The original Broadway production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Cats, premiered in the Winter Garden Theatre on October 7, 1982, after previews which began on September 23, 1982. It played a total of 7,485 performances and 15 previews. It was the second production of Cats to open worldwide, following the original London Production. In transferring to Broadway, the show was given a significant overhaul with a much bigger budget. Many of the subsequent productions worldwide were based on the Broadway version of the musical. The show won seven Tony Awards in 1983, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score.
This production made Cats the longest running show in Broadway history from 19 June 1997 until 9 January 2006. In 2016, the musical was revived on Broadway in a reworked production.
Production Details[]
After the success of the London production, there was an intense bidding war among American producers to bring the show to Broadway, with The Shubert Organization and David Geffen eventually winning the Broadway rights to Cats.[1] Many changes were made to the show at the insistence of the new producers, so as to better appeal to Broadway audiences and critics. Most of these changes concerned upping the production values and spectacle, but also included major revisions to the London score.[2]
| “ | The music changes boiled down to a new version of "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer," on balance a plus, and a coarse cod Italian aria replacing "The Ballad of Billy McCaw" as Growltiger's wooing song for the Lady Griddlebone. This definite minus was written to the Italian translation of a chunk of "Growltiger's Last Stand" and was deemed essential to give Broadway audiences a moment of slapstick fun. | ” |
Cuts were also made to many of the musical numbers, following complaints from American critics who had seen the original 1981 London version, that its running time of nearly 3 hours was too long. Some of these changes were later adopted by the original London production. For more details, see Broadway Production/Score.
Cats debuted on Broadway on October 7, 1982, at the Winter Garden Theatre with a record-breaking $6.2 million in ticket pre-sales.[3] It was the most expensive Broadway show ever mounted at the time with a production cost of $5.5 million,[4] though it recouped this investment in just 41 weeks (less than 10 months).[5] On June 19, 1997, Cats overtook A Chorus Line to become the longest-running show in Broadway history with 6,138 performances. At the time, the musical was found to have had an economic impact of $3.12 billion on New York City and had generated the most theatrical jobs of any single entity in Broadway history.[6]
The show was originally scheduled to close in June 2000, but the closing date was pushed back following a surge in ticket sales.[7] Cats eventually closed on September 10, 2000, after a total of 15 previews and 7,485 performances. One actress, Marlene Danielle, performed in the Broadway production for its entire 18-year run. Its Broadway-run record was surpassed on January 9, 2006 by The Phantom of the Opera, and Cats remains Broadway's fifth-longest-running show of all time. Not accounting for inflation, the original Broadway production grossed approximately $388 million in ticket sales.[8]
Cast and Creative Team[]
- Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Executive Producers: R. Tyler Gatchell, Jr. and Peter Neufeld
- Director: Trevor Nunn
- Associate Director and Choreographer: Gillian Lynne
- Costume and Set Design: John Napier
- Assistant Costume Designer: Sally Ann Parsons
- Assistant Scenic Designer: Raymond Huessy
- Lighting Design: David Hersey
- Sound Design: Martin Levan
- Wig Design: Paul Huntley Productions, Inc.
