Musical drama is a very young performing art. After nearly a hundred years of development, it has produced many works with different styles. Cat belongs to a musical that is closer to singing and dancing. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted this piece of music according to Nobel Prize in Literature winner T·S· Eliot's long poem "An old cat who is good at dressing up".
Cat story: cats in Jericho hold a dance every year, and cats will choose a cat to ascend to heaven at the annual grand party. As a result, all kinds of cats appeared one after another and showed themselves incisively and vividly. Finally, Griese Bela, a once radiant but now extremely untidy cat, touched all the cats present with a song "Memories" and became a cat that can ascend to heaven.
The lyrics of Cat were adapted by Trevor Nunn. Its story comes from T·S· Eliot's Practical Cat, published in 1939. This collection of poems was actually written by Eliot to his godson. Most of the lyrics are taken out of the poetry collection intact. However, in order to coordinate with the music, Nunn made some minor changes in his poems, such as repeating eight lines of lyrics in Song of Jerichos. Besides, among Eliot's unpublished novels are The Wedge, The March of Polly Clay Dog and Grisa Bella. The most famous is Nunn's Memory, which is adapted from another rhapsody by Eliot, Windy Night. The whole play lasts nearly three hours, and * * * consists of twenty songs. In addition to the dance music with different dance scenes, the theme song "Memories", which appeared four times before and after, is a never-ending golden song.
The Birth of a Cat: A Cat's Script is adapted from the classic of an old cat who is good at dressing up, a collection of poems by English poet Thomas stearns Eliot. This poem was written by Eliot for children, so it is much simpler and easier to understand than his other poems. Poetry was completed in two months, 1939 and 10, while the creation of the musical Cat began in 1977, with a difference of 38 years.
On 1977, Andrew Lloyd Webber, a famous music composer, began to arrange music for the classic work "An old cat who is good at dressing up". He is very interested in the poem he read as a child. At first, Weber only intended to write some Sanqu to perform on the stage, and had no idea of creating musicals at all. Because this poem has no dramatic plot and tension, it does not have the conditions to create a musical.
Later, Weber and director Trevor Nunn solved many drama problems that people thought could not be solved. And the dance designed by Gillian Lynne. After observing cats, she found that cats have the characteristics of loneliness, indifference, affection, flexibility and mystery, so he integrated these characteristics into cats and created a dance full of new concepts and energy. There is also a famous fashion designer, John Napier, who started his design in1980165438+10, and managed to create a scene where cats gathered together. According to T.S. Eliot's poems, he combined the factors of cats and humans to design clothes for each cat. Most clothes are flexible and have strong dance characteristics.
The plot outline of Cat
The midnight dance in the first act drove the cat crazy.
On a special night, at the annual family celebration of Jericho cats, each cat explained to the visiting human beings who they were in turn, and pointed out that cats have three names: daily names in the family, elegant names and secret names.
Victoria, a young and innocent white cat, started with a solo dance "Please come to the Jericho Ball". They are waiting for their leader, the wise old Dutronimi, to choose a Jericho cat tonight, and this cat will be sent to the ninth heaven to "get" a new life. Every cat tells its own story by singing and dancing, hoping to be chosen as a reborn Jericho cat.
Jenny Anidoz is an old wild cat. She either sleeps or loiters all day. "Lantag" is a cat who loves to play practical jokes and is full of charm for the opposite sex. The abandoned "charming Grice Bella" is a Jericho cat. She left home for many years and went to the outside world. This time, she vowed to return to her family. The strong "Bustorf Joan" is a 25-pound cat. He spends all his time eating. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, sirens sounded loudly, and McVittie, the evil cat, swaggered in. "Mungo Jerry and Lampli Dize" are a group of troublemakers who love to joke and play, always causing trouble to their families;
When the kind and wise leader "Old Dutronimi" arrived, the whole family was full of joy. They prepared some programs: The cats performed a play called "The Terrible Battle between Peck and Porico under the Porico Dog March". Cats bark at each other in competitors' clothes. The performance was interrupted by the evil McVittie, and the cats ran away! Old Dutronimi calmed the commotion, the Jericho ball started as scheduled, and all the cats danced to celebrate.
Act II Why are you late in summer? How did the time pass?
Gus, the theater cat, is an old actor who once worked with the greatest actors of his time. He suffers from gout. Skimpo Janks, the railway cat, is the friendly uncle of all cats. The evil McVittie kidnapped old Dutronimi. McVittie pretended to be old Dutronimi, and two cats recognized him: Timmy (a frightened kitten) and Bob Lauraine (a carefree girl), the sexiest big cat. McVittie's evil behavior earned him a nickname-"criminal Napoleon"; After McVittie was exposed, he got into a fight with other male cats in Mankustra. He short-circuited the wire, so that all the lights went out and the Jericho cat fell into darkness. Lantag called "Mr. Philip" and asked him to use magic to find the leader. Mr. Philip succeeded, and the light came on again. It's time for old Dutronimi to decide which Jericho cat will be reborn. At this time, Grice Bella sang the past with the song "Memories". Her family accepted her return. She was chosen as the cat reincarnated in the cloud!
