Gus The Theatre Cat by Andrew Lloyd Webber

SONG: Gus: The Theatre Cat
ARTIST: Andrew Lloyd Webber

From the musical, Cats

D (4 bars)

Gmaj7      D/F#       F#7     Bm
Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door
    Em7       A             Dsus2      D
His name as I ought to have told you before
   Gmaj7    D/F#         F#7           Bm
Is really Asparagus, but that's such a fuss
      G  --  F#m7--Em9--G/A  G             D
To pronounce that we usually call him just Gus

    Gmaj7       D/F#         F#7       Bm
His coat's very shabby. He's thin as a rake
       Em7          A          Dsus2          D
And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake
       Gmaj7      D/F#            F#7         Bm
Yet he was in his youth quite the smartest of cats
       G--F#m7--Em9--G/A  G           D
But no longer a terror to mice and to rats


       G         D/F#        Em7        D/F#
For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime
           G              D          F#7          Bm
Though his name was quite famous, he says, in his time
        G       D/F#      Em7              D/F#
And whenever he joins his friends at their club
             G            D           F#7          Bm
(Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub)

   Em7        A            Dsus2        D
He loves to regale them if someone else pays
     Em7       A              Dsus2    D
With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days
       G          D/F#        Em7       D/F#
For he once was a star of the highest degree
       G          D/F#         F#7        Bm
He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree
       G          D/F#        Em7         D/F#
And he likes to relate his success on the halls
          G       D/F#          F#7      Bm
Where the gallery once gave him seven catcalls


        G-- F#m7--Em9--G/A   Bm          Bm
But his grandest creation as he loves to tell
    Em7--F#m7--Gmaj7--G/A Csus2       G   D
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell


        Gmaj7         D/F#        F#7      Bm
"I have played, in my time, every possible part
      Em7          A       Dsus2       D
And I used to know seventy speeches by heart
      Gmaj7     D/F#        F#7         Bm
I'd extemporize backchat. I knew how to gag
      G -- F#m7--Em9--G/A     G          D
And I knew how to let the cat out of the bag
  Gmaj7       D/F#        F#7         Bm
I knew how to act with my back and my tail
        Em7       A          Dsus2       D
With an hour of rehearsal, I never could fail
      Gmaj7            D/F#       F#7        Bm  
I'd a voice that would soften the hardest of hearts
        G--F#m7-Em9-G/A        G         D
Whether I took the lead, or in character parts


       G          D/F#       Em7         D/F#
I have sat by the bedside of poor little Nell
         G          D/F#        F#7          Bm
When the curfew was rung then I swung on the bell
       G         D/F#     Em7        D/F#
In the pantomime season I never fell flat
      G         D/F#         F#7           Bm
And I once understudied Dick Whittington's cat


       G-- F#m7--Em9--G/A   Bm           Bm
But my grandest creation as history will tell
    Em7--F#m7--Gmaj7--G/A Csus2       G/B   D
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell

D D D


        D            C#/A       D           D
Then if someone will give him a toothful of gin
        A7sus4/E     A7            D            D
He will tell how he once played a part in East Lynne
     D              C#/A        D              D
At a Shakespeare performance he once walked on pat
          D        A          E7         A
When some actor suggested the need for a cat

       G             D/F#          Em7        D/F#
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained
      G          D/F#         F#7   Bm
As we did in the days when Victoria reigned
     G         D/F#         Em7     D/F#
They never get drilled in a regular troupe
         G              D/F#          F#7            Bm
And they think they are smart just to jump through a hoop"

       Em7        A            Dsus2         D
And he says as he scratches himself with his claws
           Em7        A         Dsus2       D
"Well, the theatre is certainly not what it was
      G         D/F#         Em       D/F#
These modern productions are all very well
            G          D/F#       F#7         B
But there's nothing to equal from what I hear tell


     G--F#m7--Em9--G/A      Bm     Bm    
That moment of mystery when I made history
   Em7--F#m7--Gmaj6-G/A Csus2        G
As Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell"


D


(Reprise)
"I once crossed the stage on a telegraph wire
To rescue a child when a house was on fire
And I think that I still can much better than most
Produce blood-curdling noises to bring on the ghost
And I once played Growltiger
Could do it again
Could do it again
Could do it again . . ." 

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