No 10. “Memory”

CATS (1982). By Andrew Lloyd Weber (music), T.S. Eliot (lyrics). Based on OLD POSSUM’S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS by T.S. Eliot. Additional Lyrics by Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe

Autumn, 1982. You’ve entered the theater for the Broadway production of Cats, which has finally come to New York after opening in London the year before. The theater has been transformed into a stylish, oversized junkyard. The lights go down as an eerie synthesized melody plays. Soon glowing eyes appear in the darkness as an ensemble of dancers in leotards and cat fur make their way down the aisles. These—as they will spend several minutes reiterating—are Jellicle Cats. The main fragments of plot you can cling to for the next few hours are that (1) tonight is the Jellicle Ball and (2) someone called Old Deuteronomy will make a Jellicle Choice as to which cat gets to go to the Heaviside Layer. The cats spend most of the evening introducing/nominating themselves and each other for this honor with catchy songs and some of the most impressive dancing that you’ve ever seen. All of the cats shun a character named “Grizabella the Glamour Cat,” who is old and scary looking. [Editor’s note: Betty Buckley was all of 35 when she played this apparently decrepit and unlovable creature, so FML]. At the end of Act 1, Griz is alone on the stage and sings a loveley ballad about her lost beauty. In Act 2, Griz—now surrounded by all the hater-cats—sings that song, aka “Memory,” again, but with a big key change. Everyone agrees she deserves to be the Jellicle Choice and celebrates as she rises on a floating tire to the Heaviside Layer. Wait, did they just spend this whole show competing for the chance to die?

Cats marked the hard launch of the British Megamusical. Often produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the Megamusical treated shows as brands and attractions. They arrived on Broadway as established international hits with bombastic prog-rock scores, iconic logos (and Cats getting one of, if not the, best logo of all time), and buzz-worthy technical productions. Even though Cats has been a punchline since it opened, the energy, imagination, and infectious score kept audiences coming and redefined the scale of what a “hit” can mean, at least financially. While American theater faced an identity crisis with the passing of many golden age writers and HIV decimating the community, these British imports dominated the idea of what a contemporary musical could/should be worldwide throughout the 1980s.

Recommended Recording: ”Memory,” Cats (1982 Original Broadway Cast)

Cats opened on Broadway after a couple of smash year in London. So when the New York company started, everyone knew what they needed to do, and Betty Buckley specifically knew she had to stop the show with this ballad. Trevor Nunn resorted to some strange mind games to help her get into character—like making Buckley participate in dance rehearsals for numbers she wouldn’t do so she felt older than everyone else. (She was in her mid-30s). For her part, Buckley was struggling to find the soul of this old lady cat and would go for long walks at night, ultimately seeing inspiration in the City’s homeless population. This might sound like a lot of work to sell a song that isn’t that deep, but Buckley’s climactic “touch meeeeee” is pretty dang thrilling. This album is the 16th best selling cast recording of all time. [Note: the first minute and a half of the track below is sung by Cynthia Onrubia as Victoria. Then Grizabella starts in.]

Alternate Performances

Cats has received ~25 Cast Recordings, including a slew of international casts. A recent revival, Cats: The Jellicle Ball skipped the fur and recontextualized the musical in the underground Ballroom scene. (Vogue ballroom, not Dancing with the Stars ballroom.) It didn’t release a cast recording following its 2024 limited off-Broadway run, but it’s been hinting a return of some kind. “Memory” became THE quintessential showtune of the 1980s. If you were in a room with a singer and a baby grand, you’d hear “Memory” within the hour.

• 1981 Original London Cast: Elaine Paige can belt anything without breaking a sweat and is a definitive Grizabella. The London production—which was fully staged in the round—has a number of little differences with its Broadway counterpart.

• 1998 Proshot: Filmed in a studio (as opposed to in front of a live audience), this taping preserves the original staging and features a cast of notable alumn from different productions. Elaine Paige gets to reprise her Grizabella.

• 2019 Film: The short version is: Jennifer Hudson sings “Memory” quite well. As for the long version…In 2019, Cats was older than Betty Buckley was as Grizabella, and interest in a movie version was probably at an all time low. But Tom Hooper, fresh of his success with the movie version of Les Miserables, thought he figured out how to make it work on film—“digital fur technology” and eerie CGI faces¹. Most of the cast and dancing is great and filmed well. The signing was captured live on set, and the sound mix picks up on individual performers as the camera moves through crowd scenes, creating an immersive experience I‘ve never felt in a movie musical before. But then there’s a scene in which Rebel Wilson brings on an ensemble of cockroaches with human faces before peeling off a layer of cat skin like it’s a onesie (with more cat fur underneath) and EATING the cockroaches with human faces by the handful. That’s not really someone one comes back from.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Glee: “Memory” appears in season 5 episode 19 (“Old Dog, New Tricks”) Kurt (Chris Colfer, who also wrote the episodes) sings it to audition for a production of Peter Pan in a home for retired actors.

In the Wings

I can’t believe we’re in the double digits! While you wait for No. 11 to drop next week, we have a few fun ways to pass the tie:

1. Look up the phrase “Rum Tum Tugger Lawsuit.”

2. Look up the phrase “Hal, it’s about cats.”

3. Watch this classic interview in which Broadway legend Lilias White tells you what she really thought about her time in Cats. (The whole video is worth watching, but the pertinent question begins at the one minute mark.)

4. Check out a 19 year old Celine Dion singing “Memory” in full cat attire, laying on a light box.

   

1. There are rumors of a supposed “butthole cut” in which the entire cast has CGI anuses.