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jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-hero" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-hero"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="SpaceHolr-oayp fXtswJ ad-height-hold"></div><ma id="ma-ntent" tabx="-1" class="BasePageMaContent-kFvAuh ewPCZH page__ma-ntent"><article class="article ma-ntent" lang="en-US"><div class="ArticlePageLeBackground-EufvU tFsh"><hear class="ContentHearWrapper-clujbs bhNIJY ntent-hear article__ntent-hear"><div data-ttid="ContentHearContaer" class="ContentHearContaer-cGKRbE knDxNq"><div class="ContentHearHedAccredatnWrapper-GFiQf cDNVlV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper" class="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper-cjmSKp jbzVNV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubric" class="ContentHearRubricBlock-LmpbT kkDiIx"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubricDateBlock" class="ContentHearRubricDateBlock-kAQcZP fTFWxD"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX dZhWBL bric ContentHearRubricContaer-eTudtt iRsSlw"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/culture/culture-sk"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Culture Dk</span></a></div></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearHed-NCyCC iUEiRd NbxED hpJvIc">The Improbable Insany of “Cats”</h1></div><div class="ContentHearAccredatn-lfctVB enhwXT ntent-hear__accredatn" data-ttid="ContentHearAccredatn"><div class="ContentHearDek-bIqFFZ Mtme">How Andrew Lloyd Webber and a team of llaborators turned a strange book by T. S. Elt to a bafflg cultural phenomenon.</div><div class="ContentHearByle-kmPyCa gvUmxJ"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearContributorImage-cvjZXn jKACOU"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa ContentHearContributorImage-cvjZXn jKACOU rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="66px"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="66px"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span><div class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bqbBYQ"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/jia-tolento">Jia Tolento</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2019-12-16T06:00:00-05:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">December 16, 2019</time></div></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ContentHearLeadAsset-hGbumP iWPCcH lead-asset ContentHearLeadAssetWrapper-hfXHEc fTrSlG lead-asset--width-smallle" data-ttid="ContentHearLeadAsset"><figure class="ContentHearLeadAssetContent-kOfYSG dRGWbI"><div class="ContentHearLeadAssetContentMedia-bLEIpi jjhWdS lead-asset__ntent__photo"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb khLUzS"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz GzTSL"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb khLUzS rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Characters om the mil Cats" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></div></div></span><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn ContentHearLeadAssetCaptn-hPWmSN kuCzGS"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">The succs of “Cats” quickly shifted om a surprise to a force that would rhape the world of mil theatre.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Illtratn by Faye Moorhoe</span></div></div></figure><div data-ttid="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor" class="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor-jYVcDc 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class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg">Scholars of lerary mornism have spent relatively ltle time vtigatg T. S. Elt’s arnt and abidg love of ts. He had a lot of them, and he gave them nam like Gee Phdragon, Pettipaws, and Wisc. He thought that the “great thg” about ts was that they posssed “two quali to an extreme gree—digny and ily.” In the poem that lnched his reer, “The Love Song of J. Aled Pock,” which was published 1915, when he was twenty-six, Elt wr of a tlike “yellow fog that bs s back upon the wdow-pan,” licks “s tongue to the rners of the eveng,” mak a “sudn leap,” and curls “once about the hoe” before fallg asleep. In 1931, Elt sent an illtrated letter to his godson Tom Faber about his t Jellyom; this was the begng of what would bee “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Old Possum’s Book of Practil Cats</a>,” Elt’s only llectn of light verse. A few years later, a letter to his iend Polly Tandy—an adult—Elt explaed that there were “4 kds of Cat the Old Gumbie Cat the Practil Cat the Porpente Cat and the Big Bravo Cat; I spect that yours is a Bravo Cat by the looks of thgs.” In a letter to Polly’s dghter Alison, om 1936, Elt clud a plete draft of his poem about the Old Gumbie Cat. He signed the note his ual manner: “Your fahful Possum.”