{"id":5231,"date":"2011-03-13T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/lolcats-opera-the-next-big-thing\/"},"modified":"2011-03-13T23:59:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T23:59:00","slug":"lolcats-opera-the-next-big-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/lolcats-opera-the-next-big-thing","title":{"rendered":"LOLcats + Opera = The Next Big Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pedroza as Dreamer Cat. Photo courtesy of Jaclyn Chessen.<\/em><\/p>\n

6:01pm | <\/strong>So there’s this website, right, <\/a>icanhascheezburger.com<\/a>, where you upload supposedly cute and\/or funny pictures of cats jumping or yawning or in some sort of contemplation (it hardly seems to matter), and then other people suggest supposedly funny and\/or cute captions, usually in this Internet feline English patois called lolspeak. “Clik teh foto 2 add a funneh capshun!” we’re instructed. “make ur own lolz.”<\/p>\n

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Some of us might completely dismiss such a thing. But Ellen Warkentine and Andrew Pedroza have found it to be both inspiration and opportunity, and over the last year-and-a-half they’ve been hard at work creating LOLPERA<\/em>, a brilliantly funny\/cute musical made by stitching selected LOLcat photos into plot, the libretto quilted from the captions. The leitmotifs created from these captions bring us character, mood, LOLcats’-eye-view philosophical themes, all set to leitmotifs that dance solo, intertwine, change partners, all while moving the story forward.<\/font><\/p>\n

At least that’s what I saw at <\/a>the Garage Theatre<\/a> on Nov. 6, where the fantastic ensemble workshopped what they have of Act I. <\/font><\/p>\n

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And what they have may be the next big thing. If so, it’s deserved.<\/font><\/p>\n

*    *    *<\/font><\/p>\n

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The Plot<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh hai. Ceiling Cat, who sees all (“Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate”), created the skies, the shapeless Earth, etc. “‘I can has lite?’ An lite wuz.”<\/font><\/p>\n

Fast-forward to the present, where LOLcat Co. is some sort of Internet concern spreading cats (memes \u2014 see below) everywhere. “Im in ur computer eatin ur bytes.”1 <\/sup><\/span>Astro Cat, the face of LOLcat Co., is blasting off into space in search of “cheeseburger\u2026out dere\u2026sumwheres,” leaving behind his mistress, Precious Cat.<\/font><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, LOLcat City has some new arrivals:<\/font><\/p>\n

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