A Musical Unlike Any Other

The Maundy Morning Newsletter - This Week in History October 2 - 9.

Happy Maundy Morning, friends! Thanks for continuing to support Okay History.

This week we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the weird musical Cats.

Cats is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the English composer and musical theatre icon, who also created The Phantom of the Opera, a much better musical, and Jesus Christ Superstar, an even better musical. Webber also composed Starlight Express, which best can be described as a bad version of Cats, only it’s about trains or something, and actors are on roller skates. If you want to know how bad Starlight Express is, know it’s the most popular musical in Germany. So there you go.

But today, we are talking about Cats, based on poems about cats penned by T.S. Eliot, whom you would presume owned cats. In researching this piece for about two minutes, I didn’t find anything that said ole T.S. owned a cat. But let’s assume he did.

Cats: The Musical was a smash hit from the beginning. It ran on Broadway for 18 years and almost 7,500 performances. It is the fourth longest-running musical in American history. How about that.

People spent millions to see other people dress up in complete cat outfits and sing songs like Memory and numerous other numbers that focus on specific cats with wild names like Old Deuteronomy, Rum Tum Tugger, and Mr. Mistoffelees. I once dated a woman who had a cat named Alice. That cat could never cut it in this cast. Too boring.

I once saw Cats in college when a tour company swung through. I remember having seats at the very top of the old theatre and wondering why I was spending my time in college watching this thing. I was a theatre geek back then, and even I thought this musical was too much. I know I’m in the minority on this one. Maybe not; the 2019 film bombed. Have you watched Cats? This is a safe space to admit it.

Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:

1. Rutherford B. Hayes was born on October 4, 1895. The 19th president comes in #32 in my presidential rankings. Just like me, Ruth is another unimpressive person from Ohio.  

2. President Harry Truman delivered the first televised presidential speech on October 5, 1947. The 33rd president ranked #6 on the same poll and spoke to the nation about cutting back on eating grain because we needed it shipped to Europeans who were starving.   

3. Singer Toni Braxton was born on October 7, 1967. Braxton has sold over 70 million albums and won numerous Grammys for such hits as this, and this, and this. This is my favorite. She’s awesome.

I’m a committed dog person. I have grown to tolerate and like a few cats with whom I have crossed paths. My oldest brother had a cat who didn’t have a tail and came when you called him over. It was the only cat who acted like a dog. Isaac is the neighborhood cat. He usually walks right up to you and falls down to allow you to pet his belly.

I think a musical about dogs would be better. Songs about playing catch and wrestling would be entertaining. We could have entire sets devoted to the love of sniffing everything and cuddling with your person. I’d go all out for a musical about dogs.

So where do you land? Cats or Dogs?

Have a great week. We will be back with another round of state rankings on Friday. I’m a bit behind!

Okay,

Chris