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HistoryToday the musical CATS is a worldwide sensation. It has been seen by over 50 million people in over 30 countries. It has won many awards, including the coveted Tony for Best Musical in 1983. It has been playing in the New London Theatre since 1981, and became the longest running Broadway musical in 1989. But it's amazing history began slowly. Andrew Lloyd Webber first encountered T.S. Eliot's poems as a child, when his mother would read them to him. Years would go by before he stumbled upon Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats in 1972 at an airport. He purchased the book, and began reading it on his way to America. To him, the poems had a musical sound. Some contained rhythms that were very much their own; like 'Old Deuteronomy' or 'Rum Tum Tugger'. He began setting the poems to music in 1977. Webber was beginning to get an idea, but did not know if it would ever become a reality. With help from his friend Trevor Nunn, he visited Valerie Eliot (T.S. Eliot's widow) and obtained the rights to make Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats into a full-fledged musical. The ball was set in motion. The New London Theatre was partially gutted and rebuilt to create the venue for the world premiere in London. John Napier was given the task of designing the setting and the costumes for the musical. He says of his handiwork, "I have created an environmental space for the show, taking the audience into a world which uses real objects to conjure up fantasy, that they may at first find slightly disorienting and perhaps make them wonder what is going to happen and how...a giant playground for cats." Napier followed the hints in T.S. Eliot's words as he created the costumes for each character. He blended together the human and the cat elements. As you would expect, almost all of the costumes were very flexible so the dancers would be able to move. Each cat needed individual make up which would also help to develop their personality. Gillian Lynne was assigned the task of interpreting the poems into dance. "Cats are at once aloof, hypersensual, cold, warm, completely elastic and mysterious," she said of felines, and set her dancers to the daunting task of becoming that way. Gillian did not want to use known and accepted dance styles. She wanted an energy and concept that the show could call its own. Still, all they had was a bunch of poems with no story line at all. Late in the planning of CATS, Valerie Eliot gave Andrew an unpublished, fragmented poem of which only the last eight lines were written because Eliot thought it too depressing for children. This unfinished poem introduced the character Grizabella. There now was a story line, but the show was lacking something. There needed to be a climax, a song that would send the audience out humming. Webber said he would try to create one, and they next day came in with a melody that he'd literally written overnight. There was a melody, but this song still needed lyrics. Time was quickly running out before opening night. Three separate lyricists were hired to try and write lyrics for this melody. The song needed to have a meaning that fit with the rest of the show and brought it all to a climax. All three lyricists failed. Nunn went home to try his hand at it, and wrote the song with just three days to go before opening night. 'Memory' was born.
CATS premiered at the New London Theatre on May 11, 1981. Although the evening was disrupted by a prank bomb scare, the show was anything but a failure. Its hit song 'Memory' became a classic and was recorded by one hundred and seventy artists ranging from Elaine Paige to Barbara Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Judy Collins and Barry Manilow, as well as a techno/dance version by Natalie Grant. The original cast soundtracks have been made in eight different languages, and the Broadway version sold over two million copies. The show itself has won many honors and awards, including seven Tony Awards in New York in 1983. CATS has become the longest running musical in London and on Broadway, and has become famous around the globe. The worldwide public has taken it to their hearts, and its no wonder that it has earned the nickname 'CATS - Now and Forever!' | |||||||
 Disclaimer: CATS is copyright Andrew Lloyd Webber and RUG. I do not own or claim to own any part of it. This site is only up for the enjoyment of others. The layout, name, and idea for this site do belong to me, however, so please do not claim them for your own. Purrs! | ||||||||
