Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Words: T.S. Eliot
Premieres:
West End: 11 May 1981
Broadway: 7 October 1982
ROMA Musical Theatre: 10 January 2004
CATS is not only one of the most well-known shows in the history of musical theatre, but it is also one of the most original. Almost completely lacking a linear storyline, the show also contains no strong romantic love story as its creators seemingly chose to ignore the two basic rules of modern musicals. But, as a result, they actually broadened the format of the genre, boldly proving that in modern musical theatre ‘how’ is more important than ‘what’. A musical about cats telling their own stories in a huge urban rubbish dump? It’s absurd!
And yet! From the day it opened, large crowds flocked to the ticket offices and the musical was showered with awards (winning 7 Tony Awards for its New York production, including Best Musical and Best Music). The show has now been performed in over 30 countries and translated into 15 languages, and it’s been seen worldwide by global audiences of over 73 million! The song ‘Memory’ – one of the biggest hits from CATS – has been recorded by more than 150 artists, while the two cast recording albums featuring the original casts (from London and New York) both won Grammies.
The musical CATS is a sung-through musical essentially consisting of a series of songs in which we meet a succession of members of the Jellicle Cats tribe. They include Bustopher Jones, the sophisticated gourmet and food expert, and the villainous Macavity, whose evil deeds we hear about from two other cats, Demeter and Bombalurina, who are both frightened of him but also fascinated by him. There are also many other wonderful characters whom we meet in successive songs, each of which has a very different theatrical staging. The bond, the element which connects them all, is the character of the former ‘glamour cat’ who has fallen on hard times, Grizabella – with her painful ostracism by the tribe, her difficult journey to cat heaven (known as the Heaviside Layer) and metaphorical redemption. A separate and quite unexpected part of the show is… the spectacular pretend dog fight.
The poetry of T.S. Eliot, winner of the Noble Prize for Literature in 1948, is given new life and updated for modern audiences thanks to the incomparable music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The original poems about cats, first published in 1948, besides being hugely entertaining in themselves – bearing all the hallmarks of sophisticated literary fun – are also brilliant studies of cat nature, and they do not refrain from subtle allusions about the weaknesses and vices of human nature. As songs, these verses are given wings – and it’s precisely this combination of poetry taking flight and inspired music that constitutes the musical’s greatest success, with each production creating its own specific aura for the action to unfold in.
The musical CATS has a unique atmosphere, drawing huge audiences to theatres around the world, and it also has a universal influence which allows the words of the Nobel Prize winner to speak to audiences in many countries on many continents.
Selected musical numbers: “Memory”, “Growltiger’s Last Stand”, “Macavity: The Mystery Cat”, “Mr. Mistoffelees” and “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats”.