Cats- The Musical
Created | Updated Feb 19, 2007
One of the most popular dance musicals of all time
Based on A book:
Old Possums book of Practical Cats.A book of poems on the life and greeting of well… Practical Cats.
Written by: T.S. Eliot
Story Line:
The Play peers into a day of what The Jellicle Cats (A specific kind of cat, well pretty much any well kept cat, it explains more in the production) do. It takes place at the Jellicle Ball, where the Jellicle cats meet and reflect on stories of each other and introduce each other. All of them are waiting for the Jellicle leader to appear, Old Deuteronomy (Pretty much the God Cat). For just before dawn Old Deuteronomy will make a choice of which cat will be chosen to go to the Heaviside layer A place where that cat will be reborn and come back to a different Jellicle life.
How it Came to Be:
A Young Andrew Lloyd Webber saw the book, and decided it would make a fairly good musical. So he went to Mr. T.S. Eliot’s widow and politely asked if he could make it into a dance musical, she replied no. Thinking that Mr. Webber was like Disney who came a couple years before and wanted to make into a musical cartoon. Of course Mr. Webber protested saying that his plan was not to turn them into a bunch of pussy cats rather that his idea was that it would reflect Hot Gossip, hearing this Ms. Eliot said “Oh I think Tom would rather like that.”
In Early production many people thought that putting a book of poems about cats to music was a recipe for disaster. When it opened in London in 1981 it became a sudden hit. On 19 June 1997 it became the longest running Broadway musical until the 9th of January 2006 when overtaken by The Phantom of the Opera. Cats closed in London in 2002, but for some odd reason has seemed to come back from the dead because it’s on tour once more, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you have no excuse no to. It is also available on VHS and DVD.
Sites:
Well if you wish to know more…
Official Site
Unofficial Fan Site
