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Andrew Lloyd Webber began setting Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats to music in 1977, partly because it was a book he remembered with affection from his childhood (Andrew had a cat called Persens in his teenager period) and partly because he wanted to set existing verse to music.
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats contains verses that are extraordinarily musical; they have rhythms that are very much their own, like 'Rum Tum Tugger' or 'Old Deuteronomy' and although clearly they dictate to some degree the music that will accompany them, they are frequently of irregular and exciting metre and are very challenging to a composer.
Andrew Lloyd Webber first performed some of the early written settings for friends around a piano and then later at the 1980 Sydmonton Festival. Valerie Eliot, T.S. Eliot's widow, attended the concert and brought with her various unpublished pieces of verse by her husband; one of these was Grizabella the Glamour Cat.
Andrew in the rehearsal for CATS
Director Trevor Nunn, who has a taste for tackling theatrical problems that most people consider insolvable, then set to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber combining Eliot's works that were to become CATS, the longest running musical of all time. Trevor found a reference to the "cat heaven" in Eliot and made it the climax of the show. "We are fascinated by cats for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps most of all because in a mysterious way they allow us more clearly to see ourselves." Trevor said so.
Original choreographer Gillian Lynne, did not want to use totally accepted and known dance styles but instead to find a concept and an energy that the production could call its own. This meant vigorous exercises of an unusual nature leading eventually to total freedom in what the cast could attempt physically. Having observed that cats are at once aloof, hypersensual, cold, warm, completely elastic and mysterious, the goals that Gillian Lynne set the cast physically were daunting in the attempt to translate those wonderful words.
In rehearsal of CATS, Gillian Lynne(left picture) is the choreographer.
The New London Theatre was partially gutted and rebuilt to create the venue for the world premiere in London. The original designer John Napier, created a complete environmental space for the show taking the audience into a world which uses real objects to conjure up fantasy, that they may at first find slightly disorientating and perhaps make them wonder what is going to happen and how... a giant playground for cats.
When first discussing the staging of CATS, the production team felt that one important prerequisite was that they needed an environment where it would be possible to charge the atmosphere even before the performance begins. In devising a visual image for the show, the leap in the dark from script to stage, John Napier wanted to create a world for CATS that would not only achieve a greater degree of intimacy with the audience than is possible in most conventional theatres, but would also point up the humour of the show and its occasional wackiness.
In New York, the cats creative team relaxes (from Andrew clockwise direction): Andrew Llyod Webber (composer), Trevor Nunn (director), John Napier (designer), David Hersey (lighting designer), Gillian Lynne (Associate direcotr & choreographer)
He started work on designs in November 1980 and began trying to visualise a place where cats might congregate together. When creating the costumes for each character, John Napier followed the hints in T.S. Eliot's text, blending together the cat and human elements. Most of the costumes were naturally very flexible and easy to move in, an essential feature in a show which contains such a strong dance element. Every cat had to have individual make up which also helped to project their personality.
Two (Jennyanydots and Old Deuteronomy) of designer John Napier's costume design for the show
CATS premiered at the New London Theatre on 11 May 1981. In common with many other famous shows, CATS' birth was anything but easy. Most people thought the idea of a musical based on a collection of children's poems was a recipe for disaster. No one thought the British could success fully mount a dance musical. When Andrew Llyod Webber went looking for backers, the big West End angels turned him down. In the end, CATS was financed by more than 2 hundred small investors. One man put up his entire life savings of 5 thousand pounds.
CATS now the longest running musical in the history of the West End and also holder of the same record on Broadway, after overtaking A Chorus Line - is a truly international phenomenon. It has been seen by over 50 million people worldwide already, throughout Britain, Ireland and North America (where the national tour holds the distinction of being the longest, continuously touring show in American theatre history), as well as Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, new Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland. In 1993, CATS also became the first major Western musical to play Singapore and Southeast Asia.
But the run here began inauspiciously. The great British actress, Judi Dench, was in rehearsal to play Grizabella and, just before previews began, snapped her achilles tendon and had to be replaced - though Elaine Paige, who took over so gamely at the last minute, soon made the part her own, as have the legion of performers who have played it since. Even the prestigious first night in the New London Theatre was disrupted by a hoax bomb scare.
The show, however, proved anything but a bomb. In fact, it was more like theatrical dynamite, and once the fuse was lit, became unstoppable. The success of the now classic song, Memory, partly fuelled the phenomenon: to date, it has been recorded by over 170 artists, ranging from Elaine Paige to Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow and Judy Collins, as well as a techno/dance version by Natalie Grant.
The rest of the score has been widely recorded in eleven original cast albums that have been made in eight different languages. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards as Best Cast Albums, and the Broadway recording has sold over two million copies.
The show itself has won numerous awards and honours, including seven Tony Awards in New York in 1983, one of which was for Best Musical.
But it's the worldwide public who have taken the show to their hearts. If you have seen CATS, then you have become part of the show's own history by seeing it, and as it continues...Now and Forever.
Andrew Llyod Webber in front of the Cats poster
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Also read A note on the text.
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