Some of the original Broadway cast of Cats. |
When
Cats
opened on Broadway on
October 8, 1982 at the Winter Garden
Theatre it was already a sensation in London’s
West End. It opened during an era
when the creative energy seemed
drained from American musical theater,
and a string of grand spectacle British
productions, many with operatic overtones,
was establishing domination on the Great
White Way. It opened with high expectations, but no one expected
that it would run for 7,493 performances—then a record and still the third
longest run in Broadway history. It
lasted so long that the show originally lauded as ground-breaking and fresh,
became the butt of David Letterman jokes
and required sophisticated New York
theater goers to sneeringly dismiss
it as sentimental slop for the rubes in town from Iowa.
The
show had an unusual origin, not a novel or
a conventional stage play or an
original book, but in a whimsical throw-away from the proclaimed greatest English Language poet of
the 20th Century—T.S. Eliot. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was collected
from cat psychology poems enclosed in letters to Eliot’s God Children
signed as Old Possum. Eliot
published a limited edition with his own illustrations in 1939. It stirred enough interest that a second
edition for the general public was published the next year with
illustrations by Nicolas Bentley. Despite its success the usually serious
minded Eliot did not regard the little book as one of his important creations.
The first edition of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats illustrated by T. S. Eliot himself. |
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, already famous
for his collaborations with lyricist Tim
Rice for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and
Evita. Webber was in search of projects to develop
on his own. Fondly recalling Eliot’s
book as a childhood favorite, he began to set some of the poems to music as
early as 1977. He premiered a concert version of the songs in 1980 at
the annual Sydmonton Festival that he hosted in an old church on his Hampshire estate. Eliot’s widow, Valerie was charmed and ultimately gave the composer permission to stage a full scale
musical under the unusual provision
that no script be written and that
Eliot’s original poems be used as the text.
In
early 1981 the show went into rehearsals
produced in partnership by Webber’s Real
Useful Group and Cameron Mackintosh, then beginning his
run as the world’s most successful super
producer. As Weber finalized the
score he added adaptations of two other
Eliot poems to the lyrics from the Old
Possum’s book—Rhapsody on a Windy Night which Trevor Nunn adapted to the plays signature song, Memories
and the brief song The Moments of Happiness was from a passage in Eliot’s Four
Quartets.
During
rehearsals the cast, an unusually
large number of whom had “speaking”,
singing, and featured dancing parts, was confused
with the unusual structure of the
play and the lack of conventional dialog
or even a plot. Theater goers, even those who ended up loving
the show, were often equally perplexed.
It was said that without explanatory
notes in the program, no one
would know what was going on.
All
of the action for the play took place on, or in front, of one set—a junk yard—over
and around which a tribe of Cats roamed,
related, and told their
stories. The slender premise was that it
was the night of the Jellicle Choice
when the tribe gathers and the wise Old
Deuteronomy and selects one of their number to ascend to the Heaviside
Layer and come back to a new life. The cats, each with a colorful name and
distinct appearance and fur, discovered they are being observed by humans and explained The Naming of Cats. They took turns telling their own stories—or sometimes
having their storied told by others in songs for which Webber employed a wide
and eclectic variety of styles—classical,
pop, music hall, jazz, rock, electro-acoustic music, and hymn. There were extended dance sequences, choreographed
by Gillian Lynne, and even a play-with-in-a-play recalling a
performance of a now elderly actor cat.
What
almost passed for a plot was what happened to Grizabella, a former Glamour
Cat, who long ago left the Tribe and returned used up, sick of body and
soul, only to be shunned. It was
Grizabella who introduced herself with the plaintive
aria Memories, which became the
huge international hit from the
show. She was ultimately redeemed by the
tender attention of kittens and
ultimately was selected by Old Deuteronomy for the ascent to Heaviside.
As
rehearsals drew near to opening night
a young Judy Dench, who had been cast
in the key role of Grizabella, severely injured
her ankle and was replaced by Elain
Page, the actress most associated with the part in its long West End Run,
on tour, and later in Webber’s video production.
Cats opened on May 11, 1981 at the New London Theater to ecstatic reviews and sold out houses. It would go on to run for 8,949 performances,
exactly 21 years with a final performance on May 11, 2002. It won the most important British theatrical
awards—the Olivier Awards—for Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in a Musical for
choreographer Lynne.
Betty Buckley as Grizabella on Broadway. |
With
a smash hit in London under their
belt, the core creative team including Weber, Mackintosh, Director Trevor Nunn, and Lynne turned to mounting a Broadway
production on even a grander scale. The
show opened with Betty Buckley, best
known as the stepmother on the long
running TV family dramedy Eight is Enough, as
Grizabella.
At
the 1983 Tony Awards Cats received 10 nominations wining seven trophies
including Best Musical, Best Book posthumously
to T.S. Eliot, best score for Webber, Best
Featured Actress in a Musical for Buckley, Best Director for Nunn, Best
Costume Design for John Napier,
and Best Lighting Design for David Hersey.
Cats has subsequently
been translated into more than 20 languages and major professional productions
have been mounted around the world.
Webber produced a made for TV
version in Britain in 1998 starring Elaine Paige, Ken Page, who originated Old Deuteronomy on Broadway, Sir John Mills as Gus, Michael Gruber as Munkustrap, John Partridge as The Rum
Tum Tugger, Jo Gibb as Rumpelteazer, and dancers and singers
drawn from various stage productions of the show. The production is available on CD.
A
London revival that first played a short run last year before going on a British
tour will return to the Palladium for
a limited run beginning October 23 this year and ending on January 2, 2016.
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