Full disclosure: I love Cats. (The musical, not the animals because I’m allergic.) As my mother can attest to, I spent many of my middle school years listing to the double CD set of the original Broadway album, mentally cataloging the characters and memorizing the lyrics. So I’m as intrigued as anybody about this new feature-film of Cats about to be released. Will it be able to contain the same alchemy of weird wonder that has made the stage show a topic of conversation among theatre fans for so long?
As the film hits theatres nationwide, I asked my friend Christopher Gurr to share his knowledge of the show with us. Chris was in the recent Broadway revival of Cats, playing three roles including Bustopher Jones and Gus the Theatre Cat. He shared with me some of the lore of Cats that was passed down to him in rehearsal by director and conceiver Trevor Nunn about what happens in the show and why it’s still a draw for audiences today. Here’s our conversation…
