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Synopsis

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot

ACT ONE

"When Cats Are Maddened By The Midnight Dance"

Midnight. Not a sound from the pavement.

Suddenly an explosion of lights and music fills the stage, revealing a larger-than-life junkyard. Probing car lights tear across the darkened landscape of bottles and boxes, briefly catching the darting image of a running feline.

One by one, the curious cats emerge. Tonight is the one special night each year when the tribe of Jellicle Cats reunites to celebrate who they are. In "Jellicle Songs For Jellicle Cats" they emerge singing of their unique abilities and special traits.   "We can dart through the air, like a flying trapeze, we can do double somersaults, bounce on a tire," they sing in a fusion of poetry and dance.

Can you sing at the same time in more than one key

Duets by Rossini and waltzes by Strauss

And can you as cats do begin with a "C"

That always triumphantly brings down the house

But the cats are not alone. Humans (the audience) are present in the cats' private world. The cats are at first reluctant and suspicious to include others in their domain. They are proud, however, and in "The Naming of Cats" they explain to their human visitors who they are and reveal that cats have three different names: the one the family uses daily, the more dignified name and a secret name. It is the cat's contemplation of the latter that keeps felines in deep thought.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation

The reason I tell you is always the same

His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation

of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name

The young and innocent white cat Victoria performs a solo dance, which signals the beginning of "The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball." Munkustrap, a large grey tabby who serves as the show's narrator, explains that the Jellicle Cats meet once a year to rejoice! He also explains that they are waiting for their leader, the wise Old Deuteronomy, who will choose which one of the Jellicle Cats will this year journey to the Heavyside Layer to be "reborn" to a new life!

Jellicle cats come out tonight

Jellicle cats come one come all

The Jellicle Moon is shining bright

Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball

From this point onward, each of the cats tells his own story in song and dance, hoping to be chosen as the special cat to come back to a different Jellicle life.

Munkustrap introduces Jennyanydots, "The Old Gumbie Cat," who sleeps and lounges all day long. "She sits and sits and sits and sits, and that's what makes a Gumbie cat!" But at night, she becomes a super-active nanny. She instructs the mice in music and crochet work, and keeps the cockroaches busy. The cats take this opportunity to dress up with Jenny and perform an exuberant tap dance.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind

Her name is Jennynaydots

Her coat is of the tabby kind with tiger stripes and leopard spots

The second cat we are introduced to is "The Rum Tum Tugger," a playful prankster that the female cats find extremely attractive. Tugger explains how fussy he can be: he wants what he doesn't have, and doesn't want what's offered to him. The one thing that he does enjoy is being the center of attention, which he is throughout the number.

The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious cat

And there isn't any call for me to shout it

For he will do as he do do

And there's no doing anything about it!

The evening takes a somber turn when the outcast figure "Grizabella, The Glamour Cat" appears. Although she is a Jellicle Cat, the rest of the tribe shun her. She had left the tribe years ago to explore the outside world. The outside world has been hard on her, however, and she who was once a beautiful and glamorous feline is now tattered and torn. Although she wants to return, the other cats are cruel, clawing and hissing at her. But Grizabella is proud, and she vows to return.

Grizabella the Glamour Cat

Who'd have ever supposed that

that was Grizabella the Glamour Cat

The next cat to join the proceedings is the hefty "Bustopher Jones." A large "twenty-five pounder," always clad in his signature white spats, Bustopher spends his time eating, eating and eating in one of the many English pubs and clubs that he frequents. Jennyanydots is quite besauntered with him, and helps sing his praises. He responds, to her great delight, by kissing her hand.

And we're all of us proud to be nodded or bowed to

By Bustopher Jones in White

Bustopher Jones in white

Bustopher Jones in white spats

Suddenly there is a thunderous crash, followed by the sound of police sirens and flashing red lights. The villainous cat Macavity is on the loose! The cats scatter, leaving an empty stage.

Two off-stage giggles signal the entrance of "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer," a fun-loving, frolicking team of pranksters, always getting in trouble with the family with whom they live. "When the drawers are pulled out from the bedroom chests / And you can't find one of your winter vests / Or after supper one of the girls / Suddenly misses her Woolworth pearls..." the family knows it's the work of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer!

Then the family will say : "Now which is which cat?"

It was Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer

And there's nothing at all to be done about that

The entire tribe rejoins as their benevolent and wise leader "Old Deuteronomy" arrives. The cats adore and respect him. "And now that the Jellicle leader is here, Jellicle Cats can all rejoice!"

Old Deuteronomy's lived a long time

He's cat who has lived many lives in succession

He was famous in proverb and famous in rhyme

A long while before queen Victoria's accession

Munkustrap has assembled some entertainment for Deuteronomy. The cats put on a show called "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles together with The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs." In the show, which Munkustrap narrates, the cats dress up as two rival dog factions: the Pekes and the Pollicles. The two groups bark ceaselessly at each other, until they are frightened away by the great Rumpus Cat, a sleek, powerful feline.

His eyes were like fireballs fearfully blazing

He gave a great  yawn, and his jaws were amazing

And when he looked out through the bars of the area

You never saw anything fiercer or hairier

The action is intruded by yet another crash from the villainous Macavity, which sends the cats scurrying! Old Deuteronomy soothes them, as they come back one by one. "Jellicle Cats come out tonight..." he beckons. It is time for "The Jellicle Ball," the great yearly dance in which all of the cats celebrate!

Jellicle cats are black nd white

Jellicle cats are rather small

Jellicle cats are merry and bright

and pleasant to hear when we caterwaul

Grizabella intrudes once more, wanting to rejoin her family and be a part of the celebration. The cats again scorn her. She is left to contemplate her "Memory" of the time before she left the tribe, when she was once young, beautiful and happy. "I remember the time I knew what happiness was," she sings dejectedly. She yearns to be accepted, and she stretches out her hand behind her hoping another cat will touch her. It doesn't happen. She slinks off into the night.

Midnight, not a sound from the pavement

Has the moon lost her memory

She is smiling alone

In the lamplight the withered leaves collect at my feet

And the wind begins to moan

Go to Act 2