CATS: DEEP MEMORIES IN AN ETERNAL MUSICAL

Cats in the Winter Garden, Broadway, NYC

In a few days, Tina is going to travel to New York City. It's not the first time that Tina visits this big city. She has been many times in a place which is considerated the capital of the world.

Now, Tina is preparing her agenda for these days meanwhile she's remembering the first time she visited the city that never sleeps. It was in 1982 and she travelled to NYC to watch a theatre performance, Cats, first aired in October, 8. Cats first opened in the West End, in the New London Theatre, in May 11, 1981 and the following year the show was represented in Broadway.

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S.Eliot, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as the Jellicle choice and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Cats introduced the song standard Memory.

More information: Cats the Musical Official Website

Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne. It won numerous awards, including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards. The London production ran for twenty-one years and the Broadway production ran for eighteen years, both setting new records. Actresses Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley became particularly associated with the musical. One actress, Marlene Danielle, performed in the Broadway production for its entire run, from 1982 until 2000.

As of 2016, Cats is the fourth-longest-running show in Broadway history, and was the longest running Broadway show in history from 1987 to 2006 when it was surpassed by The Phantom of the Opera. Cats is the fourth-longest-running West End musical. It has been performed around the world many times and has been translated into more than 20 languages. In 1998, Cats was turned into a made-for-television film.

Download Cats (Study Guide)

Memory, all alone in the moonlight. I can dream of the old days.
Life was beautiful then.
I remember the time I knew what happiness was.
Let the memory live again.

Andrew Lloyd Webber / T.S.Eliot