Waching daily Jun 28 2017

Cats is leaving Broadway December 30th of this year, 2017, after about a year and a

half of shows. And I'm sad about it, obviously. It's my favorite show and I'm

really fortunate to live on the East Coast now and be able to go and see it.

I've only seen it twice since it's been there, and I say 'only' simply because I

know people who've seen it over 50 times. So..ah. Two times is actually not bad. One

of those times my seat was like the best seat you can get. So I'm very

fortunate. I'd love to see it again before it closes, I just don't know if

that's going to happen or not. So Cats is closing and I got the news

that it was closing when I was at VidCon, which was this last weekend. Yes there

will be a VidCon vlog, but not till next week, I just need to get this video out

of the way first. And that's why I sound a little raspy, because of interacting

with people and talking for very many days straight. Um, I'm so exhausted...but like,

full of happiness because of VidCon. I met so many amazing people. But... It was

Wednesday and I just got my badge and I'm hanging out with my sister-in-law

and I get a text. Actually it's a lot of texts, just kind of continuous texts in

this text chain with three other cats fans, whom I met at BroadwayCon. This is

us. [photo of the 4 of us in costume] We're awesome. The texts were vague but along the lines of: "WE NEEDTOTALK" "I

can't talk right now, I can't talk about this"

"I'm really sad" and and continuous and I just kind of chimed in with "What? Is

Cats closing or something?" And I was right, Cats...Cats was announced...I think it

was that day that it was announced... through their Instagram? I think? I don't

even know, but it was kind of like...oh. my heart. oh no.

not not good feelings happening right now. And I'll be honest with you, the

initial thing was sadness but almost immediately after that was fear. And fear

from other fans and non-fans. Um and I say this because I really love

Cats and I really love the revival. Not everybody who likes musicals really

likes Cats and not even all Cats fans really love the revival. So I kind of had

this fear coming from both sides that people would just be...I don't know...cruel?

Or or smug, or just...you know, something that I didn't want to see. So I didn't

really go online to look about any other Cats fans talking about it or musical

theater fans...I just kind of said: "Okay, okay, I'm sad." I just pushed down the

feelings, pushed down the sadness, and said: "Alright you know what? I'm gonna go to

VidCon and it's going to be amazing." And I'm back from VidCon...so Cats is is leaving.

And you know, I I'm not surprised that it's leaving so soon, because it wasn't

present at all...at least it didn't get nominated for any Tonys. I don't like

award shows. I don't like any of that stuff. I've never been that interested in

all those things. I watched those to see the performances. I don't know, I just...I

don't really care who wins who loses? I think now I'm sort of realizing that I

should care a little bit because the show's that lose or the shows that

don't get nominated tend to leave. I don't know how Broadway works. I've only lived

on the East Coast two years. I come from a film background. So you know, you

watch all these film and TV related award shows and I don't really care much

because it doesn't really mean that much to me. Because the movie still exists and

I can watch the movies whenever I want. Even if they're a movie that nobody else

seems to think is very good but I love. So with shows it's a little different

because they might just up and...up and leave and then you have to wait for a

tour or something to see the shows you love. And that's to say if you

can afford to see the shows in the first place. Because it's not, like, as cheap as seeing

a movie...at all...by any means. Which is one reason why I love the Cats DVD. I know a

lot of fans don't like the Cats DVD either...but it's so amazing to me because

that was my sort of gateway into the fandom. And it's flawed and it's silly and

it's just so beautiful. To feel outraged and upset that I can't go see my

favorite show that's only a four-hour drive away, anymore, feels a little

selfish because I didn't have that for most of my growing up and being involved

and getting into this show. One person who I met at VidCon, who is going to

become a wonderful friend I'm sure, very lovely person, when I said: "Oh yeah, my

favorite musical is Cats." kind of like...was taken aback? and said: "Oh wow, I've never

met anyone willing to admit that." I know they didn't mean it in a mean way but it

just kind of made me like, sigh, because I get that a lot. It's like people think

that: "Oh aren't you embarrassed of your guilty pleasure fav??" Like... no. I'm not

ashamed or embarrassed by the fact that I love this show so much. Like, I don't

know how else to explain it, other than: it means a lot to me for a lot of different

reasons. That maybe someone who hates the show can't really understand...or maybe

overlooks because it's, you know, it's like this thing that's weird and

different, and like 'bad.' I don't know, I use quotes because I don't think it's

bad...but I totally see why other people do. I love it because it appeared in my

life at a time when I was having a difficult time making friends. Now I will

say my little group of friends in junior high and high school, we did meet

originally through a mutual love of Sailor Moon

and fan art. But that friendship started to grow around the musical Cats.

It taught us to work together. We did our own production it taught us creativity

and a love of making things and learning about each other. And it's just like..I

could go on and on about this, but one thing that people like to argue about is

that cats is no plot. Which...it's a very loose interpretive kind of plot, so I get

that argument. But I think that's one of the reasons why I love it so much and

why it sort of became such an important part of my friendship with my friends in

high school. Because we created our own plot, we created our own backstory and

continuation and characters. And we did fan art and comics and we wrote stories. I

have so much things from those periods of time, that I cannot bear to part with. This

is...this is like, not everything, this is not everything but this is the majority

of stuff we created in notebooks and papers. And those in that yellow bag,

that's our fan fiction. It was like a multiple book, just epic story, of what

happened before. Like decades before the Jellicle ball you see in the musical and

then decades after. And it's probably not very good but it brought us so much joy.

And we eventually got to all see it together when it came to California and

that was an amazing moment. And I...I just...I experienced nothing but like love for

this show and the experiences it's brought me, that I don't know. I, I just,

I'm sad it's leaving Broadway but it's not like the end of it at all. So I'm

going to try to see it once more and I'm going to have an amazing time and be sad.

But I'm going to get over it because the video's still there and the people who

love the show are still there. And I can talk to them anytime I want thanks to

the internet. And yeah, people are going to be jerks about it. People are always

going to be jerks about things. That's life. And what I have to say for anyone

out there who is happy it's leaving, who is astatic, over the moon, that it's finally

getting out of Broadway...blah blah blah, is: you know...just

Just let people love what they love.

Thanks for watching if you're new you should subscribe and to

all my fellow Jellicles out there, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this news.

Toddle Pip! Meow.