Our company Christmas party this year was to go to Cats. I had seen it when I was a teenager and didn't want to see it again- but it was free and my wife really wanted to dress-up and go downtown to see it. A lot of my co-workers were very excited as well.

I felt like the lone voice of reason in the group- I told them, "It's just about Cats, right? It's just a bunch of dancing to poems about actual Cats. It's not any more profound than that." Still, people were excited to go.

We got downtown and mixed/mingled with my co-workers and their plus ones. Then the show started and we took our seats. An hour and a half later and I was just about to hang myself... I assumed my co-workers were genuinely enjoying themselves... and then the intermission starts. Their heads turn- single eyebrows are raised. "What the crap is this?!?!" many say. My one friend says he doesn't think he can take anymore.

We walk out to the lobby where we chat with some other co-workers. One says, "It makes you think of ways that you could leave gracefully in the middle without offending someone..." I said, "You want to see how it's done? It's done like this!" And my friend and I and our wives bolt for the front door and go eat appetizers at Rock Bottom.

We head back to our cars afterward and run into a pair of other couples in the elevator. One asks, "Did you leave Cats early too?" "No," I lie, "Is it still going?" I believe I am insanely clever for this turn about.

That is my review of Cats. Other than that, I like Phantom & Joseph. Evita is okay, I guess.