CriticalDance Forum

An old review I have just come across, for this show that is still running in London.<P> <P><B>The Cats with 8,000 lives</B><BR>by Robin Stringer in The Evening Standard<P><BR>It is not just the appeal of Cats that explains why the longest running musical ever staged in the West End or on Broadway will tonight dance past yet another milestone: its 8,000th performance. Now into its 19th year at the New London Theatre, this ostensibly odd mix of TS Eliot's poetry and Andrew Lloyd Webber's memorable music has grossed £130 million in London alone since it first caught the public's fancy.<P><A HREF="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/theatre/review.html?in_review_id=47247&in_review_text_id=199503" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>Here is a link to discussions of 'Cats' elsewhere on CriticalDance:<BR> <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000403.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000403.html</A> <BR>

This is it - the last day of 'Cats' in London......for the time being.<P><B>End of the tale for Cats</B><BR>From the BBC website <P><BR>The cast of the West End musical Cats are preparing for the curtain to fall on the show for the final time on Saturday. <BR>The audience for the last performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit will see a host of famous faces rejoining the cast. <P>As well as the final show it is also the musical's 21st birthday, making it a double celebration. <P>Elaine Page and Brian Blessed are among those who will take to the stage, alongside 150 other performers from the show's history. <P><A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_1979000/1979127.stm" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P><B>Curtains for Cats</B><BR>Maev Kennedy in The Guardian bids farewell to Macavity, Mungojerry and Rumpelteazer as the West End fixture slides into musical memory <P> <BR>Exactly 21 years ago, back in May 1981, turning some amusing poems for children by that dry old stick TS Eliot into a show, with music by a little known composer called Andrew Lloyd Webber, and a stage set of giant dustbins and wrecked cars, was not an instantly obvious formula for success. It didn't help that a bomb scare stopped the first night, and the auditorium had to be evacuated.<P>The show, however, was unstoppable. The result was theatre history, but sooner or later in any show the fat cat sings and the house lights come up. After almost 9,000 shows, it's curtains for Cats.<P><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,713546,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

Article in The Independent.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Cats, the record-breaking West End show, received its final curtain call last night after an extraordinary 21-year run.<P>Members of the original cast, including Elaine Paige and Brian Blessed, reunited before the show at the New London Theatre, while thousands of fans unable to get tickets for the final performance, watched on a big screen erected in Covent Garden.<BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/news/story.jsp?story=294182" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

Article in The Evening Standard.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Many of the original cast joined hands on stage at the New London theatre to sing out the 8,950th showing of Cats - after 21 years. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/theatre/review.html?in_review_id=47247&in_review_text_id=550252" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

ALG defer decision to cut arts funding
From londondance.com

Arts Council London issued the following statement, following the Association of London Government's decision to defer decisions in cuts in fudning to arts organisations in the capital:
"The Arts Council/London Arts is pleased that the Association of London Government (ALG) Grants Committee decided to defer final decisions on most of the recommendations for grants to cultural organisations over the period to 2007. We also welcome the extension of current funding for these organisations to end June 2003. But we remain very concerned about the implications for the funding of arts bodies in London.

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Cats @ Palace Theatre
By Natalie Anglesey for Manchester online


FELINE fanatics rejoice! Cats is back, after an absence of several years, with over £1m in box office bookings and several shows already sold out.

If you've ever read TS Eliot’s Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats to your kids, you may have wondered, as I did, how on earth anyone could make a musical out of so slight a piece of writing.

Hats off then to both its composer, Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber and director, Trevor Nunn, who did just that and created the most successful and longest-running musical in the world.

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Peerless Whiskers
Musical: Twenty-three years on and crowds are still purring over Cats. Its composer Andrew Lloyd Webber reigns supreme in UK musicals but worryingly there's no pretender to his throne, says Clare Stephen for The Sunday Herald


He is arguably this country's most celebrated contemporary composer and the man credited with resurrecting musical theatre in Britain. No wonder Andrew Lloyd Webber feels he's working in a vacuum. His musicals -- among them Cats, Phantom Of The Opera, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar -- have been hugely successful worldwide. When Lloyd Webber turns to cast a smug glance over the competition he sees no challenger to his crown.

'There's nothing new that's gone on in musical theatre lately that's excited me, I must say,' he declares. 'You've got to realise we're a back-water in Britain. The real world is frankly America -- and obviously there are many countries in Europe where musical theatre has been part of the tradition for years and years and years and always will be.'

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Article in The Herald.

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Cat who got the cream
Paul Farrell has swopped the classical world of Scottish Ballet for whiskers and a fluffy costume in to fulfil his dreams, he tells MARY BRENNAN for The Herald

SINCE 1981, when it first pounced on a susceptible public, the musical Cats has had nine lives at least. While different casts came and went across its 21-year run in London's West End, various other incarnations were touring worldwide with such record-breaking success that the cat's meow soon became synonymous with the ringing of cash registers in each of the 11 languages it played in. Even now, when the London show has closed, Cats lives on, touring theatres across the UK with Edinburgh's Playhouse next on the list.

For Paul Farrell, formerly of Scottish Ballet, the three-week stint there will mean catching up with friends and family - none of whom have seen him on stage in feline form. "My family were all set to come to Portsmouth for the show, but I didn't think it made sense," he says. "Edinburgh's not only closer, but I wanted to be really right in the part when they saw it."

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<img src="http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/Pics/dancetoday/200310/cover.jpg" alt="" />

C A T S
Colleagues of Andrew Lloyd Webber scoffed at the idea of singing alley cats starring in a musical but his production, aptly named Cats went on to create musical theatre history. One person who has seen first-hand, the effect Cats has on an international audience, is make-up and hair supervisor Roslyn Camuglia. She is interviewed here by Angela Gilltrap for Dance Today.

Cats has become the most successful show of all time, has won countless awards and continues to receive rave reviews 22 years after its first performance. Roslyn has been involved with Cats productions in Australia, South Africa, Lebanon, Kuala Lumpur and Korea.
Internationally, Cats transcends language, race and religious barriers as it brings to life the poems of T.S. Elliot.

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