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
Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember
The time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every street lamp
Seems to beat a fatalistic warning
Someone mutters and the street lamps gutters
And soon it will be morning
Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes
Tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale cold smell of morning
A street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning
Touch me
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with my memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me
You'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun
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Musical CATS Review
Musical CATS would end their season in Toronto and continue their tour in other cities. Four other CATS lovers decided to go to downtown and watch the show before it was too late. Five girls going out together alone had already created enormous excitement; watching the show was just like icing on the cake.
The stage sets, the actors’ singing and the performance were not as good as those (that were) in the original play we watched at home; however, when I heard the first sound of the opening music, I entered into the happy life of the Jellicles cats right away. Along with the familiar music, Jellicles cats all came to stage. The cats were voluptuous or sexy, pure or curious. Thief cats Mungojerrie & Rumbleteazer, train cats Skimbleshanks, magic cat Mistoffelees, theatre cat Gus, bad cat Macavity, each brought a different surprise. The whole show was wonderful, not short of climax at all. It merged the elements like ballet, magic, acrobatics, rock, opera, and theater into the show seamlessly.
I loved the singing and the performance of Rum Tum Tugger the best. He was the rock star among the Jellicales cats. However, it was a bit disappointing that the highly expected singing of Memory was not as satisfactory as we had hoped.
Old Deuteronomy, the leader of the Jellicle cats, was just standing on the stage for the first half of the show. The only thing he did was accepting worship from other cats. He didn’t perform any singing or dancing at all. This was a rather easy part I thought. It turned out that it wasn’t as easy as I thought. During the recess, while all the other cats retreated to take a rest, the Old Deuteronomy stayed on the stage and accepted worship from human beings— he gave them autograph. Now I realized he was the real star here.
The theme of the show was to make what was known as “the Jellicle choice” and to decide which cat would ascend to the Heavyside Layer. In my opinion, four cats who were older than others should have been the candidates. Old Deuteronomy was excluded since he seemed like he would live forever. The first choice should have been Jennyanydots, the kind and loving old Gumbie cat. The second one should have been the “twenty-five pounder” fat cat, Bustopher Jones, who was respected by all as the upper class “St. James’s Street Cat.” The third choice should have been the talented theatre cat Gus who had a glamorous and successful theatre career. The last choice was Grizebella, who had lost sparkle and now only wanted to be accepted.
Which one would eventually ascend to the Heavyside Layer?
At the end of the show, Grizabella, who had experienced harshness of the world, received the forgiveness and respect from all the other cats. She was chosen to ascent to the Heavyside Layer and would come back to a new life. Such decision lifted the climax of the play. While the audience indulged themselves in the melody of Memory, the two-and-a-half-hour show came to a happy ending.
Through this show, I realize that we should not judge someone’s life by their successful achievements. In my opinion, life is the result of a series of choices. Like Grizabella, she chose to leave her comfort zone while she was young and glamourous. She went out to explore the world, and she ended up experiencing a lot of hardships. At the end of the day, she was still full of hope for tomorrow and believed that she had touched the true happiness—just like what she sang in the song,” If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is, look, a new day has begun.” She put all the hardships behind and embraced them as an experience of life and the memory of yesterday. Not just all the cats, even me, a human being, admired her courage and insight.
I hope we can live a brave life like that of Grizabella’s, keep our curiosity for life all the time, explore and live out the richness and fullness of our lives. I also hope that we, human beings, can respect each other and accept each other’s different views. Just like what the cats finally did. .
At the end of the show, the Old Deuteronomy, the leader of the Jellicle cats presented a song to the audience, “You bow, and taking off your hat, ad-dress him in this form: "O' cat!" since “A cat's entitled to expect, these evidences of respect.” Because, “Cats are very much like you.”
I was wondering, when I came home and saw my dog, whether I should I also “bow, and taking off my hat, ad-dress him in this form: “O’ doggy!” since “A dog's entitled to expect, these evidences of respect.” Because, “Dogs are very much like a cat.” Well, this might not be true according to the same song which says, “Again I must remind you that a dog’s a dog, a cat’s a cat.”
All of us really enjoyed the show and the time that we spent together alone—without kids and husbands. For sure, we will plan another “Girls Day Out” very soon!
