After much hype and Twitter mockery, Cats is finally hitting theaters, but what the musical is actually about still requires some explanation. In a year where audiences were divided heavily on some of the cinematic calendar’s biggest and most hyped releases, there was something almost comforting about how everyone united in horror and delight against Cats. After the first trailer dropped during San Diego Comic-Con, social media exploded with jokes, memes, and general questions as to what the hell had just happened. The entire affair simply seemed too strange to be real, and yet it is. Arriving in cinemas at the same time as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Cats certainly has a lot to live up to.
While the film's cast and crew pleaded with audiences to give the film a fair shot after what they described as the "amusing" internet reaction, critics were merciless in their takedown of Cats. As of the writing of this post, "the most joyful event of the holiday season" as described by the movie's posters has a score of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. That doesn’t bode well for the movie given its box office competition, but it’s worth remembering that plenty of theater critics thought Cats was awful when it premiered on the West End and Broadway and that didn’t stop it from becoming one of the longest-running musicals of all time.
Cats is wildly popular for reasons that have often baffled the pop culture consciousness at large. It’s famously a show with little plot, something that the marketing for the film has done little to try and rectify. Of course, it does have a plot, albeit a thin one that deliberately takes a back seat to the physical and musical action of the show. For those who are still confused – and we don’t blame you – here is some background on what Cats is actually about.
The Origin of Cats
Cats, by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, is based on a collection of poems by noted poet T.S. Eliot. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, published in 1939, began life as a series of whimsical poems that Eliot wrote in letters to his godchildren. The book doesn't have a plot and is more about describing these cats, their character, and a bit of their life story. Lloyd Webber decided to adapt the book of poems into a musical because he was a big fan of them and was curious to see if he could write music to a pre-existing set of “lyrics” (he’s also famously a lover of cats.) Eliot's widow and the executor of his estate, Valerie Eliot, allowed him to do so but only under the condition that no other lyricist be used aside from Eliot. This posed an obvious problem for the composer and his creative team: How do you create a cohesive narrative and story around something that inherently doesn't have one?
Cats Movie Story
The cats of the title are the Jellicle tribe, a group of London felines who introduce themselves to the audience by explaining how each of the cats were named. The show's main narrator, Munkustrap, then explains how tonight is the night of the big choice, where the tribe's elder leader Old Deuteronomy will choose one of the cats to make the journey to the Heavyside Layer where they will be reborn into a new life. In the stage show, Old Deuteronomy is played by a male actor but for the film, the role has been gender-swapped to give the spotlight to Dame Judi Dench. The Heavyside Layer is a big metaphor for heaven and the basic plot of the story revolves around the Jellicle cats making their case to be the one who gets the big prize. Yes, this is a show about a bunch of cats who are way too excited about the prospect of dying.
The main cats vying for Old Deuteronomy's attention are: Jennyanydots (played by Rebel Wilson), a large and seemingly lazy tabby cat who is secretly something of a ganglord who teaches mice and cockroaches to do her bidding; Rum Tum Tugger (Jason Derulo), the bad boy of the group who does as he pleases, much to the chagrin of his brother Munkustrap; Bustopher Jones (James Corden), a fat cat of the elites who visits gentlemen's clubs and is seen as the cat about town; Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, a pair of near-identical cats and petty thieves who enjoy nothing more than causing trouble; Gus the Theater Cat (Sir Ian McKellen), a formerly famous actor suffering from palsy; and Bombalurina (Taylor Swift), the flirtatious and self-assured cat whose meanness often gets in the way of her beauty.
The lion's share of Cats is made up of these feline introductions, with each cat explaining their life and what makes them special enough to earn Old Deuteronomy's favor. It takes until midway through the show's second act for a plot to appear in the form of the evil cat Macavity (played by Idris Elba), the so-called "Napoleon of Crime" (yes, he is a riff on Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes.) Macavity's henchmen capture Old Deuteronomy then Macavity returns disguised as him. His cover is blown and he ends up in a fight with the tribe until he escapes in defeat. With the brief moment of plot out of the way, the time comes for the Jellicle Choice to be made. Before Old Deuteronomy makes their choice, the old cat Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson) appears and sings the show's most popular song "Memory" to make her case. As a former glamor cat, she has long lost her beauty and the world has shunned her. Having finally won over the previously skeptical Jellicle cats, Grizabella is chosen to go to the Heavyside Layer.
Cats Movie Songs
Cats is a show that is entirely sung-through with no stopping for dialogue beats. There are 23 credited songs in Cats, although some productions chop and change numbers to suit their needs. As with all musical adaptations seeking Oscar attention, the Cats movie has a new song courtesy of Andrew Lloyd Webber and star Taylor Swift called “Beautiful Ghosts”. The song is nominated for Best Original Song at the 77th Golden Globe Awards but failed to make the shortlist for the 2020 Academy Awards category of Best Original Song. A soundtrack album for the film was released this month and includes the new Swift song as well as a compilation of the show's more famous numbers as performed by the cast. The score is full of earworm songs like “Memory” that made the show so iconic in the first place. The music and dance are the real focus of Cats, not the plot, such as it is.
For a show that is so wildly popular, Cats often feels like it’s actively challenging its audience to understand it, thanks to its lackadaisical approach to plot and conventional narrative structure. Of course, it must work for a lot of people since Cats is considered one of the most beloved musicals in theatrical history. Whether that appeal can translate to the big screen for Cats fans and skeptics alike remains to be seen.
