Grizabella the Glamour Cat (song)

"Grizabella the Glamour Cat" is a musical number that introduces Grizabella and demonstrates how she is not welcomed by the Jellicle tribe.

Context
As Rum Tum Tugger is finishing his wild, fun song, Grizabella appears onstage. Immediately the mood changes - she is not welcomed by the tribe.

The younger kittens don't understand, but the adults make it clear that she is not to be touched or accepted. To explain, Demeter and Bombalurina tell us who she is.

History
The main bulk of the song is taken from an unpublished T S Eliot poem of the same name. Eliot did not include the poem in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) because he considered it too sad for children. However his widow, Valerie, showed it to the Cats creative team in 1980. The discovery of this poem, and thus the character of Grizabella, inspired the key narrative framework of the musical, that of Grizabella's acceptance and redemption.

The poem is open to interpretation, one theory involving allusions to World War II in mentioning "The Rising Sun", "No Man's Land", and "The Friend At Hand". However the more literal interpretation is that these are references to pub names, often used as geographic markers in London. Tottenham Court Road is well known as a location, "The Rising Sun" and "The Friend At Hand" both being pubs in the area.

The opening four lines, which are sung by Grizabella herself, are lifted from another Eliot poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), and concerns a prostitute walking the streets in the early hours of the morning.

Lyrics
 Grizabella: Remark the cat who hesitates toward you In the light of the door which opens on her like a grin. You see the border of her coat is torn and stained with sand, And you see the corner of her eye twist like a crooked pin.

Demeter: She haunted many a low resort Near the grimy road of Tottenham Court; She flitted about the No Man's Land From The Rising Sun to The Friend at Hand. And the postman sighed, as he scratched his head: "You'd really have thought she ought to be dead And who would ever suppose that THAT Was Grizabella, the Glamour Cat!"

Bombalurina: Grizabella, the Glamour Cat! Grizabella, the Glamour Cat! Who'd have ever supposed that THAT Was Grizabella, the Glamour Cat!

International Versions

 * French