Jellicle Hellicle: An Unofficial CATS Fan LARP

Do you know how to go to the Heaviside Layer? Because Jellicles can and Jellicles do!

Long Description

Inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical and TS Eliot's delightful cat poems, I bring you: Jellicle Hellicle! You play as a whole new, non-canonical Jellicle cat on the night of the Jellicle Ball. At the end of the night, all of the Jellicles will vote on who among them is worthy of ascending to the Heaviside Layer. You also get to dress up like a funky kitty cat and prance around.

Note: this is an early playtest.

What potential players need to know:

Is it a musical? Do I need to sing and dance?

It can be! But song and dance are entirely optional. If you want to sing parts of your improvised dialogue and prance around, go for it! We encourage you to go full theatre kid for this if that’s your jam. But this is not required, and no ability to sing or dance is necessary. Any singing or dancing you do will have no impact on your character’s ability to ascend to the Heaviside Layer, and you can “win” this game without singing a single note. There may be some characters that have songs associated with them that you can choose to perform, if you do so wish- this will be an option you can pick on the character survey.

Who are the characters?

These are all brand new Jellicle Cats! Though they are all created in the spirit of the original TS Eliot poems and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, in terms of names, characterization, and goals/motives. All characters are written as gender-neutral, with pronouns and titles being added for each individual player.

What’s the costuming for this?

At minimum, kitty cat facepaint (eyeliner-drawn whiskers and nose will suffice) or a cat-themed face mask, plus cat ears, are required, and a clip-on/tie-on tail is strongly suggested, paired with neutral-colored clothing that matches your Jellicle Cat’s fur color (color will be sent out in the character sheet). Lycra, spandex, legwarmers, sequins, fur, and other retro-licious dance gear are encouraged, but if you want to just show up in brown pants, a bowtie, and cat ears, that’s also totally fine. If you really want to break out a fursuit, we certainly won’t stop you. Just, please, this is not The Butthole Edition™.

So... Why a Cats LARP?

Why not? This started as a joke, a bit, and I don’t even remember how/why the joke started. But then we realized, oh shit, this actually can be a thing, and can be pretty freakin cool. So yeah. Cats LARP!