- Makeup Design: Candace Carell
- Orchestrations: David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Production Musical Director: Stanley Lebowsky (1982 - 1990), David Caddick (1986 - 1993)
| Position | Name | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Musical Director | Rene Wiegert | 1982 - 1987 |
| Jack Gaughan | 1986 - 1989 | |
| Ethyl Will | 1989 - 1990 | |
| Sue Anderson | 1989 - 1991 | |
| Edward G. Robinson | 1991 - 1997 | |
| Patrick Vaccariello | 1995 - 1997 | |
| Mark McLaren | 1998 - 1999 | |
| General Manager | Gatchell & Neufeld, Ltd. | |
| Company Manager | James G. Mennen | |
| J. Anthony Magner | ||
| Production Stage Manager | David Taylor | |
| Sally J. Greenhut (Jacobs) | 1984 - 1991 | |
| David O'Brein | ||
| Stage Manager | Lani Sundsten | |
| Jeff Lee | ||
| Donald Walters | 1987 - 1988 | |
| Sherry Cohen | 1988 | |
| Dan Hild | 1988 - 1991 | |
| Peggy Peterson | 1988 - 1998 | |
| Peter Wolf | ||
| Assistant Stage Manager | Sally J. Greenhut (Jacobs) | |
| Suzanne Viverito | 1991 - 1998 | |
| Tom Taylor | 1991 - 1998 | |
| Andrew Feigen | ||
| Dance Captain | Bonnie Walker | 1982 - 1983 |
| René Clemente | 1983 - 1986 | |
| Greg Minahan | 1987 - 1989 | |
| Suzanne Viverito | 1990 - 1992 | |
| Leigh Webster | 1992 - 1993 | |
| Suzanne Viverito | 1993 - 2000 | |
| Role | Performer |
|---|---|
| Alonzo | Héctor Jaime Mercado (cover Macavity, Plato, Rumpus Cat) |
| Asparagus / Bustopher Jones / Growltiger | Stephen Hanan |
| Bombalurina | Donna King |
| Carbucketty | Steven Gelfer (cover Asparagus, Bustopher Jones, Growltiger) |
| Cassandra | René Ceballos (cover Bombalurina) |
| Coricopat / Mungojerrie | René Clemente (cover Mistoffelees) |
| Demeter | Wendy Edmead |
| Etcetera / Rumpleteazer | Christine Langner (cover Victoria) |
| Grizabella | Betty Buckley |
| Jellylorum / Griddlebone | Bonnie Simmons |
| Jennyanydots | Anna McNeely |
| Mistoffelees | Timothy Scott |
| Munkustrap | Harry Groener |
| Old Deuteronomy | Ken Page |
| Plato / Macavity / Rumpus Cat | Kenneth Ard |
| Pouncival | Herman W. Sebek (cover Alonzo, Coricopat, Mungojerrie) |
| Rum Tum Tugger | Terrence V. Mann |
| Skimbleshanks | Reed Jones |
| Sillabub | Whitney Kershaw (cover Tantomile, Victoria) |
| Tantomile | Janet L. Hubert (cover Demeter, Grizabella) |
| Tumblebrutus | Robert Hoshour |
| Victoria | Cynthia Onrubia |
| Cats Chorus | Walter Charles (cover Old Deuteronomy) |
| Cats Chorus | Susan Powers (cover Jennyanydots) |
| Cats Chorus | Carol Richards |
| Cats Chorus | Joel Robertson |
| Swing | Steven Hack (cover Carbucketty, Coricopat, Mungojerrie, Pouncival, Tumblebrutus) |
| Swing | Bob Morrisey (cover Alonzo, Munkustrap, Rum Tum Tugger, Skimbleshanks) |
| Swing | Marlene Danielle (cover Bombalurina, Cassandra, Demeter, Tantomile) |
| Swing | Diane Fratantoni (cover Cassandra, Etcetera, Griddlebone, Jellylorum, Rumpleteazer, Sillabub) |
For complete Broadway Casts see here
Gallery[]
Recordings[]
The Original Broadway Cast Recording was recorded in October 1982 and released on January 26, 1983. It features the original cast, including the swings.
A video recording of the Broadway production was filmed on July 11, 1983, by the New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. Access to the recording is restricted to research purposes only.[9]
Press[]
- Philadelphia Inquirer (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) - In-depth look at the Broadway production with Harry Groener (Munkustrap) by William B. Collins. Published: 24 October 1982.
- NY Daily News - Article on the OBC recording by Don Nelsen. Published: 24 October 1982.
- AP News - Interview with Harry Groener (Munkustrap) by Mary Campbell. Published 5 December 1982.
- The Baltimore Sun - Article on the challenging choreography and injuries by Leslie Bennetts. Published: 30 August 1983.
- New York Times - The 15 Lives of 'Cats' By Daniel B. Schneider. Published: 6 October 1996
- Playbill - Cats trivia by Ellis Nassour. Published: 17 June 1997.
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Special Features[]
"Memories of CATS" by Harry Haun (Playbill, May 1997, Broadway)
As CATS approaches a theatrical milestone, past and present cast members recall their favorite feline moments.
Bernard Jacobs visited his Winter Garden on October 8, 1982 - the day after he, Gerald Schoenfeld, The Really Useful Company Limited, David Geffen and Cameron Mackintosh had transplanted there Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicalization of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Those who saw him that day recall how blissed out he was.
