Here, Kitty, Kitty! – ’Cats’ Plays the Orpheum Theater
It’s a classic – with a few new twists. “Cats,” the show that revolutionized musical theater, has changed this year’s touring production with the reintroduction of the “psychic twins” Coricopat and Tantomile.
These mystical cats, who are always in sync, were last seen in the Broadway production and haven’t toured since 1985. They can sense when something new is occurring on stage. Where one goes, the other follows.
These two cats, along with all the others you know and remember are returning along with the award-winning music you know so well, to the Orpheum Theater Friday, Feb. 17 through Sunday, Feb. 19 for five performances only.
Since Cats first opened on the West End stage in 1981, it has become one of the world’s best known and best loved musicals. With a plot based on T.S Eliot’s “Old Pos- sum’s Book of Practical Cats” and award-winning music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, “Cats,” originally directed by Trevor Nunn, has since been presented in more than 20 countries and in about 250 cities, including such diverse destinations as Buenos Aires, Seoul, Helsinki and Singapore.
The show has been translated into 10 languages: Japanese, German, (three versions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish (two versions for Mexico and Argentina) and Italian. The Swiss production required a bilingual cast who performed in German and English on alternate nights. The title of the show has rarely been translated, the Mexican producers did a survey as to whether the Mexican audience would like their production to be called Gatos – the response in favor of keeping the English original was unanimous.
CAT NIPS
The original production opened at the New London Theatre, in the West End on 11 May 1981. Eight years later it celebrated its first important milestone: after 3,358 performances, Cats became the longest running musical in the history of the British theatre.
• On 29 January 1996 the London production of Cats celebrated its 6,141st performance and became the longest running musical in the history of West End theatre.
• In April 1999 the gross box office for the London production was over £115,363,000.00
• CATS opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on October 7, 1982, and continued to live up to its motto of playing “Now and For- ever” until September 2000.
• On 19 June 1997 the show became the longest running musical on Broadway.
• Since its opening, Cats has been presented in over twenty countries and in about two hundred and fifty cities, including such diverse destina- tions as Buenos Aires, Seoul, Helsinki and Singapore. Within two and half years of the London opening there were productions in New York, Tokyo, Budapest and Vienna, and the first of tour US touring productions had hit the road.
• Cats has been translated into ten languages: Japanese, German, (three versions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish (two versions for Mexico and Argentina) and Italian. The Swiss production required a bilingual cast who performed in German and English on alternate nights.
• The title of the show has never been translated – the Mexican producers did a survey as to whether the Mexican audience would like their production to be called Gatos – the response in favour of keeping the English original was unanimous.
• On October 1, 1991, CATS became the longest, continuously touring show in American theater history.
• “Memory” has been recorded by a variety of over 150 artists ranging from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace. Barry Manilow’s rendition was a Top-40 hit in the U.S.
• A techno/dance version by European singer Natalie Grant topped the European dance charts.
• The Original London Cast Recording of CATS won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Cast Album . The next year the Original Broadway Cast Recording won the same award.