What's a Jellicle cat?

It's no secret that I love musicals. Okay maybe you didn't know it but that doesn't mean it was a secret. I love musicals: Bugsy Malone is my favourite. I'm also a fan of The Sound of Music, the Sister Acts, Les Misérables, Into the Woods, Annie, The King and I, Wicked, Chicago, Mary Poppins, Enchanted, Annie Get Your Gun...

I haven't actually seen most of these live, though. I've seen Wicked, The Lion King, and Cats. I had this bright idea that when I was a university student, I was going to be all scholarly and sophisticated, with mature hobbies like going to the theatre and reading literary reviews.

Erm... Yeah...

As sophisticated and mature as it gets.

So I've seen three musicals. Cats was a bit of a weird one, if I'm honest. I kept seeing ads for it on the tube and thought "hmm, looks interesting". While working hard in the library, a bus went past that said the season would end April 25th. I mentioned to my friends that I hadn't seen cats. One of them was appalled, so I didn't tell her I only knew it was a musical thanks to an episode of Scooby-Doo.

Long story short, I got really excited and convinced a friend to go with me. We booked the tickets that day. I refused to look up a synopsis, as I was terrified of spoilers, but I did have a little browse on the website. I discovered the songs were based on poems by T. S. Eliot. I thought it was going to be exciting. Well, I wasn't wrong.

My friend and I spent the first ten songs or so completely confused. We had absolutely no idea what was going on. I mean, we had to figure out what a Jellicle cat was (we couldn't really hear what the actors were singing when they sang in a group) and then we had to digest that one of the cats started rapping (although, having heard the original, I now think the rap sounds snappier... but that might just be an effect of seeing it live). In the interval, I heard a guy behind us say to his kids "I've got no idea what's going on", so we weren't the only ones. It was all a bit weird - but wonderful at the same time. The first Act wasn't over before I had decided who my favourite character was (Mungojerrie - or was it Rumpleteazer?).

Regardless of plot or whatever, the dancing was amazing. I was in awe of the sequence between Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer: they moved with such litheness it was like magic. And when Mr Mistoffelees came on, my friend I gaped at his calf muscles. Seriously, they were like iron, and we weren't even sitting that close. He did about a million spins in one go and I think I broke my fingers applauding him afterwards.

On balance, I had a good - if strange - time seeing Cats the musical. In a week's time I'll be seeing Avenue Q and actually, I've got no idea what that's about, either...