Theater History: Cats
Whether the musical Cats is your taste or not, any lover of Broadway and literature can appreciate the history behind this legendary show. I think it's pretty perfect a show that profoundly impacted the arts in Great Britain and the United States has historical roots in both countries. Unfortunately, the beautiful Broadway revival of Cats closed on December 30th. So, in the show's honor, I thought I would give you all some background on the history behind the show.
The musical Cats is based on a book from 1939 called, "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" by the legendary writer T.S. Eliot. Before we dive into the history of the musical Cats as we know it, we've got to go way back in time to the early 1900s.
T.S. Eliot, the first hero of this story, was a British essayist, publisher, playwright and literary and social critic. He is considered one of the 20th century’s major poets and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Eliot was born in 1888 as an American citizen in St. Louis, Missouri. (He later renounced his citizenship and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39.) As a child, he was passionate about reading, which later led him to study at Harvard University and then Oxford University in England in 1914, when he was twenty-five. His entire life completely changed that year when he fell in love with London and met the American poet Ezra Pound. Pound was a major figure in the early modernist movement and helped Eliot begin his career as a poet.
Later in Eliot's life, he started writing his godchildren letters containing silly little poems to amuse them. One poem contained the line "poor little dogs and dear little cats," and Eliot's goddaughter mispronounced the words, which lead to him write an unpublished poem, titled, "Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats.” I absolutely love the origin of such an iconic word was an innocent mistake by a little girl!
Eventually, his poems were compiled and the book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" was published. This leads us to the second hero in this tale, Andrew Lloyd Webber. ALW's mother would read him T.S. Eliot's silly book of cat poems when he was a child, and those memories always stuck with him.
The famous musical theater composer Andrew Lloyd Webber already had two big hits, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, under his belt when decided to write a concert piece inspired by his beloved childhood book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.” He started composing in 1977, and in 1980, the concert premiered at the Sydmonton Festival. It was simply a concert piece, because there was no plot line in the book. However, ALW's entire life changed the night of that concert, because T.S Eliot's wife, Valerie Eliot, attended and absolutely loved what he composed. When ALW met her that evening, she generously gave him some unpublished poems and her blessing to adapt his concert into a musical.
Included in the unpublished work Valerie gave ALW was a poem about Grizabella the Glamour Cat, which Eliot left out of the book because he thought it was too sad for children. This unpublished poem had a deeper meaning and inspired ALW to create a musical. The poem about Grizabella was only eight lines long but gave the story a tiny plot line. Some experts believe Grizabella to be the feline version on the woman in Eliot's poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” ALW used that poem to write the melody for the famous song Grizabella sings, "Memory.”
The Eliot estate said ALW had to use the book's original text as his lyrics for the new musical. The second opening song, "The Naming of the Cats," is word for word what Eliot wrote, which is why it is spoken in a magical and spooky way, instead of sung normally. Luckily, ALW was allowed to add a few extra songs and make adjustments, like changing the cats’ coat colors, in order to make the characters more distinct and diverse.
The world premiere of Cats was on the West End on May 11, 1981, and opened at the New London Theatre. That production won two Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in a Musical. At the time, Cats was the first show of its kind and raised the bar for creating musicals with spectacle. The original production ran for 21 years and finally closed in 2002. That night, the finale lasted twenty minutes and included about 200 former cast members.
The Broadway production of Cats opened on October 7, 1982, at the Winter Garden Theatre. That season, the show was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven, including Best Musical and Best Costume Design. Cats became the longest-running Broadway show on June 19, 1997, but was surpassed by The Phantom of the Opera on January 6, 2006. Cats ran for eighteen years and closed on September 10, 2000, after 7,485 performances. My favorite fact I discovered about the original Broadway production is one resilient powerhouse cast member, Marlene Danielle, remained a cat for the entire run of the show.
FUN FACTS:
Old Possum was Ezra Pound's nickname for T.S. Eliot.
Cats was produced by Cameron Mackintosh.
On the original production’s opening night, there was a bomb threat, and the theatre had to be evacuated.
Cats made Andrew Lloyd Webber a millionaire.
Judi Dench was originally cast as Grizabella in the original cast of Cats, but had to be replaced when she tore her Achilles' tendon. Elaine Paige, who had previously been in Evita, was then cast in the role.
The London revival of the show opened in 2014 and closed in 2016.
Broadway revival opened in July 2016 and closed in December 2017.
There are rumors that after the Broadway revival closes, a film will be developed and Cirque du Soleil is producing a national tour of the production.
