I've wondered why ALW didn't include the Cat Morgan poem into Cats. He is known to have performed the song on the night when the Broadway production beat the Chorus Line record. I wanted to know why he included Pekes and Pollicles and not Cat Morgan. I am pleased that he incorporated Growltiger into the Gus sequence, but I've got a sense that without Pekes and Pollicles, the plot would have moved more swiftly into the Ball after Old Deut's arrival.

Were there any rights issues with the rights holders of the T.S. Eliot poems and even with Valerie Eliot? Was there anything that stipulated whether certain poems could be included?

I think they just didn't know how to make it fit in. I wouldn't know either.

Perhaps, CAT MORGAN was too similar to Gus the Theatre Cat...?

I tried to find an interview with ALW concerning Cat Morgan, but could not locate it. Even the old material we had attempted to use as a fan's book of CATS did not have it.

As for the rights to TS Eliot's poetry? Valerie Eliot was very accommodating with Nunn with most of the poetry, so I do not believe she would have stopped the use of Cat Morgan. For example: Grizabella was an unpublished poem that Valerie brought to Nunn's attention.

Rumblepurr
The Old Writer Cat

I think it's totally normal that you can't use everything for the musical. With the unpublished poems being included, they had to cut other things. Otherwise the show would be way too long. Also other songs like "The Old Gumbie Cat" or "The Ad-Dressing of Cats" are shorter than the original poems.

I might mention a little something about the song versions of Gumbie Cat and Ad-Dressing? The London album retained the verse about the "warm and sunny spots" and the "irregular diet" of the mice and the dog verse in Ad-Dressing. So Gumbie Cat is complete in the OLC album, while Ad-Dressing has more than the post-Broadway version thanks to the aforesaid verse.