'Cougar! The Musical' Shows A More Compassionate Cougar
FEBRUARY 22, 2008
NEW YORK (TNA) – Cougars are getting a cultural makeover. Once the subject of crude jokes and niche porn sites like “Seduced By a Cougar” (full disclosure: a Naughty America site), cougars have penetrated an American bastion of civility: New York theater.
Now playing off-off Broadway, “Cougar! The Musical”!
The two-person performance is the creation of Donna Moore, a 40-something actress, divorced mother of two, and self-professed cougar. Moore and her co-star, Danny Bernardy, play three characters each to string together a bawdy portrayal of aggressive middle-aged women who prey on young, virile males.
Donna Moore has written a musical about cougars that she hopes creates a kinder, gentler portrait of older women who date younger men.
While the musical pokes fun at cougars, it also places them in a sympathetic light. Moore describes the show as about love and freedom, rather than conquest and predation. In fact, says Moore coyly, “The main character may possibly end up with an older man.”
Moore believes that “Cougar! The Musical” proves therapeutic for any cougar in the audience. As the show’s lead character feels empowered, Moore notes that cougars leave feeling similarly empowered.
“They feel better about their lives,” she explains. “They don’t feel so alone.”
However, before a cougar can feel empowered, Moore suggests they often have to go through an awakening. For example, one of Moore’s characters dresses up as a cat woman and performs at kids’ birthday parties. For a while, she can’t understand why the dads enjoy the parties more than the kids.
Moore experienced a similar awakening several years ago, shortly after getting divorced. She tells the story of a budding – and quickly fleeting – friendship with the manager of well-known rock band whom she met at a Saturday Night Live party. They exchanged business cards and the manager promised to send band posters for Moore’s two daughters.
Days later, the manager called Moore and suggested they meet for drinks at 11:30 p.m. Moore couldn’t meet at the late hour and declined. 
Housewife1on1.com Although Moore says cougars want their younger lovers to appreciate their minds as well as their bodies, self[proclaimed cougar Lisa Ann insists being a cougar is "purely a sexual thing."
Days after that, the manager called and again suggested drinks at 11:30 p.m. Again, Moore demurred.
“Why don’t we meet at 6:30,” Moore suggested. “That way we can have dinner.”
“Donna, I don’t want to have dinner with you,” the manager replied frankly. “I want to have sex with you.”
She hasn’t had any contact with him since then. For Moore, cougar sexual empowerment means more than gratuitous one night stands.
“Women need to feel good to have that translate into sex,” she explains. “I’d like to think the person likes me before they stick a body part into one of my body parts.”
That’s contradictory to the claims of other cougars, including porn actress Lisa Ann, who say that cougars want sex without the hassles of a relationship.
“It’s a purely sexual thing,” says Ann, “and provides the simplicity of not being in a serious relationship.”
Moore first heard of the term “cougar” a few years ago, during her divorce, and thought it the funniest word she’d ever heard. For her, the term was a sweeping generalization.
“I tend to think it was a man who coined the phrase,” she says. “I would say there are as many different cougars as there are men.”
Moore says the term reinforces an age-old double standard: that men who have sex with multiple partners are vigorous, while women who do the same are one-dimensional and shallow.
“Guys can go get laid and talk about it, because they’re considered more virile,” says Moore. “But if a woman is sexually active in a non-monogamous relationship, she’s a ‘ho.’ She’s not worthy.”
Moore has reflected on her worth head-on, asking herself, “Am I as desirable as a younger woman?”
She answers the question with “Cougar! The Musical,” in which she characterizes love as an “ageless phenomena.”
That means everyone – cheerleaders, cougars, boy toys and sugar daddies – can be attractive, no matter the age.
“There are men in their 50s, 60s, even 70s,” says Moore, “who when I close my eyes and hear them speak, sound so darn sexy.”
“Cougar! The Musical” runs at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on select dates until April 18. For more information, visit Moore's Web site.
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