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Scott Miller Wants You to Know Cats Isn’t as Bad as You Think | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 14, 2023

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click to enlarge CROPPED MOVIE POSTER Humans prancing about in cat suits may sound absurd, but Scott Miller says the Broadway show (if not the movie) actually works.

Scott Miller, the founder and artistic director of St. Louis’ acclaimed New Line Theater, has been on a writing tear in recent years, publishing incisive books about various aspects of his beloved musical theater, from Stephen Sondheim to Grease. “There’s a growing mass market of people who love musicals, and I want to feed them the cool stuff that I’ve been thinking about all these years,” he explains. “I love sharing with people all the stuff that thrills me.”

But in Miller’s most recent book, the self-described “bad-ass culture warrior” offers a hot take that may be too spicy for even the most curious readers. Rescuing Cats: The Musical That’s Better Than You Think dares to argue that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline-focused extravaganza is actually good — heresy to all intelligent theatergoers and an even more daring argument after the 2019 film adaptation bombed.

Here’s how Miller managed to explain the inexplicable when we caught up with him late last month.

click to enlarge STEVE TRUESDELL The new book from the “Bad Boy of Musical Theatre” offers his spiciest take yet.

Cats is “better than you think”? Is that damning with the faintest of praise or do you actually like this show?I love this show. When I was writing the description of the book for Amazon, I came up with what is really the point: If you love Cats, you will find more to love here; if you hate Cats, this might change your opinion. Whether you love it or hate it, my hope is that you read the book and come out thinking, “This is better than I thought it was.”

People complain about Cats not having any plot. But it does have a plot, in the same way that Hair has a plot. There’s a narrative arc. The biggest shock for me was that Cats is exactly parallel to Hair. Both start with a summoning of the tribe and spend the first half with the tribe introducing themselves and celebrating their tribe. In the second half there’s a huge decision that has to be made that leads to death for one of them. It’s musical theater as ritual, and humans need ritual.

Yet New Line, the theater you run, has never put it on. Why is that? It’s such a show about dance. I really thought, “Does it have to be a show about dance?” But if you produced it without the dance, audiences might have a hard time with that. We do a fair amount of shows with a fair amount of choreography, but because of the kinds of show we do, our cast doesn’t have to look like Broadway actors — they just have to look like the characters. Cats, you really rely on high-quality dancers.

Could we ever see Cats in New Line’s future?I have learned over the years, never say never. But I don’t think so. Even so … There are a few shows that people ask me about, and I say, “Oh my God no, we could never do that.” Six, eight, ten years later, I say, “You know, we could do it.” One of those shows is Anything Goes. I always said it was too lightweight. Then I wrote a history book, and realized Anything Goes is about making celebrities out of criminals and show business out of religion. The entire plot is about those two things. Then I was like, “It’s a New Line show.”

So are you surprised Cats the movie was such a bomb?I had previously watched 10 to 15 minutes of the movie profoundly stoned, and I thought, “This is freaky and trippy and maybe this is a stoner movie.” When I sat down to write the book, I finally watched the whole movie. I was appalled. It was an abomination.

What made it so bad?Cats is a serious show. The whole plot is about a damaged, broken woman who’s going to get redemption. The movie turned it into a gag fest.

Even people who don’t like Cats acknowledge the superiority of its hit song, “Memory.” What makes it such a banger?Young writers say to me, “How do you know if a story will make a good musical?” For a long time I didn’t know what the answer was. The answer is, it has to be primarily an emotional story. That’s what musicals do. Music does emotion. The other thing is that it has to tell some truth. What “Memory” does is tell truths — about aging and memory and regret.

You have two cats, Hamilton and Macheath. Did your cats like Cats?They are completely indifferent to the television. I was showing them parts of the video, and they could not be less interested. I got my copy of the book yesterday, and they also could not be less interested in that.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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