[329], The musical's fantasy setting and disregard for verisimilitude allowed for groundbreaking experimentations in lighting and audio technology. [357], The stage production of Cats has undergone several revisions since its London opening. [198] Cats made its French debut at the Théâtre de Paris from February 1989 to April 1990,[122] with an original cast that included Gilles Ramade as Old Deuteronomy. thirty nine years ago. CAT – (THE PLAY!!! A sled dog struggles for survival in the wilds of the Yukon. "[24][25] The production faced a last minute mishap when Dench snapped her Achilles tendon during rehearsals for "The Old Gumbie Cat" and had to pull out one week before the first preview. [9][14] Nunn initially envisioned Practical Cats as a chamber piece for five actors and two pianos, which he felt would reflect "Eliot's charming, slightly offbeat, mildly satiric view of late-1930s London". As the publisher of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, royalties of up to £1 million annually[319] kept the then-struggling Faber afloat during the 1980s. [256] A touring company visited Asia again between 2007 and 2010, including stops in Taiwan,[206] Macau, and Thailand in 2007;[258] South Korea from 2007 to 2008;[259] China in 2008;[260] Singapore and Hong Kong in 2009 (with Delia Hannah playing Grizabella);[240][261][262] and Manila in 2010 (with Lea Salonga as Grizabella). [15][87] Nunn and Napier had sought to create "an environment rather than a set",[17] and around $900,000 was spent remodelling the New London in preparation for the show. [319][320] Musical theatre historian Vagelis Siropoulos asserted that in terms of impact, the "seminal Broadway opening" of Cats was "comparable only to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! [106] At the time, the musical was found to have had an economic impact of $3.12 billion on New York City and had generated the most theatrical jobs of any single entity in Broadway history. [192][193], November 1985 saw the premiere of a Norwegian-language production at Det Norske Teatret in Oslo. The region has hosted numerous English-language productions of the musical, beginning with a tour from 1993 to 1994 when it played in Singapore (with local actress Jacintha Abisheganaden as Grizabella),[250] Hong Kong and South Korea. [16][96], Napier also designed the costumes, combining cat and human features based on "hints" given in Eliot's poems, while ensuring that they did not impede the dancers' movements. His eponymous musical number was also turned into a rap. It is based on the 2017 Asia Tour and will tour South Korea and potentially other Asian countries. Wardle enjoyed Lloyd Webber's compositions but found the visual spectacle too overwhelming. [324], Additionally, Cats was the first Broadway and West End show to capitalise on merchandising as a major revenue stream. Rum Tum Tugger was reworked from a ladies-man rockstar to a breakdancing street cat. Supplementary verses from unpublished poems by Eliot were adapted for "Grizabella: The Glamour Cat" and "The Journey to the Heaviside Layer", while the song "The Moments of Happiness" was taken from a passage in Eliot's The Dry Salvages. He is the cat who is unofficially in charge of the night train to Glasgow. [287] The La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts staged the musical in 2014, with a cast that included Todrick Hall as Rum Tum Tugger. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. [302][303] Critics generally found the revivals to be enjoyable and invigorating, though Mark Shenton was disappointed that the new staging lacked the immersiveness of the original. Overall, he wished that the show had more "feeling to go with its most inventive stagecraft. [162] The resulting success of this production led to what the local media termed a "musical boom" in the 1980s, with other Broadway musicals quickly following suit and opening in Japan. Cats Revival Sets Broadway Dates", Andrew Lloyd Webber Reveals Nicole Scherzinger Backed Out of CATS on Broadway: 'I'm Furious', "Official: CATS Finds Its Grizabella- Leona Lewis Will Play the Glamour Cat on Broadway! [183][184] Stage Entertainment took over the production mid-2002 and moved the show to Berlin (2002–2004)[185][186] and later Düsseldorf (2004–2005),[187] before touring other cities until 2006. Set in a dilapidated London Underground station during World War II, this production was given a 5-star review by The Stage for its "radical" reimagining of Cats. This dynamic shifting of the audience's perspective created an effect similar to that of fast cutting in film editing. Her faded appearance and lonely disposition have little effect on her song ("Memory"). [173] Yoshiko Hattori (ja:服部良子) holds the production's record for the longest-appearing cast member; she played Jennyanydots in the original 1983 cast and remained in the role for 20 years with a final performance tally of 4,251. [301], The reviews for the 2014 and 2015 London revivals were positive as well, with critics giving both productions an average of 4 out of 5 stars. [173], Under the direction of Peter Weck, the first German-language production of Cats opened in September 1983 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. [351] All the song parodies of Cats were later removed after accusations of copyright infringement from Lloyd Webber's representatives, who claimed the songs were being used "to parody another subject matter entirely". Just as Jennyanydots finishes her song, the music changes suddenly and Rum Tum Tugger makes his extravagant entrance in front of the tribe ("The Rum Tum Tugger"). Official Website Shop ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION. The musical was chosen as one of fifteen "outstanding artifacts, events and activities" from the 1980s to be commemorated with its own stamp design. Despite its unusual premise that deterred investors initially, the musical turned out to be an unprecedented commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$3.5 billion by 2012. [241][242] From October 2015 to May 2016, a revival toured Australia with stops in Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. [82][85] She