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The CATS Theatres
Below are the two theatres where CATS is performing, although CATS will be closed in Winter Garden in September, but CATS is performed there for a long time, it can be denied. If you have any other theatres' pictures, where CATS was once performed, please send me, I will be very grateful.
The New London Theatre (London)
The New London Theatre; as its name suggests, is the West End's newest theatre although there has been a place of entertainment on the site since Elizabethan times. In the early 18th century it was a meeting place for glee clubs and "sing - songs" were held in the adjoining hall. In 1847 the Mogul Saloon was built which, over the next four years, was renamed the Turkish Saloon, the Mogul Music Hall and finally in 1851, the Middlesex Music Hall. In 1919 the theatre was renamed the Winter Garden and, with the interior completely redecorated , reopened under the Management of George Grossmith and Edward Laurillard. In 1959 the theatre was sold by the Rank Organization to a property development company and was demolished in 1965. As a condition of the redevelopment scheme, the New London Theatre was built as part of a complex incorporating a restaurant, shops, flats and a car park.
Given the opportunity of designing a theatre for the future the architects (Paul Tvrtkovic in association with Sean Kenny, Chew and Percival) incorporated many revolutionary features, notably the stunning 60 feet wide revolve which includes the stage, orchestra pit and part of the seating.
The New London Theatre opened on January 2nd 1973 with Sir Peter Ustinov's play The Unknown Soldier and his Wife. This was followed by the London premier of the musical Grease staring Richard Gere.
From 1977 to 1980 the theatre was used as a television studio for a variety of shows including This Is Your Life.
On May 11th CATS opened and has since become the longest-running West End and Broadway musical.
In August 1991 the theatre was purchased by Lord Lloyd Webber's The Really Useful Group.
These are the two statuses inside the New London Theatre, one is Bombalurina, the other is Skimbleshanks
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The Winter Garden Theatre (Broadway)
CATS was opened in 1982 in Winter Garden Theatre and will be closed on 10th September 2000.
Winter Garden Theatre was
built by the Shubert Brothers in 1911 and still owned by the Shubert Organization, this
historic musical comedy house was noted in its early days for a series of lavish revues
called "The Passing Show" and for the famed appearances of Al Jolson, who sang
his rousing songs on a runway. The Winter Garden's current tenant, "Cats," is
not only its longest-running show, but also its greatest hit, garnering seven Tony Awards.
Prior to that mega-hit, the house presented Christopher Plummer and James Earl Jones in
"Othello"; Richard Harris in a revival of "Camelot;" and David
Merrick's spectacular production of "42nd Street." The 1970's brought Hal
Prince's exciting production of "Follies" by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman,
with such stars as Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins, John McMartin, Gene Nelson and many
others. The offbeat musical won seven Tony Awards. Neil Diamond and Liza Minnelli made
highly successful personal appearances here and were followed by the acclaimed New York
Shakespeare Festival production of "Much Ado About Nothing" set in Civil War
times in the U.S. In 1974 Angela Lansbury won a Tony Award for her performance in a
sparkling revival of "Gypsy;" and two years later, Stephen Sondheim and John
Weidman offered their controversial musical "Pacific Overtures." Zero Mostel
re-created his role of Tevye in a revival of "Fiddler on the Roof," and
"Beatlemania," a multi-media show about the Beatles, did not invite the critics
and promptly ran for two years. Three musicals brightened this theatre in the 1960's:
Tammy Grimes (Tony Award) in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown;" Barbra Streisand as
Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl;" and Angela Lansbury (Tony Award) in
"Mame," ably supported by Beatrice Arthur (Tony Award), Frankie Michaels (Tony
Award) and Jane Connell. Hit musicals in the 1950's included Phil Silvers (Tony Award) in
"Top Banana;" Rosalind Russell (Tony Award) in "Wonderful Town," which
also won a Tony for Best Musical; and the revolutionary "West Side Story" by
Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, which garnered a Tony Award for
Jerome Robbins's brilliant choreography. The last "Ziegfeld Follies," starring
the great Beatrice Lillie and Billy De Wolfe also played here in 1957, but had a short
run. A much bigger success was the "Follies" in 1943, starring Milton Berle and
the beauteous Ilona Massey. "Hellzapoppin", the lunatic Olsen and Johnson revue
that had enjoyed a record run here beginning in 1938, triggered two similar
revues--"Sons o'Fun" and "Laffing Room Only" in the 1940's. Bobby
Clark had two hits here: Cole Porter's "Mexican Hayride" and "As the Girls
Go." Great revues played here in the 1930's: two "Ziegfeld Follies" with
Fanny Brice; Bea Lillie in "At Home Abroad" and "The Show Is On" with
Bert Lahr; Ray Bolger in "Life Begins at 8:40;" and Ed Wynn in a book
show," Hooray for What!"