</p><p class="paywall">Elt was given the nickname Possum by Ezra Pound, who got om “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Uncle Rem</a>,” Joel Chandler Harris’s pilatn of plantatn folktal, which was published 1880. Elt lled Pound “Brer Rabb,” turn—the two men wrote to each other black dialect for fun. (Elt signed one postrd to Pound wh the name “Tar Baby.”) Elt had grown up St. Louis, a cy that staed a thrivg black theatre scene and also regularly hosted mstrel shows. (Pound was om Idaho.) In his early twenti, he wrote a poem that parodied Booker T. Washgton’s tobgraphy “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Up om Slavery</a>” as “ ‘Up From Possum Stew’ / Or ‘How I set the nigger ee!’ ” When he moved to England, his twenti, and entered a lerary tablishment that was even more nservative than the one back home, he took to intifyg himself as an uncivil outsir a way that he regularly shad as black. “I may simply prove to be a savage,” he wrote 1919. Eventually, he nverted to Anglinism and took Brish cizenship; 1928, he med on his experience as an “Amerin who wasn’t an Amerin, bee he was born the South and went to school New England as a small boy wh a nigger drawl.”</p><p class="paywall">Pound and Elt seemed to regard “the proximy of black speech to their own” as “both an opportuny to be seized and an afflictn to be regretted,” the lerary cric Michael North wr, “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Dialect of Mornism: Race, Language, and Twentieth-Century Lerature</a>.” Elt’s fondns for doggerel and light verse, particular, was tertwed wh a racist notn of blackns as a gateway to cultural disptn and lguistic play. “Old Possum’s Book of Practil Cats” required an thorial persona that facilated outright foolishns for Elt, and though explic racism largely vanish wh the actual text, do jump out ocsnally, most of all “Growltiger’s Last Stand,” which Elt, scribg Growltiger, a grisly pirate t, wr, “But most to Cats of foreign race his hatred had been vowed; / To Cats of foreign name and race no quarter was allowed.” The “Chks” swarm Growltiger’s vsel, and his lady t screech, “badly skeered.”</p><p class="paywall">The BBC broadst a rerdg of Elt’s unpublished t poems on Christmas Day, 1937. The broadst was well received, and was followed by two more stallments, the last of which was lled “Pollicl and Jellicl: Tal of Cats and Dogs Verse.” (“Pollicle dogs” and “jellicle ts” are Elt’s gloss on the way posh Brish people said “poor ltle dogs” and “ar ltle ts.”) “Old Possum’s Book of Practil Cats” was published 1939 and ntaed fourteen poems. They are eply weird: antic, hyperactive, nse wh fx-pompo elevated dictn, sometim crisp and regular, sometim nursery-rhyme nonsense. Elt’s ts are practil an archaic sense of the word: they scheme and keep by. (Mavy, a t crimal, was based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Profsor Moriarty.) Elt drew the book’s ver illtratn: a dandy helpg a le of ts climb over a wall. The book beme a h. For s to e, parents bought “Old Possum’s Book of Practil Cats” to enterta their children. Among them were a pair of micians who lived South Kensgton and had a son who would go on to wre the most popular mils the world.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">In 1994, when I was five years old, I appeared a children’s productn of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” Hoton, playg a nonscript black chos t wh the nonnonil moniker of Peaseblossom. By that pot, “Cats” was a global juggernt, on s way to beg the longt-nng Broadway show of all time. (Another Lloyd Webber mil, “Phantom of the Opera,” has sce surpassed s Broadway n.) It ran for eighteen years New York and for twenty-one years London; a Japane versn has been nng for thirty-six years straight.</p><p class="paywall">“Cats” was my first experience dog mil theatre, and I n blame much of my subsequent of semi-mted chos-le participatn—and some of my ongog attractn to cultural phenomena that ri on the borr between hellspe and paradise—on this baptism to Webber’s fele world. The magic began wh the shimmery melodrama of the mil’s overture, s melody scendg like a diva on a stairse; then me the openg number, “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats,” which is lyrilly unhged but milly transportg, a seri of synpated adrenale spik and key chang, to which we flung our ty t selv around a big, stupid whirl. The heavy-hand pop-rock pastiche of the “Cats” soundtrack turns adult sentiment to an accsible playground—I was entranced by “Mavy,” wh s “Pk Panther” burlque swg, and “The Rum Tum Tugger,” wh s rtoonish versn of rock and roll. Ftgly, the show’s story le, sofar as has one, is like somethg that a five-year-old would vent while g down om ntal anthia: there are a bunch of ts, and they’re lled Jellicle Cats, and they’re about to go to the Jellicle Ball, which is where an old t named Old Dteronomy cis which t go to the Heavisi Layer to die and be reborn. One t is named Skimblhanks, and he liv on a tra; one t is named Mr. Mistoffele, and he’s a magician; and there’s a fancy lady t named Grizabella, except she’s not so fancy anymore; and, the end, Old Dteronomy picks Grizabella and she di and gets to ri a big tire up to heaven, and that’s the end!