"For Bernie, even a little excited was a lot, and he was very excited," says Stephen Hanan, one of the Cats in question, "thrilled about the box office. I vividly remember him saying, 'This is going to run longer than A Chorus Line.' It's sad Bernie's no longer with us because I'd love to remind him of that prophesy."
Come June 19, 1997, this prediction turns statistic. A Chorus Line goes feline that day as Cats turns in it's 6,138th performance and becomes Broadway's longest-running show. For almost 15 years the show has been a launching pad for a whole generation of performers - kids who went out there kittens and came back cats. Spawned by Trevor Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne, stars were indeed born. Such is the stuff of memory - or, rather, "Memory" . . .
The soaring Puccini-esque "Memory" carried Betty Buckley's Grizabella to The Heaviside Layer (which is as close to Heaven as you can get from inside Winter Garden), just as it took the actress to the Tony podium. Two other cats made the Tony running: Hanan's Growltiger and Harry Groener's Munkustrap.
All agree the Cats premiere was purrfection. Cynthia Onrubia, who was originating her first Broadway role (Victoria) in it, remembers the opening-night gifts: a bottle of champagne and some Purina Cat Chow. Groener recalls the show-biz axiom that crashed and burned that evening: the one that said opening-night audiences are a notch or two cooler in the Reponse Dept. than preview audiences.
"I thought that would happen with Cats because the previews were fabulous," he says, "but at the opening they screamed and yelled. I thought, 'Oh my gosh! I'll never hear anything like this again.' But I did. At the Crazy For You opening, the response from the house was so loud it came into my heart and pushed the tears out of my eyes. Imagine, in one lifetime, two nights like that!"
Terrence V. Mann and Charlotte d'Amboise - now Mann and wife - met as cats: Rum Tum Tugger and Cassandra. And Timothy Jerome learned he was going to be a father just before going on as Gus the Theatre Cat; that momentous news pushed every lyric out of his head, and he came up dry for Gus's song, forcing him to ad-lib in anguish three whole verses.
"I'll never forget the looks on those kid's faces - those stunned, shocked faces," says Jerome. "They told me the audience never caught on, but the cast sure did. Scotty Wise was sitting backstage howling over what was happening." (Wise readily allows he "never laughed so hard in a theatre in my life.")
As Old Deuteronomy, lording majestically over John Napier's outsized junkyard set, Ken Page had to stay onstage during intermission, standing guard territorially by his throne, dealing cursorily with any paying customers who happened by to explore the fanciful environs. Only once, by his count, did he lose his cool.
"Trevor never gave instructions about intermission, so what I did was stay in character. One evening I saw this little old lady coming at me with one of those I'm-going-to-take-care-of-business walks. She planted herself in front of me, stuck out her hand and said, 'Deuteronomy? Ruth Gordon.'
I thought 'What am I going to do?' I couldn't gush like I wanted to, so finally I whispered to her, 'I'm not really supposed to talk like this, but I think you're wonderful.'
She said, 'Well, I think you're wonderful, too. This is my husband, Garson Kanin.'
We talked and talked, and she said, 'Make sure you tell everybody how terrific they are.' Some time after that, I ran into them in the street, out of make-up. They were walking arm in arm as they always did. I told them I was Deuteronomy, and they both looked at me like I was the Angel of Death for a second.
I said, 'From Cats.'
She said, "Oh, my goodness! You're a baby. I thought you were an old man. Look, Gar, he's a baby.'
It was the thrill of my life to have met them."
Page's primary rival for the role was another Ken - Prymus - who is now in the sixth year of his Old Deuteronomy reign. These two Ken's originally did a seven-round audition for that "fat cat" part, and Prymus's favorite Cats memory involves director Nunn. On the show's tenth anniversary, he remembers, "Our general manager came over to me and said, 'Trevor Nunn would like to talk to you.'
I thought, 'Oh, boy, here goes my job.'
When I went over, Trevor said, 'You were born to do this role.'
That knocked me out, so I asked why he didn't hire me originally.
He said, 'You didn't have the low notes.' He was right, too. Back then, I was truly a tenor and didn't have the low notes.