Official release of Cat: With the joint efforts of these people, Cat made its official appearance on May 198 1 and premiered at the New London Theatre. 1982, cats began to perform on Broadway in New York, USA, which is the holy land of stage plays all over the world. By the summer of 2000, it had broken the record of the longest duration and the most consecutive performances on Broadway. Up to now, Cats has been staged in West End of London. Besides, Cats is also the longest tour in the United States (there have been at least four national tours so far).
The climax of Cat: Compared with other famous musicals, Cat must be the most familiar to China audiences. The reason lies in the power of a song in the play. Since the birth of the cat, this song has spread all over the world, and the melody of weeping can capture people's hearts at once. For the audience in China, this song is much more popular than Cats. Most people didn't know the musical Cat until they heard it.
This song was sung by Griese Bella, the charming cat in the play. This is a charming cat when she was young, but she is dirty and untidy when she is old. She is lonely and weak, spurned by others, wandering in the lowest block, and being excluded by the cat family. She also longs for heaven, but this is obviously a luxury for her. In this case, she sang this song. After she finished singing, the cats were moved and unanimously elected her to heaven, and the whole play came to an end. This shows the weight of this song in the play. It can be said to be the turning point and climax of the whole play, because all cats' views on Griese Bella will change after this song. If this song is not touching, it is undoubtedly the failure of the whole play.
It is said that when the premiere is approaching, director Noon is still not satisfied with the music in this climax part of the play. He always feels that this music can't support the whole drama, and it should be a song that can move people's hearts and make the audience more engaged. Weber didn't want to rewrite it at first, but in the end he had to listen to the director's request. He told Noon not to get too high hopes for the next song. The next morning, Weber played a tune he wrote for Noon on the piano. After listening to this, the nun said to the people next to her, "Please remember this moment, because what you heard is a piece of music that can be called legend." This piece of music is the most popular "memory" in musicals.
At that time, memory had no lyrics, only melody. Unlike other songs in Cats, Memories is not based on Eliot's poems, and there are no other poems that can be applied. To this end, Nun found three lyricists to write the lyrics of memories, but none of them got satisfactory results. At noon, I saw that time was running out, so I decided to write my own lyrics. He went to his villa in the country, spent a whole week rereading Eliot's poems, borrowed another poem by Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night, as a reference, wrote this touching "memory" and made clear the theme of the whole Cat. Grisbera cats have become emotional outlets for cats. In the memory, she expressed her sufferings, her happiness and beauty, and her last desire for warmth. Simple lyrics convey too many emotions.
Grisa Bella was originally played by the famous sasha jackson Judi Dench. Later, she suffered from severe tendinitis during rehearsal and had to replace the famous Elaine Page five days before the premiere. Elaine paige became very popular after playing "Grisbera Cat". After 20 years of smooth sailing on the music stage, she is now regarded as the first lady on the music stage.
Appreciate the role in the play: "Leader Cat" in the play. The leader of the cat family is full of wisdom and experience. He must attend the annual cat meeting and finally decide which cat can ascend to heaven and be reborn. The representative of mature women in the play "Charming Cat" is the leading dance at the climax of the whole play. In the blue-green light, only her red fur is full of warmth; Charming cat. When I was a child, I was the most beautiful cat house. Tired of the cat family life, wandering outside, but tasted the cruelty of the world. When I got back to the cat's house, I was as ugly as a cucumber. She looks the most like a person, with long hair shawl, black evening dress and high heels. A song "Memories" calmed the hostility of all cats to her and aroused deep sympathy and pity for her. There are also rich cats, nanny cats, theater cats, rock cats, crime cats, charming cats, hero cats, superman cats and magic cats. This group of various, different and anthropomorphic cats constitutes the world of cats. At the dance, they all showed their talents; Singing, jumping or playing, staged a thrilling "human tragicomedy", telling the theme of love and tolerance.
The dance and music in Cats are excellent. In order to express their feelings, directors do not hesitate to use a large number of dance scenes to express the different characteristics and personalities of cats. There are not only lively tap dances, but also dignified and gorgeous ballet, jazz dance and dynamic modern dance. How to make it look good, how to make it up, no rules, ingenuity, and eclecticism. In particular, the dance of "Jericho Ball", which lasted for more than ten minutes, was magnificent and passionate, making people fascinated.
The stage of Cat is also wonderful. Its design concept is "the world seen in a cat's eye". Cat's clothing is designed according to the image characteristics of each cat. There are more than 250 sets of * * *, which vividly depict the skin color and fur patterns of cats of different ages and sexes. Each actor is painted with a cat face that matches his identity, and with more than 30 wigs of different colors and textures, he vividly dresses up cats with different personalities.
Moreover, Cat has its spirit sublimated in it. It imitates cats rather than personifies them, but it also describes cat families according to human society. From the beginning of music, it was a scene of national ceremony, and at the end, Gorez Bella ascended to the sky, and every cat accepted it. This is also the usual practice of human society, which is very sacred, and may feel stronger than the religious feeling of human society, and even make people feel ashamed. But at the same time, it carries a happy thing and a mysterious thing, which also comes from people's speculation and understanding of cats for thousands of years. Mysteries and beliefs are all in it, which will look real, but not too straightforward. Therefore, a scene is the epitome of a society, and a group of cats is the epitome of a person.