This is 2019's "Cats,"
a modern interpretation of the classic musical
that uses something called "digital fur technology."
But stranger than the new high-tech costumes is the story:
A group of what are called "Jellicle" cats
are taking part in an "American Idol"-style
singing competition.
The prize? Dying and being sent to heaven,
after which they will be reborn.
Confused?
Here's everything you need to know
to make sense of "Cats."
While the musical "Cats" premiered in 1981,
the story actually goes back even further,
to a 1939 book of poems by T.S. Eliot
called "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats."
"Old Possum" was a nickname given to Eliot
by fellow poet and friend Ezra Pound.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber later adapted the poems
into songs and, eventually, the musical.
Fun fact: The original working title of the show
was called "Practical Cats."
Each poem introduced a different cat's character.
There are 33 in the show.
There's Jennyanydots, played by Rebel Wilson,
a lazy cat who "sits and sits and sits"
in the poem "The Old Gumbie Cat"
but who is actually very busy
and active at night;
Bombalurina, played by Taylor Swift,
one of the many characters mentioned
in the first poem of the book,
"The Naming of Cats,"
who is very flirty with the others;
and Rum Tum Tugger, played by Jason Derulo,
described in a poem of the same name as
a "Curious Cat" who is very self-centered.
But some of the characters come from other Eliot poems,
and others were created specifically for the Broadway show.
While there is a poem about Jellicle cats,
the term dates back even further.
But what exactly are Jellicle cats?
Eliot first wrote the phrase in an unpublished poem
to his godson for his birthday.
"To all Pollicle dogs and Jellicle Cats."
The second mention of Jellicles
is in an Eliot poem called "Five Finger Exercises"
from 1933.
Here we even get a hint of the death aspect of the plot
with the reference to dust.
But more on that later.
Pollicle is a nonsense word
that's a combination of "poor little,"
and Jellicle is a mix of the words "dear little."
What exactly a Jellicle cat is
is further explained in the poem "The Song of the Jellicles"
from the 1939 book.
Let's break that down.
The poem describes them as "black and white"
and "rather small."
As we can see from the new trailer,
the cats are indeed small.
Smaller, in fact, than what a real cat would be,
at least based on their proportions.
The stage musical was set in a junkyard
with oversized props,
so the actors appeared small by comparison.
The color is a different story.
As you can see from any stage or film production,
the cats are all sorts of different colors and breeds.
There's at least one black and white cat, however,
Mr. Mistoffelees, who's a tuxedo cat
that knows how to do magic tricks,
according to another Eliot poem.
Jellicle cats are "pleasant to hear when they caterwaul."
They also "know how to dance a gavotte and a jig"
and have "terpsichorean powers."
Terpsichore is a Greek muse of song and dance,
so all of this backs up the fact that these Jellicle cats
are great performers and are perfect for a musical.
In the musical, each cat has their own song
and a story to tell,
which is why the show can feel slightly disjointed.
Their stories don't connect or necessarily make any sense,
but they're great to listen to.
So, now that we've established
that they can both sing and dance,
why exactly are they singing and dancing at all?
The poem mentions that they're waiting
for the "Jellicle Moon," an annual occurrence
when the moon is very bright
and the "Jellicle Ball" takes place.
This is a big event for Jellicle cats.
It's when they all come together to perform
for the oldest cat and leader of the tribe, Old Deuteronomy.
In the musical, Deuteronomy is a male cat,
but the new film has made the character female,
played by Judi Dench.
Deuteronomy has lived "many lives in succession."
Cats have nine lives, remember.
Deuteronomy also has had many wives, as many as 99,
according to the poem.
This character, for some reason,
also wears a separate, shaggy coat over their own fur.
In the musical, Deuteronomy is the judge and jury,
listening to each cat sing their song
and deciding which of them will be allowed to die
and ascend into the Jellicle cat heaven,
a place called the "Heaviside Layer."
In the "Cats" universe, this is their version of heaven.
In the real world, the Heaviside layer is actually
a part of the Earth's ionosphere.
In an unpublished piece, Eliot mentions
that cats go to the Heaviside Layer when they die.
The singing competition is essentially
them making their case to be sacrificed,
which may seem a little grim.
But we shouldn't think of this as death
and then nothingness.
The chosen cat is then reborn
and becomes a new, much better cat.
Because, once again, cats have nine lives.
Spoiler alert for the ending:
In the musical, the cat that's chosen to die
is Grizabella.
Grizabella is the cat that disgusts
all of the other cats in the show.
She's described as being mangy and unkempt.
She left the Jellicle tribe years ago
but now wants them to let her back in.
This character, while one of the more important to the plot,
did not actually come from the 1939 book of poems.
She was inspired by another of Eliot's unpublished works
called "Grizabella the Glamour Cat".
She also sings one of the most memorable songs
from the musical, aptly titled "Memory."
♪ Memory ♪
In the 2019 film, Jennifer Hudson plays Grizabella.
The popular song's lyrics were inspired by another poem
in Eliot's book called "Rhapsody on a Windy Night."
While Grizabella could be considered the protagonist,
there's also a villain in the show,
a cat by the name of Macavity.
Macavity is a literary allusion to the character
Professor Moriarty, the villain in "Sherlock Holmes,"
of which Eliot was a huge fan.
In the poem "Macavity: The Mystery Cat,"
Eliot describes the character as a "master criminal"
and "the Napoleon of Crime."
He's also "not there," as the poem repeats,
which supports the "cavity" part of his name.
His role in the plot is to scare the other cats,
and at one point he even kidnaps Old Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy is returned later
thanks to the magic of Mr. Mistoffelees.
In the movie, Macavity is played by Idris Elba,
who, for some reason, also wears a cat-sized Fedora.
[laughing]
There have been multiple stage productions
and one 1998 film prior to the 2019 movie.
The new version is directed by Tom Hooper
and has a cast full of A-listers,
as we've mentioned before,
including Ian McKellen and James Corden.
And unlike previous adaptations,
the 2019 film doesn't use any makeup for the cast.
Everything is created using a new CGI technique
they describe as "digital fur technology."
This new style, while mocked online,
seems to fit right in with a story
that has been strange from the very beginning.