Laurie Beechman gets back into her Grizabella getup this month and will do the role on Broadway beyond Labor Day. She first pounced on the part in November 1983 when she opened the first national tour in Boston. Six months later she bowed on Broadway and stayed there through 1988. The house electrician during her tenure, Joe Newman, looked it up and discovered she was the longest-running continuous principal-player to work the Winter Garden, surpassing Al Jolson and Angela Lansbury (but, now, not Ken Prymus).
"You know, I never got tired of it," she's amazed to admit.
Her favorite Cats memory?
"I always had Chanukah in my dressing room. I'd have the menorah, wine and bits of gelt, the prayer phonetically printed out on the wall. Ethan Fine, a guitar player from the orchestra, would come up. It made quite a sight - kids in cat costumes celebrating Chanukah. For me, that's the spirit of the place."
Turning Bryan Batt into a Cats cat was an arduous process, but it seems to have stuck.
"I was reluctant to go out for the show because I'm not that great a dancer," he's quick to concede, "but the Munkustrap role is mainly for a singer-actor, so I did it. I wasn't to the level of some of the dancers, but they kept making me do the combination over and over. Finally, I just looked out from the stage and said, 'You know, the audience will never know how long it took me to get this.' They laughed, then I sang, and that was it. I got cast right then and there."
Batt did the road show for six months, then joined the Broadway company and was still in Cats two years later when he went out for the doomed Darius in Paul Rudnick's Jeffery.
"Originally, the character was a chorus boy in Grand Hotel. Paul looked at my résumé and said, 'Are you really in Cats?' I said, 'Yeah. Now and Forever.' Later he told me that's when he got the idea to rewrite the role as a guy from Cats."
These days you'll find Batt in Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back - and back in his furry uniform for a skit called "Stop Cats (from passing A Chorus Line). Bernie Jacobs, who saw that coming 15 years ago, would have loved it!
"Stars of the Original Cats Share Their Favorite Memories" by Veronika Bondarenko (Playbill, 28 June 2016)
The summer revival of Cats has the show’s original stars feeling nostalgic—and curious to see how their beloved show will come back to life. Plus, they share never-before-seen photos.
One of Herman Sebek's oddest memories during his time in Cats happened when he was walking onto the stage as Pouncival and an audience member ran up to him, screamed, "What a cute kitty!" and kissed him on the mouth.
"I just had to keep going—I was a Cat," says Sebek, now 54, who looks back fondly on the celebrity status that came with being an original cast member in one of the most popular Broadway shows of the '80s.
With the revived version of the Cats slated to open July 31 at the Neil Simon Theatre, many actors, dancers and singers from the first production are thrilled and nostalgic to see what a new generation of performers will do with their time onstage.
Whitney Kershaw, the original Sillabub, says that her time in Cats was one of the most exciting periods of her life. From the cat improvisation exercises that she and other cast members did during rehearsals to the costume that designers painted on her to ensure the lines were just right, everything about the show felt unique and custom.
"It's something that still comes back to me in my dreams a lot," she says. "Sometimes those dreams are that I've forgotten the steps."
Kershaw plans to return to New York from L.A., where she now lives, to see how Cats retains the magic of the original Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats-inspired musical more than 30 years later.
"I think the music is the music and T.S. Eliot is T.S. Eliot," she says. "Obviously they have to hold on to those two elements to keep it real."
The producers are being tight-lipped about what will be different, but promise that "the DNA" of the show will be retooled for a contemporary audience when previews begin July 14.
Sebek, who went on to do more Broadway musicals, including Shogun and Miss Saigon, says that the show's unusual nature and furry appeal makes it especially receptive to new actors and new direction.
"I think you can go to anybody and they'll give you their own version of what they think a cat sounds like and their own version of how they think a cat moves," he says.
Steven Hack, another original who played Carbuckety, Mungojerrie, Pouncival, Tumblebrutus and Coricopat for extended periods of time during his five years with the show, says he sometimes feels as though barely any time has passed since the days when he danced to the tune of "Jellicle Song for Jellicle Cats."
"Wasn't it just over a minute ago?" says Hack, who now acts in film and television in L.A.
Hack and Kershaw recall the excitement they created years after their Broadway days when they would show up to former stage manager Don Walters' third-grade class in L.A. to teach kids song-and-dance routines from the musical.
