CATS: Now and Forever

by Molly

It’s time for me to shamelessly admit something. I am hopelessly, irrevocably, and unconditionally in love with Baron Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS. And it’s all thanks to the movie Barney’s Great Adventure.

I was probably three or four when I got the Barney’s Great Adventure VHS tape. Before the feature on this particular VHS, there was a trailer for a movie musical, CATS. Of course I didn’t know it then, but this trailer would be the prelude to my obsession with musicals, and in later life, my reason for pursuing a career in music performance.

After seeing the trailer (link here), I was quick to tell my parents that I wanted the movie, but as luck would have it, the CATS North American tour was in town later that month. So, instead of buying me the movie, they dressed me up and brought me to the theater to see my first Broadway show. From then on, I was absolutely in love. I would put in my cassette tape nearly every day and dance like my life depended on it.

CATS, based on the Old Possum’s Book for Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, is the story of junkyard cats who gather together once a year for a chance to go to the Heavyside Layer (Heaven). Candidates are chosen, and they must prove that they deserve to be the one to travel to the Heavyside Layer. Of course, there is a bit of romance thrown in there, along with some mischief, and some good, old-fashioned partying.

One of the most intriguing things about this musical is the fact that it doesn’t have a main character. All of the thirty-something characters are given equal attention throughout the course of the musical. Every performer is given their opportunity to shine, and every character is given their bit of storyline.

After a ridiculously successful run on the West End, CATS was brought to America, where it was performed to sold-out audiences at Madison Square Garden every night for months at a time. CATS was quick to top the charts and was eventually added to the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running broadway show of all time.

The costuming of the show has evolved by leaps and bounds since the show’s inception  in 1976. I’ve heard it said before that being a costume designer for CATS is like the ultimate Cosplay. After looking at these dramatic designs, I couldn’t agree more. In the costuming department for this particular show, everything is left up to the imagination. You can basically be as creative as you want! This would be the one show that I would kill to design for! See below the difference in the costume work for the original West End cast and their 1998 film counterparts:

For anybody who has not seen CATS, I can easily say that it is one of the most confusing, intriguing, and interesting stories I’ve ever seen on a stage. The experience you get while watching the plot play out in front of you is an addicting one. Every time you see this show, there is something new and exciting about it. I, personally, can vouch for that, having seen the show four times myself.

One of the most entertaining aspects of this show in particular is that so much of it has been left up to audience interpretation and speculation. The family relations between the characters in CATS is never made entirely clear. However, fans of the show have had nearly thirty years to pick up small clues and piece together several potential family trees. Here's an example:

As you can see, this family tree is a fairly convoluted (and polygamistic?) one. We will probably never know the intended family tree (or even if there was one in the first place), so we’ll just have to keep on watching and interpreting and speculating. What does your ideal CATS family tree look like? Let us know in the comments!

All things considered, I would say that this would have to be my favorite musical of all time. It’s the perfect show for children and families, with some phenomenal music and meaningful lyrics. Unfortunately, CATS has not toured the US for many years now, and it probably won’t be in the foreseeable future, but the Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and its film adaptation is still available in stores everywhere!

CATS is one of those shows that comes along once in a lifetime and changes the face of musical performance worldwide. They say that everything Andrew Lloyd Webber touches turns to gold, and that philosophy started with this show! Leave some comments and let me know if you like articles like this one and if you want to see more of them!

I will leave you with some interesting facts that I found while surfing the web, coming up with the info for this article.

1. After portraying Alonzo in the 1998 film adaptation of CATS, Jason Gardiner went on to be a judge on the television competition Dancing on Ice.

                                          

2.) Susan Jane Tanner, who portrayed Jellylorum in the 1998 film adaptation, also originated the role of Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables on the West End.

3.) Sarah Brightman, the original West End Jemima in CATS, also originated the role of Christine Daae in Phantom of the Opera.

A cat's entitled to expect

These evidences of respect

So this is this, and that is that

And there's how you ad-dress a cat

Life After Divergent

by Molly

Recently a new dystopian novel has taken the world by storm. Divergent has risen up to join the ranks of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Narnia - novels that define our generation. Veronica Roth’s first novel is one that begins at a lightning pace and keeps its momentum up for nearly 500 pages. I, personally, never thought that a modern-day dystopian novel could be as endearing as this. I’m one that enjoys the classics - Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and other legendary stories of people who want nothing more than to be themselves. Nobody ever would’ve thought, before reading Divergent, that Veronica Roth would one day rival George Orwell and Ayn Rand, but it has happened, and it was obvious from the first page of text.

Roth’s main character, Tris, is a young girl from a sector of society which requires its people to be selfless and worry-free. On a given day every year, all of the sixteen-year-olds from all over this society (which we later learn is “modern-day” Chicago) come to choose which sector (faction) they wish to live in for the rest of their lives. Most teenagers choose to live in the same faction that they have know for their whole lives, but Tris and a few others feel like they need a change and choose to go into Dauntless, the faction which trains warriors and forces its people to disregard their fears. The only trouble with her choosing to join Dauntless is that only ten people make it through the initiation, and Tris is the smallest and weakest of them all. If Tris didn’t get through initiation, she would be kicked out of her faction. At this point, she would be considered factionless and have to live off her own devices without any kind of community support.

Through her training, Tris meets a stoney-faced young man appropriately nicknamed Four. In his fear landscape, Four had four fears (see what they did there?), which was an anomaly of sorts. Most recruits had upwards of fifteen fears in their landscapes. Of course, as all books go, Tris and Four forge a friendship that later turns into a romance that evolves over the entirety of the three-book series.

Now that the entire trilogy has been released, we, as the fandom can look forward to the Divergent film, which will be released in March of this year. For those of you who may be fans of the BBC television series Downton Abbey, this may come as a surprise. I know I was shocked when I put the pieces together.

A little bit surprising, yes? I definitely know that I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, I know thirty seconds on Google could’ve told you that Theo also played Kemal Pamuk, but if you’re like me and still live in the dark ages, then this would’ve come as a shock. Talk about night and day!

Anyway, I’m so excited about the casting choices that they’ve made for the film. It is obvious that this film is going to be legendary simply because of the text it comes from, but then factor in the fact that you have some of Hollywood’s finest - Kate Winslet, Shailene Woodley, Ashley Judd - and now they’re preparing to bring in awards by the dozens.

If you haven’t read Divergent yet, I can highly suggest it to anyone. I will wholeheartedly admit that I was skeptical going into it. However, from the first chapter, I knew I was going to love the read. I’m not ashamed to admit that I blew through the entire series and its novellas in no more than a week and a half. Afterward, though, I was left feeling something like this:

Has anybody else ever had this feeling? Before the Divergent Trilogy, I can honestly say that the last time I’d had that feeling was after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the first time in fifth grade!

So you just finished the Divergent Trilogy and you’re wondering what to do now? Here is a list of books that I would recommend to somebody who enjoyed Divergent:

1. Matched by Ally Condie
2. 

Matched is the first book in a trilogy of books which takes place in a dystopian society years into the future. In this society, Officials decide who you love, where you work, even when you die. It’s up to Cassia to break from the norm.

2.) Evermore by Alyson Noel

Ever Bloom is the only survivor of a car crash that kills her entire family. After the accident, she has regular, in-person conversations with her dead little sister, develops intense psychic powers allowing her to read minds, and see auras. And, of course, there has to be a bit of romance!

3.) Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver is the first of the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy, written in the perspective of Grace Brisbane. For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without.

So, there you have it! Hopefully now you’ve found something to wean you off of your Divergent withdrawals. Let me know what books you’ve found and enjoyed after Divergent in the comments!