recalled the difficulty she faced in persuading Lloyd Webber to add the extended dance break, culminating in her and her dance crew having to dance all the parts in the "Jellicle Ball" to convince him. [268] Cats was China's highest-grossing musical in 2018, accounting for over 20% of the total grosses from all musicals staged in the country that year. When they are finished, Macavity returns disguised as Old Deuteronomy, but his cover is blown by Demeter and he ends up in a fight with Munkustrap and Alonzo. As Munkustrap and his troop give chase, Demeter and Bombalurina explain what they know about Macavity ("Macavity: The Mystery Cat"). Cats opened new regional, touring and international markets that the industry continues to capitalise on. [34] Instead of a conventional proscenium, the theatre was quasi-in-the-round with a central revolving stage. [96][393] This new version was eventually incorporated into all other productions of Cats. [325] Such branding emblems proved equally effective for later megamusicals, as seen with the waif Cosette for Les Misérables and the Phantom's mask for The Phantom of the Opera. With a third crash and an evil laugh, the "most wanted" cat Macavity appears. [323], Cats introduced a marketing strategy that set the template for subsequent megamusicals. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. [101] It was the most requested song at piano bars and lounges in the 1980s, and was an equally popular choice at weddings, concerts and other gatherings. As with the contrasting music and dance styles, the costumes and make-up are used to bring out each character's distinct personality. [120][129] A second All-Canadian company began at Toronto's former Panasonic Theatre in May 2013 and ran for four months & 128 performances, 28 years after the original production. Mistoffelees". Act II – Why Will the Summer Day Delay – When Will Time Flow Away? [156][157] After the second West End revival, the production toured the UK in 2016 with Anita Louise Combe as Grizabella and Marcquelle Ward as Rum Tum Tugger. Two elven brothers embark on a quest to bring their father back for one day. [i] Finally, Old Deuteronomy gives an address to the audience, closing the show ("The Ad-dressing of Cats"). The original cast included Debra Byrne as Grizabella, John Wood as Old Deuteronomy, Marina Prior as Jellylorum, Jeff Phillips as Rum Tum Tugger, David Atkins as Mistoffelees, and Anita Louise Combe as Sillabub. As the "first true megamusical",[321] Cats pioneered a genre of musical theatre that is produced on a grand and global scale. Casting for the other roles began in November 1980, with auditions held across the UK for dancers who could also sing and act. [16] Many of the songs are pastiches of their respective genres, which Snelson attributes to the show's origins as a song cycle: The original concept of a set of contrasting numbers, without a dramatic narrative, meant that each song needed to establish some sort of musical characterization independent of the others and develop a quick rapport with the audience. It tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice," deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Before Old Deuteronomy can announce his decision, Grizabella returns to the junkyard and he allows her to address the gathering. The producers and the creative team loved the design but felt that the title — Practical Cats — looked out of place when paired with the image of the cat's eyes. "[306] Clive Barnes of the New York Post concluded his review saying: "Its importance lies in its wholeheartedness. By the time the production closed in August 1989, it had become the most successful Canadian stage production of all time with a box office of $78 million from nearly 2 million tickets. [120][233] From 1989 to 1990, the company toured the Festival Theatre in Adelaide,[234] His Majesty's Theatre in Perth,[235] Civic Theatre in Newcastle, Lyric Theatre in Brisbane, and the Aotea Centre in Auckland. William Grimes wrote of its detractors: "There are more than a few who see the Cats phenomenon as the theatrical equivalent of the rise of the megabudget Hollywood action film. Broadway Sacramento staged the musical in 2003 and 2009 at the Wells Fargo Pavilion. Over 2,500 of these scaled-up props were used to fill the whole auditorium in the original Broadway production. ), a one-man show written by Jamie Beamish and Richard Hardwick, is a dark comedy about the fictitious life of Dave, a cat who was fired from the original London production of Cats on opening night. Callum Mansfield directed and choreographed it, and its cast included Marina Prior as Grizabella and Steven Tandy as Bustopher Jones and Gus. [100] It played a total of 8,949 performances before closing on its 21st anniversary, 11 May 2002. [96], "Growltiger's Last Stand" has been criticised as being racially offensive. [392] Additionally, a song entitled "Cat Morgan Introduces Himself" was cut during initial development. [146], Following the closure of the original West End production, a nationwide tour embarked in 2003 with Chrissie Hammond starring as Grizabella,[147][148] until Dianne Pilkington took over the role in 2006. [327] Composer Joe Raposo said of family musicals in 1986: "Cats is a wonderful proof of what an audience is out there, untapped. ), Cats has been translated into over 15 languages and produced professionally in more than 30 countries.[99]. | Overall, the original Broadway production grossed approximately $388 million in ticket sales. Due to the rhythmic nature of Eliot's work, there had been previous attempts before Cats at setting his poems to music, though none of these attempts had been met with much critical or commercial success. [204] Set in an abandoned film studio instead of a junkyard, the Polish version opened in January 2004 and closed in 2010. [114][115] Cats National II, a separate sit-down production at the Los Angeles Shubert Theatre, ran from January 1985 to November 1986, and starred Kim Criswell and George de la Peña in the roles of Grizabella and Mistoffelees respectively.
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