Following its triumphant season in London’s West End, the acclaimed revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-breaking musical CATS comes to Australia for a strictly limited season from October 2015.
The hit revival, which was reworked for the most recent season in the West End by the original creative team – Director Trevor Nunn, Choreographer & Associate Director Gillian Lynne, Set Designer John Napier and Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber – received excellent reviews and extended its season due to overwhelming demand.
The 2015 Olivier Award-nominated CATS introduces a rapping ‘street cat’ in the famous Rum Tum Tugger role, who performs some serious breakdancing moves. “I’ve come to the conclusion that having read Eliot again, maybe Eliot was the inventor of rap,” says Lloyd Webber.
Based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the show is set amongst a larger-than-life junkyard playground and is alive with our favourite feline characters including Rum Tum Tugger, Mr. Mistoffelees, Macavity, Jennyanydots, Old Deuteronomy, Grizabella and Skimbleshanks.
The Jellicle Cats come out to play on one special night of the year – the night of the Jellicle Ball. One by one they tell their stories for the amusement of Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, who must choose one of the Cats to ascend to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.
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 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.
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 composed by the legendary Andrew Lloyd Webber, includes the poignant hit song Memory, which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.
CATS opens at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre from 30 October 2015, then plays Derwent Entertainment Centre, Hobart (10 – 13 December), Melbourne’s Regent Theatre (from 18 December), and Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre – QPAC (from 29 January 2016). Tickets on sale from Friday 24 April 2015. Adelaide and Perth dates will be announced soon.
For more information, visit: www.catsthemusical.com/australia for details.