As the wise cartoon cats of Disney’s animated classic The Aristocats once sang “Everybody wants to be a cat!!”
Well, I always suspected it and tend to believe it more and more as news trickles out on casting decisions for the film adaptation of Andrew Loyd Webber musical “Cats.” Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellan, and Rebel Wilson are already involved in this. A part of me hopes the movie never happens, and that unlikely names are just continually added to the cat roster, so that it becomes an experimental, ironical work about the absurd dreams and expectations we project onto the cult of celebrity.
Latest in this who’s-who of why-them is Jason Derulo, who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is making his film debut as Rum Tum Tugger. Because I have not seen “Cats” since I was a small child, I am going to steal from Vulture’s write-up, which describes Mr. Tugger as “the rock and roll cat… who typically gyrates his hips a lot and makes many in the audience question whether or not they find cats sexually appealing.” As a child then and a person always who has never asked such questions of myself, this went right over my head.
If this movie is ever actually made, then I will go see it. But only if Jason Derulo breaks character and sings his own name at least once.