</p><p class="paywall">Lloyd Webber first had the ia for “Cats” the late seventi. He grew bored one day durg the technil rehearsals for “Eva” and got to thkg about wrg mic for existg lyrics, somethg he’d never done. Maybe he uld e a book of poems—say, that old T. S. Elt book his mom ed to read to him. Those poems had a rhythmic flexibily, as though they’d been wrten to mic. Later, Elt’s widow, Valerie, would tell Lloyd Webber that Elt always posed his light poems wh popular songs his head. Lloyd Webber approached her 1980, vg her to an annual arts ftival that he threw at his untry home, lled Sydmonton. There he played her four sample songs om the mil he envisned. He had set “The Namg of Cats” as an eerie, dreamy admixture of sharps and flats and had given “Mavy” an unrtone of prowlg lt. Elt had once refed an adaptatn offer om Disney; Lloyd Webber promised Valerie that he wouldn’t turn her late hband’s chimeric creatns to mere “psyts.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Valerie me to Sydmonton wh an unpublished scrap of a poem about Grizabella, a t who had “hnted many a low rort.” Grizabella ma the postman sigh “as he scratched his head / You really would have thought she ought to be ad / And who would ever suppose that that / Was Grizabella the Glamour Cat.” Elt had thought Grizabella too sad for children, but Lloyd Webber saw her as a character to build a mil around. Valerie also brought a letter Elt had wrten to his publisher, which he scrib the Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats gatherg for an event where they ascend “Up, up, up, to the Rsell Hotel / Up, up, up, to the Heavisi Layer.” (“There are several ways which this might be a failure,” Elt noted.) For Lloyd Webber, the two fat signals, blkg out of a plotls void, suggted the narrative foundatn for a show.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">The ia proved anythg but irristible. No one wanted to fance the project: the show’s producer, Cameron Macktosh, had to solic small-y vtors through newspaper ads; Lloyd Webber took out a send mortgage to make up the ultimate shortfall. He had posed an epic, genre-spanng sre, g a Moog synthizer to imate meowg, but, when he played for Twyla Tharp, hopg that she would choreograph what would have to be a very dance-heavy mil—Valerie would perm the productn only if they relied entirely on Elt’s material, which left ltle room for plot or spoken dialogue—Tharp said no. A director ndidate fell asleep while Lloyd Webber was pchg him. A Warner Brothers executive remd him that half the world favored dogs. “But somehow that sane, curable, blkered optimism that overtak reason and leads otherwise normal men to stage mils had wormed far too ep,” Lloyd Webber wr his memoir, “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Unmasked</a>.” He sured London for a theatre that would f his “suicidally stupid mil.”</p><p class="paywall">He was eventually able to secure a highbrow team of lleagu, and their prence won over a waverg Valerie. Gillian Lynne, a star sce the fifti (she died last year, at the age of nety-two) signed on as the choreographer. Trevor Nunn, the artistic director of the Royal Shakpeare Company, agreed to direct, on the ndn that Judi Dench be st the show and that Webber hire two of Nunn’s prev llaborators: John Napier, to sign the stum and sets, and David Hersey, for lightg. Nunn had very strong feelgs about the show’s nceptn. “I believe all the characters MUST BE CATS,” he wrote to Lloyd Webber a letter. “Cats troducg to other ts, ts tellg what only ts n ever possibly know; ts divulgg secrets, ts argug, ts of different class, ts sexually or romantilly volved wh each other … and fally ts remag myster, sctable, unknowable and (need be said?) human.”</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">The goal, for everyone, was to skirt the realm of the domtic. Lynne imaged the ts as a pagan tribe, and she led the st through “vigoro exercis of an unual nature, leadg eventually to total eedom of what we uld attempt physilly,” she wr a memorative book that was published 1983. She wanted the ts to be “at once aloof, hypersensual, ld, warm, pletely elastic and very myster.” Napier signed a junk-yard set, full of beer bottl and r tir fabrited at t sle. “ ‘The Waste Land’ was what I based my entire mod operandi on,” he told me. As far as stumg went, he knew that he had to avoid the leral. One day, drawg a sketchpad durg rehearsal, while Lynne was “jt fartg around, havg everyone make t shap,” he said, he realized that “all the kids had leg warmers, arm warmers, slky tops of var kds, and that was almost disguise enough—the arm warmers changed the shape of the wrist so was more of a paw.” He put “slightly punky” wigs on the st, which he uld spray to the suggtn of t ears, and cid agast full face pat—mostly t nos, and dabs for whiskers. “I really tried to keep que earthy and unsophistited, a ltle street-y,” he said. “I thought, Sophistitn is really the last thg this needs.