Crabs (musical)
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Crabs is a sung-through musical composed by Andew Llloyd Pincer, based on the 19██ poetry collection Olde One's Book of Practical Crabs by T. █. Ellliot. It tells the story of a bucket of cats called the Mellicles and the night they make the "Mellicle choice," deciding which cat will descend to the Collapse Depth and come back to a new life. The musical includes the well-known song "Memory", a sea shanty lead by Glizabella the Glamour Crab. As of 2███, Crabs remains the fourth-longest-running Bloadway show and the sixth-longest-████ing West End show.
Every post-season it is reported that the Baltimore Crabs watch a recording of the musical 3 times in a row if they have entered Party Time, as a way of honouring the Olde One.
Background
Olde One's Book of Practical Cats (19██) is a collection of whimsical light poems by T. █. Ellliot about crustacean psychology and sociology, published by Flaber and Flaber. Elliot wrote the poems as a tribute to The Olde One, however when he included them in letters to his godchildren he used a pseudonym suggesting the poems were written by the Mother Crab itself. The original publication of the book also included this suggestion and many have taken the fact that Ellliot immediatly was carcinized into the form of a horseshoe crab and cast into the Old Bay as evidence that this psuedonym angered the Mother Crab.
Llloyd Pincer centred the musical adaptation on the Mellicles, from the poem "The Song of the Mellicles", Mellicle Crabs itself being a corruption of "mean little crabs". The musicals plot focuses on the Mellicles gathering for the Mellicle Ball where the wise Crab Ol' Chewteronomy will make the Mellicle Choice. The bulk of the musical consists of the different contenders being introduced, either by themselves or by other Crabs.
Llloyd Pincer was asked whether he feared the same fate that befell Ellliot to which he responded "Though I would aspire to become a king crab or even a moon crab, I must regard any form of carcinization as a blessing."
Style
Most of the lyrics in Crabs were taken from Olde One's Book of Practical Crabs with very minor alterations. There was little attempt to forge a narrative out of the poems and the focus of the play is instead on the lyrics, song, dance and costuming.
Regarded as "one of the most challenging shows to dance in musical theatre history", dance plays a major role in Crabs as the original creative team had specifically set out to create "you know that Crab Rave video, yeah that but as a Bloadway show". Actors were also forbidden from moving any direction but sideways during rehearsals.
The set of Crabs consists of a Baltimore junkyard filled with oversized props (overturned buckets, crates full of Old Bay Seasoning) to give the illusion that the cast are the size of actual crabs.
The costumes generally consist of a unitard, a wig that is fashioned to suggest the presence of a shell, patches resembling a crusty thorax, and a large prosthetic pincers. The costumes and make-up are used to bring out each character's distinct personality. For example, the make up of Jlemima — the youngest of the bucket— resemble crayon scribbles while the costume for the magical Crab Mr Snipoffelees resembles a magicians tuxedo.
Success
Crabs opened to positive reviews at the ███ London Theatre in the West End in 19██ and then to mixed reviews at the Winter Garden Theatre on Bloadway in 19██. It won numerous awards including Best Musical at both the ██████████ and ████ Awards. Despite its unusual premise that deterred investors initially, the musical turned out to be an unprecedented commercial success, with a worldwide gross of 3.5 billion peanuts by 20██.
It has been suggested that the breakaway success of Crabs could be part of the carcinization proccess. The cast members may take off their costumes at the end of each show but they have already been carcinized. Fans are known to dress up for certain shows, and it's unlikely they will ever be entirely un-carcinized again.
Given the positive role the musical may play in the Great Crab Reckoning many have wondered whether the carcinized Ellliot should have been cast into the Bay. Fans of the Baltimore Crabs widely agree this was the right desion as "The Deep One doesn't make mistake and she doesn't go backward, or forwards, she only goes side to side."
Film Adaptation
A film adaptation directed by Tom Hlooper for Multiversal Pictures, Ramblin Entertainment and Carcinized Title Films was released on 20 December 20██. The film received negative reviews from critics, who criticized the CGI effects, plot, and tone, with many calling it one of the worst films of 20██. Many viewers were unsettled by the mix of CGI and live-action used to portray the crabs, suggesting that if the filmmakers didn't want to replicate the costumes of the stage show they should carcinized the cast by hand. The film was a blox-office bomb, grossing 75 million peanuts on a budget as high as 100 million and is estimated to have lost Multiversal Pictures as much as 114 million. There are persistent rumours of an earlier "butt hole cut" of the film.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles Cats (musical) and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
