There’s a reason the motto for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical CATS is “Now and Forever.” It could be that the myth is cats have nine lives, seeming to live forever. Or it could be that CATS just so happens to be the longest running musical in both British theater and on Broadway, and the longest continuously touring show in American theater history. It first opened on May 11, 1981, the same year MTV made its debut, Bob Marley died, Ronald Reagan became president, and the first Columbia space shuttle launch.
Heavily drawn from the poetry contained in T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (many of the song lyrics are directly taken from the poems), it’s mind-boggling that this play has continuously captivated so many people. After all, the same enigmatic poet who focused on people’s hidden inner lives and their tendency to avoid their conscience when making decisions was also criticized by some for being too “academic” and obtuse.
Kym Chambers, a cast member for nearly two years, thinks the musical’s appeal comes from the play’s more obvious characteristics. “I think there is so much to take from the show,” she said in a recent interview. “Kids love the cats moving around, the set, the music, the colors and the lighting. And [adults] remember it as their first theater experience and they want to [share that].”
But what about the story’s deeper elements? In the musical, the cats introduce themselves separately but the emphasis is clearly on the group, called the Jellicle Cats. The only two characters outside of the Jellicle Cats are Macavity, the villain, and Grizabella, a cat that left the group to explore the rest of the world. Like countries who rejected the opportunity to take part in George W. Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” Grizabella is shunned from the group entirely. Since she’s not with them, she’s obviously against them. The majority of the plot focuses on the cats’ annual meeting, in which one member of the group is chosen to travel to the Heaviside Layer to be reborn.
Riiiight.
The cats’ tribal mentality not only reflects our country’s current political climate, but also the American cast and crew’s nomadic lifestyle. According to Chambers, each year half of the 20-member cast stays on and re-signs their average 12-month long contracts. Along with the 11-member crew, they travel the country 52 weeks a year by charter bus and plane, only getting one day off a week and a few weeks off each year.
The lifestyle isn’t without challenges, Chambers admits. “We see each other as a family,” she says. “There’s people you get along with and people you only see on holidays. And you have to be way more respectful of privacy because there isn’t any.”
But it’s also one of the reasons she loves touring with CATS. “There’s support. How often will I have 50 people I can rely on?” she says. “When I finish my contract I’ll be hysterically crying.”
Luckily for audiences around the world, barring any major cat-astrophes (sorry) it doesn’t look like CATS will be finishing its run anytime soon. Twenty-four years later, things haven’t changed that much anyway. MTW
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