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="rrt3b"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="c8hcg8"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">“Cats” had begun to alce at the end of dns, after Nunn sisted that Lloyd Webber wre a real centerpiece for the mil, by turng the Grizabella poem agment to a ballad that uld rival “Don’t Cry for Me Argenta,” om “Eva.” Years before, Lloyd Webber had posed a Pucci-que song that was so nvcg s homage that he’d asked his father, a classil poser, to reassure him that he had not advertently plagiarized . (His father told him that sound like a ln bucks.) Lloyd Webber played his Pucci pastiche for Nunn, and Nunn lled the team over to hear , tellg them to remember where they were when they first heard this melody, which would soon bee “Memory,” a song that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 twice the neteen-eighti, wh Barbara Streisand’s versn, 1982, and Barry Manilow’s, 1983. This was one of the moments when the show’s alchemy sudnly beme visible to the creators: Nunn wr that, after the first onstage n-through, everyone cried.</p><p class="paywall">More often, the procs of puttg “Cats” together was closer to disaster. On the first day of rehearsals, Lloyd Webber’s mil director “slumped onto the piano keys and said he uldn’t play anymore,” then qu. Nunn clashed wh Lynne. Lloyd Webber worried that his songs uldn’t be sung properly through so much dancg. Twelve days before previews, Dench, who had been st as both Grizabella and the Old Gumbie Cat, Jennyanydots, llapsed mid-rehearsal and cried out, “Who kicked me?” She had snapped her Achill tendon. It stantly beme gossip that “Judi’s accint was an exce for her to jump a skg ship.”</p><p class="paywall">Five days before previews, Lynne threatened to qu the show over a set of elaborate stum for the openg number, which Napier had spent ten per cent of the show’s budget creatg. (They were difficult to dance ; Lynne won the argument, and Napier, fumg, kicked the stum to the gutter.) The same day, after wnsg a chaotic n-through of a number which the ts pretend to be dogs, Lloyd Webber and Macktosh told Nunn that what they’d seen “was not f for a stage” and clared that they were “pullg the show.” (Nunn ignored them.) Two days out, Elae Paige, who had taken Dench’s place as Grizabella, sang a versn of “Memory” that featured lethally prsive lyrics by Lloyd Webber’s longtime llaborator Tim Rice: “Daylight / I won’t re if fds me / Wh no breath my body / Wh no beat my heart.” (Rice and Lloyd Webber were the middle of endg their creative partnership, and the married Rice had recently begun an affair wh Paige.) Nunn sisted on rewrg the lyrics for the fal rehearsal, where Paige sang “Memory” wh a cmpled sheet of paper her hand.</p><p class="paywall">On the Wednday afternoon before the first preview, the Wt End, Macktosh and Lloyd Webber went to a bar to celebrate their rpective reers mil theatre, which they prumed might be over a few hours’ time. They had been hypg the productn sce a natnwi stg ll, six months before, but they had kept aspects of the show secret; the public had no ia that “Cats” featured no human characters at all. That eveng, Lloyd Webber steeled himself and went backstage. He looked at a young dancer whom he’d persuad to jo “Cats” by assurg her that would be a life-changg experience. “In three mut,” he wr his memoir, she “would n on stage as a t ught a r headlight and stigate one of the great moments of bathos theatre history.” The overture seemed to last forever, he rells: “Has there ever been such an agonizg wa for an executner’s blow?” But when the ts ran onstage, the lghter that Lloyd Webber was expectg never me. There were wav of applse. The next night, Paige’s big solo “took the roof off the buildg.” <em>The Guardian</em> lled “Cats” a “midnight psy-nventn” that managed to keep a “balance between the Eltque preoccupatn wh time and memory and sheer outgog exhilaratn.” The show was ridiculo, but was also funny, ecstatic, oddly sensual, and all-envelopg. By the weekend, dienc were givg three-mute standg ovatns.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">“Cats,” bee is about ts and not humans, pulls off a feat that, for good reason, mostly go unattempted: is a kid-iendly productn that ns on an unrcurrent of adult—and, lerally, animal—sexualy. Its abily to nvce an dience to accept the ia, for the duratn of the show, that the “Cats” universe has existed parallel to ours for centuri—and that each performance reprents some sort of breach the space-time ntuum—pends on the pacy of actors to embody, primarily through dance, fel wh multiple liv’ worth of experience. The ntours of their bodi are not myster to them, nor are they to the dience. The are ts who have spent a lot of time havg loud sex the alley. They slk, they <a href=">whip their hips around</a>. For “Cats” haters, this is one of the worst aspects of the mil. (In 1996, a woman named Evelyn Amato sued the team behd the New York productn for six ln dollars, over a moment which the actor playg Rum Tum Tugger vad her space wh his pelvis-grdg.) But to me “Cats” is proof of the ludicro heights that n be reached wh full-throated mment. One human t is a terrible acid trip; twenty of them is an unfettable night out midtown. In Elt’s book, Mr. Mistoffele is a prec creatn; the mil, he is a gay in, <a href=">bedazzled like the night sky</a>, sometim pullg off <a href=">twenty-four fouetté turns a row</a>. Lloyd Webber’s mic exaggerat the pure gto of the “Cats” poems—the strangens, doubled, somehow be mastream.