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The stage of Winter Garden Theatre
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The lights of the theatre
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Operettenhaus Hambourg Theatre (Germany)
I am sorry but I haven't got the history of this theatre, German Cats will be closed on 28 January 2001.
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The China Theatre (Sweden)
The China Theatre was built
by the "grand man" of early Swedish film, Charles Magnusson. It opened for the
Stockholm audience on the 19th of October in 1928. The first film to be shown was Greta
Garbo? last silent-movie; "Anna Karenina" where she played against John Gilbert.
The exotic name was in style with the fashion of the 1920? when the oriental style was
very popular.
The year after its opening, the Vaudeville styled shows got popular and the Swedish
entertainer Ernst Rolf took over the stage. Ten years later that the China was named The
Show Theatre of Scandinavia and many of the shows held there soon reached world wide
status and reputation. Swedish singer and comedian Nils Poppe staged the first musical at
China together with his long time movie partner, Anna-Lisa Ericsson.
In the early 50, entertainer Karl-Gerhard took to the China stage, once again with a hit
show that firmly established China as a show stage to be counted on.
The legendary China manager Eskil Eckert-Lundin led the stage from the 40? to the 60?,
introducing the Stockholm audience to great performers such as Lena Horne, Nat King Cole,
Murice Chevalier, Edith Piaf and many more.
Comedians Carl-Gustav and Arne K?lerud gave some hilarious shows onstage, manily focusing
on the madness of everyday life in modern Stockholm at that time, giving the parking
problems of the city a new face! Swedish singer/actreess Lill-Babs became their
primadonna. The duo comedians Hasse and Tage entred the stage with unforgettable shows
such as "Yellow Dog" (not a cowarly dog, just simply a yellow dog), and they
also pulled along one of Sweden? best loved comedians today G?ta Ekman while performing.
The China have a long winding story. Just imagine all the fantastic things it?l tell us if
the walls could speak... Perhaps one might say that a new epok in its history was written
when CATS, one of the worlds most famous and successful musicals ever, came to its stage.
But The China? history don? end here. In 1988/89 the There was incorporated with Berns
Salonger, to make one of the most modern show and meeting place in Stockholm. The
building, with it? sign saying "China Teatern", made me feel like coming home...
The China Theatre went through a massive reconstruction work before the opening of CATS.
The stage was made larger, several walls and corridors were knocked down and rebuilt. The
Orchestra pit was overbuilt and lots of new technical solutions hadto be added. And above
all of this, the secrative stars glowed once again...
To once again take out the uniqe stars was a long time dream for the light-master Michael
Hallbert. The builders had a tough work bringing back the 1485 little stars that are built
into the 26.6 wide dome above the audience. The star? are placed exactly as the stars on
the spring of 1870, northern hemisphere. Doctor Ansgar Roth at the Stockholm Observatory
was one of the persons who very carefully brought them into their correct positions when
The China was built..
Just as intense as the preparation for CATS was, much the same anticipation must have been
in the air back in 1928 when the first test of the new stars were performed. But the
light-master switched them on, only to discover that the painters had covered ALL the
stars with paint! Against a pay of 25 Swedish crowns, ten persons had to crawl up to
scrape the paint off the stars. The stars are small lightbulbs, each one in a in a small
box. The light filtered out through a small cut prism of glass. The glass is cut so that
you?l see them regardless where you are seated in the theatre.
When preparing for CATS, no less then three layers of old paint had to be removed, all the
little protective caps are taken down, restored and returned. All the little lights had to
be rewired and nearly seven thousand meters of cable were used. It was a tough work, but
the stars once again shone over the dancing cats again...
