| Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal | |
| Posted by: | GrumpyMorningBoy 05:01 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | CATS - Why? - MarkBearSF 04:24 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| When I landed in NYC in the late 90's, it was still playing, although it had long become the butt of New Yorkers' cynical jokes as the worst show on Broadway. A friend of mine overheard... in like at TKTS... a conversation that went like this: Woman: "CATS? What's it about?" Man: "It's about a bunch of singing and dancing cats. But there's one cat they all really hate. So they send her up to heaven on a tire." And that pretty much sums up the plot of CATS. LOL. The word on the street, in the late 90's, was that CATS was one of the few shows that largely survived from group bookings. School groups could always book without fears of material that was too grown up, and they could book it forever in advance, since it was always playing. And friends of mine who were in the Bway cast said that a HUGE portion of their audience was international groups and tourists who didn't speak English... ... it was the one show in town where you really didn't have to understand the words to enjoy the show just as much as everyone else. - GMB p.s. -- I'm told that's a big reason why STOMP and BLUE MAN GROUP are still playing today. | |
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| re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal | |
| Posted by: | Alcindoro 07:50 am EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - GrumpyMorningBoy 05:01 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| Yours seems a variant on the classic showbiz story about CATS. The way I heard it from someone in the show is this: Floor mikes on the set pick up a pre-curtain conversation between two theatre party ladies, overheard by the cast downstairs in their dressing rooms. "Sooo, what's this show about?" "CATS? Well, it's about cats... but most particularly it's about this one cat, she's kind of beautiful but kind of slutty, and then one night all the other cats put her on a big tire ... and they sing her a beautiful song ... and then they BLOW HER THROUGH THE ROOF!!" | |
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| Hal Prince on CATS | |
| Posted by: | showtunetrivia 03:42 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - Alcindoro 07:50 am EST 11/24/14 |
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| I love the story of Prince asking, "So what's this really about? The girl cat is Queen Victoria and maybe the other one is Disraeli of sonething?" And ALW patiently says, "Hal, it's about _cats_." (I'm paraphrasing Prince's comment, but that's the gist.) Laura | |
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| re: Hal Prince on CATS | |
| Posted by: | Alcindoro 04:20 pm EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | Hal Prince on CATS - showtunetrivia 03:42 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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| I recall a quote from Hal Prince when asked his opinion of the show as he was leaving the theatre after opening night: "Well ... that certainly WAS a lot of cats ...". | |
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| re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal | |
| Posted by: | MikeR 06:47 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - GrumpyMorningBoy 05:01 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| 1994. I was on a business trip to my company's home office in Connecticut with three coworkers. We flew in on Saturday so we could have Sunday to go into NYC. We hit TKTS for the matinee. I can't remember everything that was playing, but I was trying to steer my group toward Damn Yankees or An Inspector Calls. One coworker was willing to see whatever, but the other two weren't having it. Cats. That was the only show they had any interest in seeing. At all. So we saw Cats. In over 25 years of NYC theater-going, it's the only Playbill I didn't keep. | |
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| I feel you on that. After getting dragged to it a third time by a friend | |
| Posted by: | Esther 11:07 am EST 11/24/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - MikeR 06:47 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| from out of town in 1989, I stopped volunteering to go to the theater with visiting friends unless they agreed to see just about anything else. | |
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| re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal | |
| Posted by: | lordofspeech 10:11 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - MikeR 06:47 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| I loved that there was an ensemble of dancers who were constantly in character, acting-dancing up a storm. The entire cast was terrific. And I admired the showmanship of the directing and, aesthetically, I admired the way an arc was created (primarily by focussing on Grizabella and the eventual ascent) with hardly any obvious plot structure. | |
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| re: That is saying something. :( nm | |
| Posted by: | SuzanneR 07:58 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - MikeR 06:47 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| nm | |
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| re: That is saying something. :( nm | |
| Posted by: | MikeR 08:14 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | re: That is saying something. :( nm - SuzanneR 07:58 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| It was at least in part out of resentment from being "forced" to see it. But yeah... not my favorite show. | |
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| I have a different theory | |
| Posted by: | broadwaybacker 05:19 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - GrumpyMorningBoy 05:01 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| I don't remember the year (I could probably look it up) but my wife and were in London and we kept hearing the song Memory on the radio. We had never heard the song, nor had we heard of the show it was from, but the song was so haunting at the time that I'm sure we decided to see the show based on that one song, and based on the additional fact that it had a "star". So, I wonder if this was a show in which a great song was used as a marketing vehicle. | |
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| re: I have a different theory | |
| Posted by: | Singapore/Fling 09:08 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | I have a different theory - broadwaybacker 05:19 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| It was, of course, but that doesn't make a show a record-breaking hit. I just think that people love to watch cats. Before YouTube and BuzzFeed put cat photos and videos and Gifs at our disposal, we had to go to the theatre to see it. I am being 100% serious about this. | |
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| re: Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 05:14 pm EST 11/23/14 |
| In reply to: | Big family appeal, big foreign-tourist appeal - GrumpyMorningBoy 05:01 pm EST 11/23/14 |
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| "it was the one show in town where you really didn't have to understand the words to enjoy the show just as much as everyone else." That was definitely a factor. I think there were other shows during its run where you could say more or less the same thing. Phantom, for example. While knowledge of English is perhaps a bit more helpful there, still everyone more or less knows the story and it's about the music (even if some of us don't like it much) and the spectacle. The first show I can recall of which people said, "It's running a long time because you don't have to know English to enjoy it" was Dancin'. Then people also said that about 42nd Street. Perhaps someone should have done a show titled Dancin' Cats on 42nd Street. | |
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