Adapted from TS Eliot’s ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’, this “groundbreaking musical” (Daily Express) comes together in a sparkling fusion of music, dance and verse, and has now taken on a new life for a new generation.
CATS, one of the longest-running shows in West End and Broadway history, received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981 where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The ground-breaking production originally directed by Trevor Nunn and featuring musical staging by Gillian Lynne was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, and ran for 18 years.
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Since its world premiere, CATS has been presented in over 30 countries, has been translated into 15 languages and has been seen by more than 73 million people worldwide. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards for Best Cast Album.
The magnificent musical score includes the one of the most treasured songs in musical theatre —‘Memory’, which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.
With universal appeal and an expandable cast of different age groups, the show has not only been presented in theatres, but also in tents in Japan and Korea, an engine shed in Switzerland and school gymnasiums across the USA.
One of the brightest diamonds among the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote the music for this musical. One of the songs, Memory, became a hit and brightly known far beyond the borders of musicals world. Over time, this song has become a standard not only for this musical, but also marked the bar for all musicals songs at all. And those who did not reach it, cannot be considered successful since 1981 – the first performance of Cats.
Trevor Nunn was director & together with choreographer Gillian Lynne, they did the premiere, which was first staged in the West End, and a year later stepped over the ocean and played on Broadway, in 1982. In the current day, this play is in the TOP-4 of most long-play musicals of the world, giving a total of 7485 representations in the USA before closing in 2000. However, this figure is not complete since it displays only official shows on Broadway, but there were also other ones, adding number to the total figure, so it increases. Even right now in 2015, this musical has visited 5 different locations (Paris, Bahrain, West End, Blackpool, Australia) and should be continued in 2016.
All that time it received 7 Tonies, 3 Drama Desk & 1 Grammy – all these awards for the period of 1993 – 1994. In contrast to the TOP-3 of musicals, which still run in the theaters, this does not run anymore on a regular basis on Broadway, reviving only for individual productions year from year. For example, it visited Paris for the first time in 1989, then it was Berlin in 2002, Madrid in 2003. After 7 years, it was a national tour in Australia, and in 2014, it was presented in the West End again as revival and in South Korea too. These are only few mentions of its total plays around the globe & a tiny number of countries it had visited for the whole time.
One of the actresses, M. Danielle, has devoted 18 years of her life, playing throughout all musical productions in the United States since 1982 and till the very year of its official closure, 2000. A musical staged in England even further, 21 years.
Release date: 1981
Last Update:January, 13th 2016