I see that the movie version of “Cats” is out. I saw the play/musical twice, at the National Theater and the Kennedy Center. The first time I saw it I didn’t like it. The second time I saw it I didn’t like it more. Claire liked it. She said that maybe I didn’t understand it (she was right.) Claire tried to explain that each cat was like a person, and had their own personality that they (apparently) were expressing during the performance. That may be true, but I didn’t — and don’t — get it.
I’ve never been a “cat person.” I don’t necessarily dislike cats, But if I’m going to have a pet, I’d rather it be a dog — or a pig, or something. As far as cats having personalities — I guess they do, but I find most of them are just arrogant. I couldn’t figure out what “personality” any of the cats in the musical was attempting to convey.
I’ve heard of cat burglars and I’ve heard of Cat Stevens. I’ve taken cat naps, sat by copy cats, known some scaredy-cats and heard that if something’s good, it’s the cat’s meow. I’ve also heard that curiosity killed the cat. Sometimes people fight like cats and dogs and some people are referred to as fat cats. When you can’t think of something to say, people ask if the cat got your tongue. Some people are as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof and I’ve had a few projects that were as difficult as herding cats.
Guilty people sometimes look like the cat that swallowed the canary and sometimes when I enter a room, people say, “look what the cat dragged in.” Occassionally it rains like cats and dogs…. I guess all these references to cats in some way describe human behavior and maybe that was what Claire was trying to explain to me and that I should look deeper into the reason for writing a play about cats.
But — I must let the cat out of the bag — I still don’t get what Cats is all about…
— 30 —