Cats Musical Wiki

Welcome to the Cats Musical Wiki
I know about a German Cats Wiki, but this is all special for the English speaking fans. We'll have as much info as we can on the characters, the actors/actresses, the songs, everything we can find! Anyone who can add any information please do, the more the merrier!

A Little Information On The Tail-Raising Musical Sensation!
CATS, one of the first musicls ever in Britian, is a story on Jellicle Cats and the Jellicle Ball, with minor events that happen on the way. The Jellicle Leader (Old Dueteronomy) is supposed to make the Jellicle Choice "Right before dawn" to see which elderly cat will journey to the Heaviside Layer and be re-born, and come back to a different Jellicle life. Munkustrap is the story teller, and gets helped along the way by Bombalurina and Demeter, two of the older queens. Macavity is the antagonist in the story and is "Wanted for Everything" but when you get to the scene of crime, he is always miraculously not there.

CATS opened on the West End in 1981, and on Broadway the following year. It is based off of T.S. Elliot's poetry, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the music and set the poetry to it, and Gillian Lynne choreographed it. Trevor Nunn directed it, both on the West End and on Broadway. It has won numerous awards, and is most praised for it's hit song, "Memory" (sung by Grizabella the Glamour Cat, an old Glamour queen who is shunned by all the Jellicles).

In 1997 a production was filmed and released in stores in 1998. It is the 2nd longest running musical on Broadway, and the fourth longest running West End musical. Cats sadly closed on Broadway in 2000, and on the West End in 2002. It has been performed around the world many times and has been translated into more than 20 languages.

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)!