History Theatre / Cats

Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's other [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera most famous musical]]. It's a show about cats. More precisely, it's about a tribe of cats, the Jellicle Cats, and the once-a-year event where the Jellicle Leader, Old Deuteronomy, announces the cat who can now be reborn and come back in a different Jellicle Life, after the cats spend time introducing themselves, and their fellow cats, through song. It's based, pretty much, on Creator/TSEliot's book of poems ''Literature/OldPossumsBookOfPracticalCats''. The TropeCodifier for the sub-genre of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megamusical megamusical]]" (musicals focusing heavily on special effects, highly choreographed song-and-dance numbers, elaborate setpieces, and massive ensemble casts as opposed to shows with a higher emphasis on memorable characters, dialogue, and scenes in part due to their tighter budgets), the musical was a LongRunner in ''both'' Broadway and the West End, with a Broadway revival running in 2016.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Was it Mungojerrie or Rumpleteazer? Or Rumpelteazer, or Rumpleteaser, or Rumpelteaser? The original poems use the -el spelling, but the 1998 DTV film writes it with an -le.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cats_musical_8341.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The cats--sorry, cast of the Broadway production.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The cast of the Broadway production.]]

* LongTitle: "Of the Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles, Together With Some Account of Participation of the Pugs and the Poms and the Intervention of the Great Rumpuscat".

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Was is Mungojerrie or Rumpleteazer? Or Rumpelteazer, or Rumpleteaser, or Rumpelteaser? The original poems use the -el spelling, but the 1998 DTV film writes it with an -le.

* ThievingPet: Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer are two mischievous cats that cause all sorts of trouble. Their song mentions such things as winter vests and Woolworth pearls going missing because of "that horrible cat", never quite saying which cat was responsible, but convinced it has to be one of them. They dance the song as portraying the thieving being caused by both of them working together.

** Mistoffelees is the only all-black cat, described as being black from his ears to the tip of his tail. [[note]]The realities of stage production, where lighting tends to wash out all-black costumes means that the Mistoffelees cat is usually portrayed as a tuxedo cat to bring the costume to life; the cat himself, however, is described as being all-black[[/note]] He is the most mystical cat, capable of manipulating light, telekinesis and producing electricity from his paws. He is implied to have some hypnosis, illusion and voice-throwing abilities, he does possess a psychic sixth sense, and is revealed to be capable of teleporting others or himself. In the Invitation to the Jellicle Ball, his dance is paired with the all-white Victoria for colour contrast.

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: In "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats," the stressed syllable is either JEL-li-cle or jel-li-CLE depending on the needs of the meter. Other words also get lightly tortured to fit, e.g. "magical" keeps switching between normal pronunciation and "ma-GEL-i-cal."

* ThievingPet: Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer:
-->''If the area window was found ajar and the basement looked like a field of war\\
If a tile or two came loose on the roof which presently ceased to be waterproof\\
If the drawers were pulled out from the bedroom chests\\
And you couldn't find one of your winter vests\\
Or after supper one of the girls suddenly missed her Woolworth pearls\\
\\
Then the family would say, "It's that horrible cat!\\
It was Mungojerrie or Rumpelteazer!"\\
And most of the time they left it at that''

* AllThereInTheScript: Anything pertaining to Griddlebone, save her few lines in Macavity's VillainSong.
** Although some productions include "Growltiger's Last Stand" which features Griddlebone heavily.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The Jellicles, after their opening number, notice the audience's presence.

* ComingOfAgeStory: There seems to be a lot of these, and when you aren't looking, they can get quite... physical.

** Another example lies with "Gus: The Theatre Cat". After the extremely sad ending to the song, the music immediately changes to the happy, fun "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat".
*** Only in the filmed production, where this stems from Sir John Mills' poor health not permitting him to perform the followup songs to Gus. In older performances, the song led into the energetic Growltiger, and then Skimbleshanks. In the current version, it builds into Gus performing The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles.

* AllStarCast: Invoked in the Video Version, which cast notable cast members throughout the show's history in both Broadway and West End ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And John Mills]]). The film adaptation takes this UpToEleven.

Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's other [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera most famous musical]]. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It's a show about cats.]] More precisely, it's about a tribe of cats, the Jellicle Cats, and the once-a-year event where the Jellicle Leader, Old Deuteronomy, announces the cat who can now be reborn and come back in a different Jellicle Life, after the cats spend time introducing themselves, and their fellow cats, through song. It's based, pretty much, on Creator/TSEliot's book of poems ''Literature/OldPossumsBookOfPracticalCats''. The TropeCodifier for the sub-genre of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megamusical megamusical]]" (musicals focusing heavily on special effects, highly choreographed song-and-dance numbers, elaborate setpieces, and massive ensemble casts as opposed to shows with a higher emphasis on memorable characters, dialogue, and scenes in part due to their tighter budgets), the musical was a LongRunner in ''both'' Broadway and the West End, with a Broadway revival running in 2016.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: An ensemble cast with no main character. Featured characters: Munkustrap, Rum Tum Tugger, Gus, Bustopher Jones, Bombalurina, Demeter, Griddlebone, Grizabella, Growltiger, Jellylorum, Jemima, Jennyanydots, Macavity, Mistoffelees, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer, Old Deuteronomy, Skimbleshanks, Victoria. Plus a couple more named cats.