Helsinki City Theatre (Finland)
When coming to Finland Cats faced the same designing problems as everywhere else. Cats is a very demanding production with lots of special effects. The theatre that hosted Cats in Finland, Helsingin kaupungin teatteri (Helsinki City Theatre in English), required many quite drastic changes. The lighting of Cats actually forced the theatre to renew the entire lighting system of the theatre, and the sound systems also required many big adjustments. The designers had to be careful, because this theatre wouldn't be used for Cats full-time. Cats would be on one day and the next day they would take everything down for a different show. Three hours for removing and six hours for rebuilding were the time limits of the setting. Because of this, special care was needed in the designing. Everything had to be spectacular enough for Cats, but also very adaptable. In addition to changes made to the theatre, Cats faced other difficulties in Finland. For example the original translation of Cats into Finnish was not accepted by London because they felt it wasn't close enough to TSE's poems. All in all the translation was redone 4 times. Of course, the aim of the Finnish production had never been to make an exact copy of the London or Broadway productions, but rather to produce an own interpretation. The Finnish production had received a special right to do a version of Cats with different makeups, costumes, and even choreographies than before. This means that Cats was probably quite original in Finland, to say the least. Other problems arose, too. For example, the electricians went on strike two months before he premier night. The opening night of the show was actually moved twice, and it ended up opening on September 18, 1986.
Though the Finnish production of Cats may seem a bitt peculiar to
those who have seen the London or Broadway versions, for example, it was obviously a big
success. The show was on for almost two years and a half, from the 18 of September 1986 to
New Year's Eve 1988. The show was almost constantly sold out. Some scandals arose, with
people saying that the tickets were only sold to groups and that individuals just couldn't
get any. Others claimed that only people from outside the capital, Helsinki, could get
tickets. Obviously these were people who lived in Helsinki. The ones living outside of
course felt it was the other way around. Anyway, the show was very popular, and people
obviously enjoyed it immensely. The critics, once again, were not always kind with the
show, but the audience was. During its stay at the Helsinki City Theatre, or Helsingin
Kaupunginteatteri, Cats played 213 times, and altogether around 185 000 people saw it. In
Finland that is an enormous amount of people for any show, and much more so when it comes
to musical theatre. Even though Cats was the most expensive theatre production ever to be
done in Finland, it easily managed to finish making a decent profit. The manager of the
Theatre actually said that if the HCT would be a purely commercial institution (like RUG,
for example) they would of course have kept it running for several more years. The fact
that the setting of Cats had to be taken down at least three times a week was finally too
much on the theatre itself. Storing all the Cats-gear was an enormous task, and it
inhibited the theatre's possibilities of making new productions. The theatre manager felt
that it was a responsibility of the theatre to offer new challenges for the actors and new
productions for the audience. Finnish theatre just can't compete with e.g. the West End or
Broadway. In Finnish theatre history Cats will always be remembered as an enormous
success.
The technical aspects of the show were amazing in Finnish scale.
Finland rarely hosts productions of the magnitude of Cats. Cats had already acquired a
formidable reputation abroad and its arrival had caused quite a stir in Finland a long
time before it opened. The lighting and sounds, that play an important part in Cats, had
to be excellent. But because The Helsinki City Theatre would host also other shows at the
same time with Cats, the designing was even more complicated. The entire setting had to be
able to be taken down in three hours and rebuilt in six, and the entire setting would be
taken down at least three times a week during most of the production's stay at the HCT.
The largest single expenditure of Cats was probably the Telescan that was part of the
general refurbishment of the theatre, but was basically needed mostly for Cats. The
Telescan is a computer system that allows extensive lighting programming. The Telescan was
used together with the AVAB Viking lighting system. Some other lighting features included
348 lights under the stage, 400 pairs of Cats eyes, and Mistoffelees' coat with 100
lights. Other special effects included numerous smoke machines, dry ice machines,
pyrotechnic bombs (almost 20 explosions during each performance), and the usual spotlights
(about 800 were used) etc. The starry sky above the Jellicle's demolished house consisted
of 3000 lights. The production used state-of-the-art equipment in everything and was
definately spectacular. The special effects were what really pushed Cats to becoming the
most expensive theatre production ever in Finland, a record it probably still holds.
