音樂劇《Cats》的故事

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and other poems by T. S. Eliot. Although it has never been critically acclaimed, Cats is one of the most popular musicals of all time having been performed around the world in numerous productions (the show has been translated into over 20 languages).

The story involves a group of felines, known as the Jellicle Tribe, who inhabit a junkyard and congregate for an annual Jellicle Ball. At the conclusion of each Jellicle Ball, one cat is chosen by Old Deuteronomy to ascend to the "Heavyside Layer," a sort of cat equivalent of Heaven (a concept derived from an unpublished Eliot poem). Each cat "auditions" with a different song and/or dance number, some nominating other cats while others put themselves forward. Some minor complications involving the abduction of the Jellicle patriarch, Old Deuteronomy, by the evil Macavity occur before a cat is chosen.

The final selection turns out to be Grizabella, "the Glamour Cat," whose now-faded charms do not prevent her from singing "Memory," the show's best-known song. It has been recorded by over 150 artists, and is considered by some to be Webber's signature tune. The lyrics are based on Eliot's poems "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and "Preludes."

One of the criticisms that is often leveled at the show is that this plot is too minimal or too superficial. This has in turn led to accusations of style over content or of the show reducing art to spectacle. However, it could be argued that a number of critically acclaimed musicals, such as Top Hat, for example, also had a minimal plot where the focus was much more on the humour, characterisation and dance than on the story. Cats was originally conceived as a song cycle and the intent from the beginning appeared to be to capture a sense of the fun and style of T.S Eliot's words in music. Indeed, the focus of attention is more on the nature and structure of Jellicle society than on developing any particular character or series of events; the question, "What's a Jellicle Cat?" is posed early in the show, and everything that follows serves as part of the answer.

The name "Jellicle Cat" is derived from an attempt by T.S. Eliot's infant niece to say "dear little cat". The name "Pollicle dog" is similarly derived from an attempt by that same child to say "poor little dog".