Did "Cats" Save Broadway?

Nearly 40 years after it debuted on Broadway, the movie version of the musical CATS is scheduled to open soon. The movie trailer debuted over the summer and it's hilariously bad and cheesy, social media having had an understandable field day with it.

But most people probably don't remember the ads for the Broadway CATS back in the '80s.

I remember seeing these commercials all the time as a kid. Whereas the movie trailer is just dopey, the Broadway ads scared the hell out of me. You saw these frightening looking people dressed less like cats and more like feral (I guess Jelickle) bigfoots running around while the Grand Daddy Bigfoot flew across overhead. Then you heard this music that sounded like God or the meshech himself was descending from heaven. It was freaky. Along with ads for Mount Airy Lodge, the Milford Plaza, and 1-800 chat lines, this ad seemed to be on a constant loop and always would be -- "now and forever", you might say.

Anyway, this article makes the case that CATS came along at an uncertain moment in Broadway history and basically saved musical theater as we know it. It was the start of the modern-day "rock operas", the audio/visual extravaganzas that would conquer the Great White Way for the rest of the 20th century (think Les Miz, Starlight Express, Miss Saigon, etc.). Without the mega-success of CATS, we may never had Hamilton. Interesting theory.