</p><p class="paywall">The ial cril rponse to “Cats” was mixed, as has remaed. The <em>Daily Mail</em> lled the London productn a “marvello piece of bbish.” Of the Broadway show, the Boston <em>Globe</em> wrote, simply, “ ‘Cats’ is a dog.” But this didn’t matter: the show mted money. (The Broadway productn débuted, 1982, wh a four-and-a-half-ln-dollar budget—the most expensive the history of Broadway at the time—and six ln dollars ticket pre-sal. It ma half a ln dollars prof every week.) Celebri flocked to that first summer. Lloyd Webber threw huge parti at his hoe Sydmonton, where he had a “magnificent vast hot tub” that uld hold as many as thirty people; “nobody batted an eyelid about strippg off.” The amount of sexual energy generated by the first productn of “Cats” n perhaps be ferred om the fact that Lloyd Webber, Nunn, and Napier all married st members.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">The succs of the London productn of “Cats” quickly shifted om a surprise to a force that would rhape the world of mil theatre. The era of the tourist-iendly blockbter mil, plete wh merchandise, had begun earnt; the wake of “Cats,” small shows would fd creasgly hard to pete. Throughout the neti, <a href=">TV ads</a> for “Cats” blanketed New York. (“Cats: the magic, the mystery, the memory, will live forever,” a male voice-over whispers. “Cats: the seven-time Tony Award wner, the once--a-lifetime experience.”) In 1998, Lloyd Webber released a direct-to-VHS re-creatn of the stage mil, starrg many of the origal st members, which I owned and watched equently. In 2000, “Cats” fally retired om Broadway: one actrs, <a href=">Marlene Danielle</a>, had been the show for s entire n.</p><p class="paywall">The show was revived onstage London, om 2014 to 2016, and New York, om 2016 to 2017. Now a film adaptatn by Tom Hooper is set for a Christmas-season release. The movie is crammed wh stars: Dench is back, playg the tradnally male role of Old Dteronomy; she is joed by Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, and Taylor Swift. The first trailer was released July, and set off seismic wav of fear and agatn onle, maly ncerned wh the puter-generated aspect of the stum, which rely on what promotnal material referred to as “digal fur technology.” It appears to have plunged the actors ep to <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">unexplored crevic of the unnny valley</a>.</p><p class="paywall">I asked Napier for his thoughts on the trailer, but he told me that, out of iendly loyalty to McKellen and Dench, he was wag to take the whole movie wh h ey. I told him that the phrase “digal fur technology” had bee a buzzword. “Oh, ar,” he said. “I told Tom, you have to be very reful or they’ll end up lookg like werets. Fur is dangero terrory. For example, what are you supposed to do about their <em>tticl</em>, and their <em>dicks</em>, and their <em>ts</em>?” (He is not the only person wh <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">anatomil qutns</a>.)</p><p class="paywall">Expectatns for the movie seem to be as low as Lloyd Webber’s were for the mil’s receptn on the afternoon before the first Wt End previews. (As of this wrg, days before the movie’s première, has not yet been screened for crics.) But “Cats” has always been an outrageoly unlikely cultural phenomenon, and, the longer that persists, the more unlikely has bee; somehow, this one particular cha of highly idsyncratic creative impuls has proved so durable that we are now faced wh the prospect of Jason Delo sgg a T. S. Elt poem while clothed head to toe digal fur. (Delo plays Rum Tum Tugger the movie—a character whom Elt wrote as a ficky, mandg “cur t,” whom Webber reimaged as a Mick Jagger-que sex symbol, and then reimaged aga, for the 2014 London revival, as a rapper. I expect that Delo will be playg Rum Tum Tugger as Jason Delo.)