it?

OOOooooooh yyyyyeaaaahhhhh!
That would be a hoot!

Are you still working on this one, Mozz?


Mikey

When you get back to this, maybe have some info about some of the songs in the show?

Useless trivia alert! One of the most famous songs from the musical, Memory, wasn't actually one of TS Elliott's finished poems. Andrew Lloyd Webber & Co took a fragment and finished it off. My favourite when I went to see it was always Mcavity the Mystery Cat.

Yep, the lyrics for Memory are credited to T.S.Eliot and Trevor Nunn (the director). Tim Rice also wrote a set of lyrics for the song (vastly superior, in my opninion) which didn't get used.