I got the bike ride and the Mexican food, but I missed the beach. I did, however, squeeze in a Sunday afternoon show. It was Butters’ suggestion that the boys would like CATS. I’d never been, so I couldn’t form a true opinion, although I suspected that any musical would have trouble holding their interest for the duration. (I was correct.)
I’ve seen my share of musicals–not a ton–but certainly a respectable number, but I’d never seen CATS. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but assumed that since it’s been running for more than thirty years, it had a little somethin’ special.
This is what I said to my husband after the first act: “This musical is all about cats.”
Spot-on, right?
I guess I knew that, instinctively, but I didn’t imagine it would be so very…catty. It didn’t help that I somehow missed a part of the storyline early on…possibly due to not being able to understand the words of a few of the songs. All I could get was a lengthy ode to ‘Jellicle Cats’ and then some singing/dancing cat introductions.
I honestly think I needed to be a cat person to appreciate it. And I’m not a cat person. I think I’ve posted about that before. In fact, when the on-stage cats were rubbing up against each other, I had to suppress a full body cringe. What I did appreciate, very much, was that the musical was taken, almost in its entirety from a collection of poems by T. S. Eliot, written in the 1930’s. I can only assume he was a cat person.
Let’s just say I won’t be going to see a production all about cockroaches either, and leave it at that.
