The Musical, Cats, and its Siamese Connection

Unless you've been living in isolation (and even then!) you'll have heard of the musical Cats. It opened in London in 1981, has been performed in 20 countries and 250 cities, and been translated into ten languages.

What's less-known about this musical is that it is based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, a tale by T. S. Eliot about the naming of cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber, composed the music for Cats, based on Eliot's book - he took a fancy to the poem as a child. He started to create a rough outline but it was only when he met Eliot's widow, Valerie, some years later and was shown some unpublished poems that he realized he had a great story in his hands. It would become the musical Cats.

The Cats story is about a group of cats that get together each year to sing and dance and celebrate the life of Old Deuteronomy. At the end of the night, Old Deuteronomy chooses which one of the cats will be reborn. The musical is relatively faithful to the story in Old Possum's – just a little simplified since it's on stage.

Gus, real name Asparagus, had his own story in the original Old Possum's – as an elderly music hall, theater and pantomime star. In the musical, however, he narrates and reenacts the story of Growltiger's Last Stand. Growltiger, a rough barge cat, has a crew of cats that do his bidding. He will eventually be beaten into submission by none other than Genghis (aka Gilbert in the UK edition of Old Possum's), a Siamese cat, who led a successful army of Siamese, forcing Growltiger to walk the plank.

In the original Old Possum's, there were thousands of Siamese, floating in sampans and junks, who were massing against Growltiger. In the musical cats, on the other hand, the number of Siamese had to be cut down significantly. In fact, this scene is at times cut altogether in some productions, possibly because of the large cast or elaborate costumes that would be needed for an army of Siamese cats.

In more recent and politically correct times, the lyrics were changed. The word 'chinks' was changed to Siamese, to denote the country of origin of the invaders.

Also worth noting is that a number of cat names that aren't in the original Old Possum's do appear in the musical Cats:

• Carbucketty (m)
• Cassandra (f)
• Tantomile, a twin of Coricopat in Old Possum’s (f)
• Etcetera (f)
• Exotica (f)
• Jemima (f)
• Pouncival (m)
• Sillabub (f)

In the original story there were few females – so the addition of some female felines is a welcome one.

Return from the Musical Cats to Famous Cat Names