Gus: The Theatre Cat Gus: The Theatre Cat "Gus: The Theatre Cat" is a poem by T. S. Eliot included in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Known as "The Theatre Cat" due to his career as an actor, Gus is an old and frail, yet revered, cat, who "suffers from palsy, which makes his paws shake." His coat is described as "shabby" and he is "no longer a terror to mice or to rats." Gus, whose full name is Asparagus, is also a character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaption of the book, "Cats". In the musical, the poem is used almost verbatim
The King of the Cats 1929 short story "The King of the Cats" based around this folk story was selected by The Library of America for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of "American Fantastic Tales", edited by Peter Straub. Frances Jenkins Olcott's 1942 anthology "Good Stories For Great Holidays" included a version of Charlotte S. Burne's "The King of the Cats" adapted by Ernest Rhys. Barbara Sleigh's 1955 children's book "" is inspired in part by this tale, as are its two sequels, "The Kingdom of Carbonel" and "Carbonel and Callidor", which make up the "Carbonel" series. Peter Straub's 1980 novel, "Shadowland" also references the