Tonight, CATS closes in London on its 21st birthday. The show opened at the New London Theatre on May 11, 1981 and became a world-wide hit. Amazingly, nobody wanted to invest in it. Andrew Lloyd Webber got together 1/4 of the amount needed from over 6,000 private investors, mortgaged his house for 1/4, and got the theatre to allow him to pay the remaining 1/2 later.
The show has been performed in 26 countries and in 14 languages. My own CD collection includes English, German (Germany & Austria), Japanese, Hugarian, Dutch, French, Spanish (the coveted Mexican CD), and the extremely rare Norwegian CD.
The song “Memory” has been recorded over 150 times by damn near everybody.
They showed a clip of the cast rehearsing one of the dance scenes. They weren’t in costume. In fact, most of the females weren’t in much of anything at all.
It’s popular to bash Cats, but clearly a lot of people love the show. I’ve seen the travelling company production twice. Enjoyed it both times. My four-year-old daughter saw it on TV and loved it, so I bought the DVD. We’ve watched it together probably a dozen times, and she still loves it.
It may not be great art, but it beats the hell out of having to watch Teletubbies or Barney.
How’s that for a sterling review? “Cats - better than Teletubbies”
“sigh! I’m probably the ONLY person in the world who hasn’t seen the darn thing in the theater.
…And now I guess I never will. SIGH!”
Trust me, Ocatvia…this damn thing has nine lives…it will be revived before you can spit up a hairball.
I know there are people who liked it, but I really really really hated it - and to make things worse, one of my friends starred in it. Ergo, despite every good excuse, I had to see it 5 times.
Did I mention the fact that I really really really hated it?
Funny that, because I really really really loved it!
When I was in Year 10 (so about 14 years old) and we had a week-long sports camp in Perth, we were given a choice of going to see Cats or going to play some laser-tag game. Thank goodness I chose Cats!
I loved the makeup and the costumes, the acrobatics and the songs. It was just wonderful! I wish I could have seen it again.