Jellicle Cats

Jellicle Cats are the protagonist of Cats. Throughout the musical, we are introduced to their world as we meet different Jellicles and follow their exploits. A "Jellicle" is a fictional type of domestic cat, depicted as being the same size as real-life cats, with the set and props in the musical generally scaled up four times.

The concept of a Jellicle Cat was first introduced by T S Eliot in the 1930s. It is the feline counterpart to Eliot's Pollicle Dog, whereby "Pollicle Dogs" is a corruption of "poor little dogs" and "Jellicle Cats" of "dear little cats".

Five-Finger Exercises
Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats were first mentioned in a poem titled "Lines to a Yorkshire Terrier" from Eliot's short collection of poems, Five-Finger Exercises (1933).

In a brown field stood a tree

And the tree was crookt and dry.

In a black sky, from a green cloud

Natural forces shriek'd aloud,

Screamed, rattled, muttered endlessly.

Little dog was safe and warm

Under a cretonne eiderdown,

Yet the field was cracked and brown

And the tree was cramped and dry.

Pollicle dogs and cats all must

Jellicle cats and dogs all must

Like undertakers, come to dust.

Here a little dog I pause

Heaving up my prior paws,

Pause, and sleep endlessly.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Eliot later wrote a poem about Jellicle Cats titled "The Song of the Jellicles", which was published in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939). In this poem, Jellicles were depicted as commonly nocturnal black and white, scruffy cats. Specifically, Eliot mentions that they like to gather at an event called the "Jellicle Ball".

Eliot also wrote an unpublished poem titled "Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats" which was used as the model for "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats".

Cats the Musical
The Jellicles that we meet in the musical are a tribe of cats that, in contrast with "The Song of the Jellicles", possess many kinds of coat-patterns, diverse personalities, individual talents, and even mystical powers. Jellicle cats shown to have magical abilities include Mistoffelees, Macavity, Old Deuteronomy, Coricopat and Tantomile.

The tribe has its own established hierarchy, with Old Deuteronomy as the leader and Munkustrap as his second-in-command, as well as their own belief system, with concepts such as the Heaviside Layer and a god-like figure known as the "Everlasting Cat".

Known Jellicles
Of course, many significant Jellicle Cats are featured in poems describing them -
 * Jennyanydots
 * Rum Tum Tugger
 * Grizabella
 * Bustopher Jones
 * Mungojerrie
 * Rumpleteazer
 * Old Deuteronomy
 * Rumpus Cat
 * Gus
 * Growltiger
 * Griddlebone
 * Skimbleshanks
 * Macavity
 * Mistoffelees

Many of the names used in the ensemble are pulled from the poem "The Naming of Cats" -

...First of all, there's the name that the family use daily Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey All of them sensible, everyday names

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter

Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames

Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter

But all of them sensible everyday names

But I tell you a cat needs a name that's particular

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular

Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo or Coricopat

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum

Names that never belong to more than one cat

Other Jellicle Cat names are pulled from T.S. Eliot's letters and other works:
 * Carbucketty (a knockabout cat)
 * Murad (A very grand Persian Blue)
 * Noilly Prat (named for a brand of fortified wine)
 * Pouncival (portmanteu of Pounce and Sir Percival)
 * Sillabub (portmanteau of Silly and Beelzebub)
 * Tantomile (a Witches' cat)

Names featured in "Growltiger's Last Stand":
 * Growltiger
 * Griddlebone
 * Grumbuskin
 * Tumblebrutus
 * Gilbert

Additional ensemble names have been used throughout the history of the show, often modelled after the style of the names featured in T.S Eliot's work:


 * Cassandra (Greek, following Plato, Demeter)
 * Etcetera (a play on Electra)
 * Exotica (exotic cat, and a play on Electra)
 * Genghis (the leader of the Siamese, given a more "Asian" name than Gilbert)
 * Jemima (a proper young girl's name, following Peter, James, Victor)
 * Maitre D' (added for the 2019 movie)
 * Olivia (a proper young girl's name, following Peter, James, Victor)
 * Socrates (Greek, Plato's twin in the 2019 movie)
 * Victoria (a proper young girl's name, following Peter, James, Victor)

Fan theories

 * All cats are Jellicle Cats
 * Jellicle Cats refers only to this particular tribe of cats and many other similar cat tribes exist, similar to how the dogs have Pollicles, Pekes, Poms and Pugs
 * Jellicle Cats refers to a special type of cat that possesses human-level intelligence, magical powers etc. Other cats are just normal cats