So as you guys may remember, I love Cats the musical. It's one of my favorites and the current 1994 staged film is absolute perfection. So when they announced that they were doing a live action film I was so excited! I was even more excited when they announced Tom Hooper as the director because I thought he did a pretty decent job with the Les Mis film. My excitement diminished exponentially when they announced the casting though.... so this chapter is going to be a pretty bitter rant about the cast... I do apologize in advance for the negativity but I really can't help myself at this point. I need to vent!

~~~~~~~

Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella:
Okay, can Jennifer Hudson sing? Yes. Does she have a great voice. Yes. Is her voice good for Grizabella? No! Like no offense, she's extremely talented but the last thing I want to hear is her belt out Memory and make it completely unrecognizable. She tends to over power all of the songs that she sings and though that's great for a show like Dreamgirls but I don't think it works for Cats. It just isn't that type of show nor is it that type of song. I was hoping that Grizabella would have been played by Nicole Scherzinger because I've heard her sing it many times and she sounds really good and she's very emotional! Also for a movie that should be wider spread to the public she would have been a good choice since she's a famous name. So I'm not particularly excited for her portrayal but I will admit she's a talented actress and performer but not a good choice for this role in my opinion.

James Corden:
So it hasn't yet been announced who James Corden is playing but I assume he's played Bustopher Jones. Honestly, if he plays the part right this isn't the worst casting decision of all time. However, I hope that he doesn't make it too much of a joke though. Many of the times on his show he turns everything into this laughable irritating character and I hope he doesn't do that here. Obviously Cats is a very easy going and humorous musical, but if he turns it into a joke even less people will take the show seriously and still just claim that it's a bad show so I hope he's able to do the character proper justice and be funny but not laughable.

Rebel Wilson - Jennyanydots
Again, she'll probably make this whole thing laughable. I've never seen Rebel Wilson take anything seriously at all and she plays a similar character to James Corden in real life. They both act as if they are dumb but also pretend to be very self absorbed and I hope neither of them let those personality traits show in their characters. I don't think Rebel Wilson is a good choice for Jennyanydots at all! I don't think she has the right demeanor nor do I think she'll have the right voice. Though she doesn't sing all that much, she tends to mumble when she speaks and doesn't have the upbeat energy for the song or the character. Also, if my memory serves me right, she has a tap dance solo and I'm not so sure that Rebel Wilson can dance.... I may be wrong but I've never seen anything about her being able to dance and sure she can learn but I think it would have been better to just pick some who was already qualified.

Judi Dench - Old Deuteronomy
Okay so I'm not too mad about this because Judi Dench is undeniably a wonderful actress and she has sung before. I don't think that's she's all the talented of a singer, but I digress as Old Deuteronomy does not sing all that much. She has this larger than life persona and reputation and that works well for the character.

Jason Derulo - The Rum Tum Tugger
I really don't understand this casting choice what so ever... No offense - this may sound harsh - but he's just a pop singer who can't function without auto tune... not a good choice for a musical. And yes, he's a good dancer and people find him attractive but Rum Tum does more strutting than he really does dancing anyway... I just really really cannot picture this and I don't think that he'll sound good in this role without revisions of the song which I don't support. It would really be better if they just casted someone who could sing the song as is... I don't know I'm just really not looking forward to this portrayal.

Ian Mckellen - Gus
I can't believe that there are no other older actors they could have picked for this. Ian McKellen is most famous for portraying Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series so the idea of him being in a musical is just odd to me in the first place. Also he has the worst enunciation ever! I can never understand what he is saying and even in Beauty and the Beast he just sounded like a mumbling old man. Of course, Gus is an old man but I like it when singers who play Gus are still able to sound good in their old age. John Mills did such a wonderful job the 1994 film and put in so much emotion and I really don't think that Ian McKellen will be able to compare. I think this is a common problem with all Gus's though so this isn't just a movie problem. However, there is a possibility that Ian McKellen will surprise me and not be so bad but I really am not expecting much from his performance singing -wise. The acting probably won't be that bad as he is a talented actor but I hope that he comes through with the singing.

Idris Elba - Macavity
Okay so this is just confusing to me because in the musical Macavity is solely a dancing role and isn't in it for that long. I'm sure that they're expanding his role because there's no way they'd pay that much money for Idris Elba to be in the movie for 5 seconds. He also does not dance so I'm sure they are expanding his role. I'm not all that thrilled about it though because the entire point of Macavity is that he's this big mystery and no one ever sees him. The only time that you get to see him is when he fights Munkustrap and then he leaves and that's the fun of the character. Giving him a bigger role honestly doesn't make any sense to me and might take away from a lot of what makes the musical fun. This of course isn't a complaint about Idris Elba, but I wish they weren't just trying to sell big names in comparison to quality.

Taylor Swift - Bomba or Demeter
This is definitely the worst offender of the bunch. I cannot believe that Taylor Swift was legitimately casted in a musical of any sort let alone an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Like this has to be some sort of joke right?! Unfortunately is isn't and she is set to either play Bomba or Demeter. Honestly it's a lose-lose but I'd rather see her as Demeter if I was forced to choose. Her voice isn't even close to be suited for either of them but she's more sweet than sultry. In my personal opinion, I don't think she can sing. And even if she can sing she can only sing the simple pop songs that she's used to singing. There's no way she's going to be able to pull of this kind of sound and honestly if she does I'll be very shocked. Also, unless they sing live like on the Les Mis movie, I'd be shocked if they didn't make her sound worse with auto tune. I am very very very disappointed with this casting decision but maybe I'll be surprised.... I have very little hope but I guess we'll see when the movie comes out.

There have been some other cast members announced but I don't have anything particular to say about. There are some royal ballet dancers who are taking the roles of Victoria and Skimbleshanks and some newer actors with unannounced roles and a newer actress playing Jemima. Overall, I am not in any way thrilled with this cast. I honestly don't think that the movie will be very good at all which I'm very disappointed about. They shouldn't have even made a new movie because the old staged version is so good! They really didn't need this and I feel like it will make the perception of Cats even worse than it already was before. I mean I haven't seen the movie yet so I guess I can't judge, but my expectations are extremely low.

~~~~~~~
Guys! It's been so so so long I am so sorry!!!! I have been so busy with school and college stuff that I haven't had a lot of time to even think about posts let alone actually sitting down and writing them! I've really missed posting though so I hope as everything dies down I'll be able to back more regularly! I also apologize for the negativity of this chapter but I had to get this off my chest!

As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd like to emphasize that these are solely my opinions and are not meant to be offensive in any way! If they come across as such I deeply apologize!!!!

Thank you so much for reading! I really hope that you are all doing well!!! Let me know if there's anything you want me to write about!