[ConverseSneaker]

My musical director is considering doing Cats next year for our show, so I was interested in finding out more about it. Me and my friend started watching the movie, but we stopped because we thought it had no plot and was entirely a show about cats that sang and danced. A little internet research explained the plot to me so I understand and like the idea of doing Cats but could someone please give me background infomation and vocal ranges on the characters?

[AngelicDramaQueen58]

Yes please!!! I would like to know too!!

I hope that she was just kidding about doing Cats though No offence but when I started to watch it, then I got distracted. Maybe if I learned more about it I think I might like it more.

[Rumblepurr]

Do this...

At the top in the yellow - left click on SHOWS

On the next screen, locate CATS and left click on it...

On the CATS screen, left click on the red button SYSNOPSIS

This will provide you with the general ideal behind the musical. You are correct in that the show has very little plot. The song lyrics are almost ALL composed of poems written by Thomas Stearns Eliot (T.S. Eliot) in the 1930s for children. The thread that ties the whole thing together is the chracter of Grizabella and her poem. For more information, read CATS: The Book of the Musical or Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and his Works by Michael Walsh.

For avocal ranges and songs, CATS: Songs from the Musical by ALW

Rumblepurr
The Writer Cat and CATS Moderator.

[Pounce]

My impression of CATS for a performer and theatrical troupe is that if you can do CATS then you can do any musical. It's demanding in costume and makeup, singing, and choreography. Fortunately, no set changes are needed although some professional productions do some.

And you won't get this from the video but CATS is a show that acknowledges that the audience is present and interacts with the audience.

[wonderjoe]

http://cats.users5.50megs.com/home.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/md/munkustrapkitty/catsofcats.html


These two links should give you tons of information on the different characters. Notably, most of the males have baritone ranges, with the major characters owning tenor ranges up to a legitimate G. The females require at least 3-4 sopranos who can sing up to high C, and that the altos are able to properly project their voices.

Unless the guys in your place happen to have tons of dance experience, I think the most important thing is that the guys have no problems being able to move well and be willing to work their tails off. I know I personally spent a lot of time learning the different stretches a dancer does and then doing them in my spare time.

[Idiosylph]

While the video is a lovely thing to have, it doesn't do the show justice at all. The best part of a live performance is the fact that the audiance is put directly into the show by two things:

1) Professional productions, and many regionals, extend the set into the audiance

2) The interaction between performers and audiances. Most productions have the cats going into the audiance - the most famous being the Rum Tum Tugger picking an audiance member out to dance with during his song. And, of course one of the basic premises behind the show is that the cats are trying to show the human audiance what a Jellicle cat is. That happens in "The Naming of Cats" and "The Ad-dressing of Cats."

The show is, like others have said, light on plot. It is carried mostly by the dance, the singing, and themes that move through the entire show. The major themes are, of course, acceptance and forgiveness, and are carried by Grizabella's character. What plot there is boils down to that every year the Jellicle cats have their annual ball where the patriarch, Old Deuteronomy, chooses a cat to be reborn into a new life. The songs sung by each cat about themselves is more or less their argument as to why they should be chosen. There are numerous inturruptions, of course.

All in all, it's a fun show. It's not ment to be serious highbrow art, but rather family entertainment that's fun. It's a demanding show on the performers, physically and vocally, but if you do it we all love you for it.