Sharing a dressing room with Hack was Brian Andrews, who joined the cast nine months into the original run. He says he was never more fit or had more fun than when he played Tumblebrutus, Pouncival, Macavity and Mungojerrie over his ten years in the musical.
"It is very rare in show business for a person to stay in a show for ten years because they're having fun," he says.
After leaving Cats at 33, Andrews moved to Florida to teach musical theatre, ballet and dance at the Maltz Jupiter Theater. He recently oversaw a dance class taught by Callan Bergmann, one of the cast members in the Cats revival.
"I'm trying to train people so that they can go back and be cats on Broadway now," he says.
As the years since opening night roll by, most of the original litter maintain strong relationships with the theatre family that they grew up with onstage. Lily Lee Wong, who stayed in the show for 11 years once she joined the original production as a swing performer, now works as a real estate agent in Harlem. She plans to go to the revival with Marlene Danielle, who began as an understudy for multiple cats and later took over the role of Demeter and then Bombalurina full time. (Danielle is the only cast member to stay in the musical for the entire 18-year run.) This time, when the duo revisits their old stomping ground, it will be with their kids in tow.
For them, the night will be a celebration of the people they were during their time in the theatre and how far they’ve come.
"I hope that in 2016, people will like it," says Wong. "You never know. It's a gamble that you take for your audience to accept something so many years later."
Awards and Nominations[]
- Main article: Awards
1983 Tony Awards[]
- Best Musical (Won)
- Best Book of a Musical (Won)
- Best Original Score (Won)
- Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Betty Buckley (Won)
- Best Costume Design (Won)
- Best Lighting Design (Won)
- Best Direction of a Musical (Won)
- Best Featured Actor in a Musical - Harry Groener (Nominated)
- Best Featured Actor in a Musical - Stephen Hanan (Nominated)
- Best Scenic Design (Nominated)
- Best Choreography (Nominated)
1983 Drama Desk Awards[]
- Outstanding Music (Won)
- Outstanding Costume Design (Won)
- Outstanding Lighting Design (Won)
- Outstanding Actress in a Musical - Betty Buckley (Nominated)
- Outstanding Lyrics (Nominated)
1983 Outer Critics Circle Awards[]
- Best Broadway Musical (Won)
1984 Grammy Awards[]
- Best Cast Show Album - OBC recording (Won)
References[]
- ↑ Unmasked: A Memoir by Andrew Lloyd Webber (2018). Pages 361, 364.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Unmasked: A Memoir by Andrew Lloyd Webber (2018). Pages 375, 384-386.
- ↑ The Curiosity of Cats, Smithsonian (October 2007).
- ↑ Geffen Sizzles While Biz Drizzles: Broadway is Next Stage for Pop's Top Composers", Billboard. 95 (4): B-4. January 29, 1983.
- ↑ The Megamusical by Jessica Sternfeld (2006). Page 169.
- ↑ Cats Trivia Encyclopedia, Playbill (June 17, 1997).
- ↑ The Megamusical by Jessica Sternfeld (2006). Page 171-172.
- ↑ The Top 10 Highest-Grossing Broadway Shows of All Time, Playbill (April 6, 2018).
- ↑ Cats videorecording (1983), New York Public Library online catalog.
- ↑ Cats -- Broadway Playbill, May 1997.
- ↑ "Stars of the Original Cats Share Their Favorite Memories", Playbill, 28 June 2016.
| v • e Broadway's Cats | |
|---|---|
| Productions | Original (1982 - 2000): Cast • Gallery • Cast Recording • Score • Winter Garden Theatre
Revival (2016 - 2017): Cast • Gallery • Score • Neil Simon Theatre |
| National Tours | US Tour #1 (1983 - 1987): Cast US Tour #2/L.A. (1985 - 1986): Cast |
| Characters | Alonzo • Bombalurina • Bustopher Jones • Carbucketty • Cassandra • Coricopat • Demeter • Electra • Etcetera • Griddlebone • Grizabella • Growltiger • Gus • Jellylorum • Jennyanydots • Macavity • Mr. Mistoffelees • Mungojerrie • Munkustrap • Old Deuteronomy • Plato • Pouncival • Rum Tum Tugger • Rumpleteazer • Rumpus Cat • Skimbleshanks • Sillabub • Tantomile • Tumblebrutus • Victoria |