</p><p class="paywall">Two years ago, jt before the Broadway revival closed, I went to see wh three of my iends. Two of them had seen the mil as children; both had loved as soon as the hoe lights went down and the t ey began glowg the darkns. (One of them had even btowed the name Rum Tum Tugger on a stuffed animal afterward—a dog, nohels.) My third iend had no ia what to expect. “So they’re lerally ts?” the third iend kept sayg, as we sat down. To my left was a man wh a wboy hat rtg on his knee, who poked his wife every time a new st member me onstage and said, “Look, honey—another t!” Mamie Parris played Grizabella, and, when she belted the entire climax of “Memory” a <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">sgle superhuman breath</a>, the dream logic of the mil overpowered the theatre pletely; you uld feel every hair on every arm standg on end. What an absolute nightmare, I thought, as all the other ts me out of the wgs, ready to send Grizabella to her ath. Here was a stage full of brilliant actors wrhg around t wigs and face pat, sgg psychotic Andrew Lloyd Webber songs wh T. S. Elt blackface lyrics. What a ridiculo hallucatn this was, what an stctible pleasure, what an unforeeable gift.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="djl8"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/jia-tolento"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/jia-tolento">Jia Tolento</a> is a staff wrer at The New Yorker. In 2023, she won a Natnal Magaze Award for Columns and Essays. Her first book, the say llectn “<a href=">Trick Mirror</a>,” was published 2019.</div><div class="ContributorBFooter-brqDlv ezUmSv"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="TagCloudWrapper" class="TagCloudWrapper-gGgndx ctyZyK ContentFooterTagCloud-krQmRG ZLGh"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudSectnHear-cOforY iUEiRd bPyAoD kQQRmu">More:</span><a href="/tag/broadway" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Broadway</span></a><a href="/tag/mils" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Mils</span></a><a href="/tag/movi" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Movi</span></a><a href="/tag/books" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Books</span></a><a href="/tag/ts" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Cats</span></a><a href="/tag/andrew-lloyd-webber" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Andrew Lloyd Webber</span></a></div></div></div></div><div data-ttid="ContentFooterBottom" class="ContentFooterBottom-jwWZfC kcbyiW"><div class="ContentFooterNewsletterContentWrapper-bmjtna kixtae"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper-fCqqkN jKSBhE newsletter-subscribe-form ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper-fpMElW eglIBL"><h3 class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDangeroHed-kRwWjt kbxOa-D newsletter-subscribe-form__hed ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf">Gogs On</h3><div class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDek-kXonvc cKOhTM newsletter-subscribe-form__k">What we’re watchg, listeng to, and dog this week, onle, N.Y.C., and beyond. 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kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">De Review</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/culture/--review/the-age-of-stagram-face" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Age of Instagram Face</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href="/culture/--review/the-age-of-stagram-face" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Age of Instagram Face" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">How social media, FaceTune, and plastic surgery created a sgle, cybian look.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Jia Tolento</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--article summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm dqlGhv" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" 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bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">On and Off the Avenue</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/the-quiet-protts-of-sassy-mom-merch" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Quiet Protts of Sassy Mom Merch</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href="/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/the-quiet-protts-of-sassy-mom-merch" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Quiet Protts of Sassy Mom Merch" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">A mom who wears a “ffee, we, and Amazon Prime” shirt uld be signallg her mment to dog as good a job at the excsive mands of motherhood as anyone possibly uld.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div 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SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fsJGML summary-em__bric summary-em__seri-lk"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/vio/seri/obssns"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Annals of Obssn</span></a></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">What Poprn and Vapg Have Common</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 720w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 480w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="What Poprn and Vapg Have Common" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k summary-em__k--isCneVio">Poprn has been a qutsential part of the Amerin movie theater experience for s. 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