musical vs. movie cat comparisons so you can witness the horrible fate these characters got
Look maybe it’s because I was 7 the last time I watched the VHS tape of the stage show but honestly….they look really really similar. And the new cats look like what they wanted to achieve but were kept from doing with the limitations of money, time, materials available and the physical limitations of the human body.
But the OG Cats cast was just a bunch of coked up dance majors in body suits, tail belts, ear bonnets, and leg/wrist warmers. The costume design is actively trying to strike a balance between “this is a human dancer” and “this is how a cat would move if it had a human body”. A little more grace was given to the older performers who don’t dance as much: Grizzabella and Old Deuteronomy etc. and they’re given shaggy coats to further blend the line beteeen what old humans wear and how an old cat looks. But like look at all the left photos: no human ears visible, the noses and lips are painted to blend into more feline features which means they’re given pretty fixed facial expressions (though they worked hard to give their character, many of who don’t speak or have their own lines, a range of emotion). I’d argue that as seemingly nightmarish as how the cats in the new movie look, it’s what the original show was going for: beings that are at cat-scale, not human but feline with human limbs, tails that are used for balance, emphasis, and character, and more deliberate choices about when to use human garments on the feline body.
Look is this more analysis than “Cats” deserves, but this is what’s going along under the surface and why, for the most part, by the time the first number is over, the audience “gets” the visual language of the show and theoretically have fewer problems with things like the big tire and how they make Skimbleshank’s train and everything else. This show is a weird experience but it’s pretty unified in its design.
