Drat! The Cat!

A Gem That Was Stolen Too Quietly

When Drat! The Cat! slinked onto Broadway in 1965, it came with the shimmer of promise: a fresh-faced ingénue in Lesley Ann Warren, a book and lyrics by Ira Levin (yes, Rosemary’s Baby Ira Levin), and a lively score by Milton Schafer. But within just eight performances, it vanished. Now, sixty years later, Drat! is more cult whisper than footnote—a brisk, bright musical comedy that wore its pastiche proudly and paid dearly for its subtlety in an unsubtle age.

Set in Victorian New York, Drat! follows Alice Van Guilder, a well-bred young woman who moonlights as a notorious cat burglar, robbing the mansions of the class she’s meant to marry into. Her fiancé, Bob Purefoy, is a police detective assigned to catch the elusive thief, unaware that the culprit is his beloved. What unfolds is a tongue-in-cheek spoof of morality, gender roles, and class hypocrisy. The show revels in the conventions of melodrama while sending them up with deadpan glee.