I am counting down the minutes until the theatrical release of Cats, whose trailer and source material are so deeply unhinged I suspect a viewing will feel like a mushrooms trip, but with cat-shaped people (or people-shaped cats?) instead of moving lights and anxiety. Taylor Swift, who plays one such cat-shaped person, or person-shaped cat, seems to feel similarly.
Swift joined Cats creator Andrew Lloyd Webber in a cover feature for next month’s British Vogue, in which she touched on the music’s timeless insanity. “I really had an amazing time with Cats,” she said. “I think I loved the weirdness of it. I loved how I felt I’d never get another opportunity to be like this in my life.”
Indeed, it is rare for a person to get to be cat, or, in Cats’s case, a human-shaped cat with a human face covered in fur. Swift previously marveled at her good feline fortune in a behind-the-scenes snippet that dropped in September, telling the camera, “If you told me I was gonna get to be a cat, for work? What?” I only vaguely understand that sentence, but I also only vaguely understand the plot of Cats, which I think has something to do with cats dying and going to Cat Heaven while wearing horrifying costumes.
Whatever the case, I am looking forward to this assuredly weird spectacle, though I also hope producers consider turning Hey Arnold’s Rats: The Musical into a future motion picture as well.