On October 7, 1982 Cats, the second most popular and second longest running Broadway show in history made its debut. The musical features human actors dressed in colorful cat-like attire who are portraying cats. The cats assemble in a junkyard on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball and compete against each other to be accorded the honor of journeying to Heaviside where they can enjoy another of their nine lives. There are twelve scenes in the musical that show the cats dancing and singing as they audition for the prestigious elder Old Deuteronomy who will choose the winning cat.
The plot of the musical show was based upon a book of poetry, titled “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” written by the great American writer T. S. Eliot who won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1948.
And the music for the show was written by the exceptionally popular British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber who also composed the music for the most popular Broadway show of all time – The Phantom of the Opera.
More than ten million theater fans saw the original Broadway production of Cats which ran for 7, 485 performances from October 7, 1982 to September 10, 2000.
Here’s a link to a YouTube clip of the cats in the scene “Rum Tum Tiger” from the musical which gives you a good idea of what the musical is like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Z_36i1ACg&list=PLEB7468A586EDE9B0
If you’re interested in reading some of T. S. Eliot’s work you might check out one of the following titles all of which are owned by the library:
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
The Waste Land
Complete Poems & Plays 1909 – 1950—the library owns all three titles.
You can also check out DVD of the 2000 presentation of Cats or the 2005 DVD of The Phantom of the Opera which will give you a good idea of what Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music is like.
Here’s a direct link to StarCat, the library’s online catalog of physical books and materials, where you can place a request (also known as a hold) for any of T.S. Eliot’s books or the DVDs Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed music for:
http://starcat.stls.org/client/default
Have a great day!
Linda R.
References
Cats. Playbill Vault. Online. Accessed October 7, 2013, http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/11527/Cats
T.S. Eliot Biographical. Noble Prize Laureates. Noble Prize. Online. Accessed October 7, 2013, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1948/eliot-bio.html
Andrew Lloyd Webber. Biography. Online. Accessed October 7, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/andrew-lloyd-webber-20825129
Sommers, Michael. (2012, May 25). A Frisky Musical With Many Lives: A Review of ‘Cats,’ at the Gateway Playhouse. New York Times. Online. Accessed October 7, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/nyregion/a-review-of-cats-at-the-gateway-playhouse.html?_r=0
T.S. Eliot. Biography. Online. Accessed October 7, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/ts-eliot-9286072
The American Dream Starts @ The Southeast Steuben County Library 