 |
|
NOW AND FOREVER!
The longest running, most popular, North American Touring Production in history! There's no better way to introduce your family to the wonders of live theatre than with the magic, the mystery, the memory of CATS. What began as a musical about cats, after Andrew Lloyd Webber picked up a book of poems in an airport bookshop, has become one of the longest running shows in Broadway's history. Winner of seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, CATS features 20 of Andrew Lloyd Webber's timeless melodies, including the hit song "Memory." |
|
Creative Team
Click on name to read their bio.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Composer
T.S. Eliot Poet and Critic Trevor Nunn Original Director Gillian Lynne Original Associate Director and Choreographer John Napier Designer David Hersey Lighting Designer Andrew Lloyd Webber
Composer
Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of The Likes of Us, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, By Jeeves, Evita, Variations and
Tell Me On A Sunday later combined as Song & Dance, Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard,
Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game, The Woman in White and Love Never Dies. He composed the film scores of Gumshoe
and The Odessa File, and a setting of the Latin Requiem Mass Requiem. In 2004 he produced a film version of The Phantom of the Opera directed by Joel
Schumacher and, in 2006, a unique spectacular version of the show in Las Vegas. His new musical Love Never Dies, which continues the story
of The Phantom and Christine, opened at London's Adelphi Theatre in March 2010. He pioneered television casting for musical theatre
with the Emmy award-winning BBC series "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" He repeated his success with "Any Dream Will Do" which cast
the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and in 2008 he cast the musical Oliver! for the BBC. This year in the BBC
series "Over The Rainbow" he has cast Danielle Hope in the role of Dorothy for his new theatrical production of The Wizard of Oz which
opened at the London Palladium March 2011. His awards include seven Tonys, three Grammys including Best Contemporary Classical Composition
for Requiem, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, two International Emmys, the Praemium Imperiale, and the Richard Rodgers Award for
Excellence in Musical Theatre and The Kennedy Center Honor. He currently owns seven London theatres including the Theatre Royal Drury
Lane and the London Palladium. He was knighted in 1992 and created an honorary life peer in 1997.
T.S. Eliot
Poet and Critic
Born in St. Louis in 1888, he settled in England in 1915. Already famous for his works Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
and The Waste Land (1922), Eliot's interests began to move toward playwriting in the mid-1920s. His best known play, Murder in the Cathedral, was
commissioned for the Canterbury festival of 1935. His awards include the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize for Literature (both 1948),
the Hanseatic Goethe Prize (1954) and the Dante Gold Medal (1959). Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) provided
much of the book for this musical. He received the Tony Award for the book of Cats in 1983, 18 years after his death.
Trevor Nunn
Original Director
was educated at Downing College, Cambridge and in 1962 he won an ABC Director's Scholarship to the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where,
as Resident Director, his productions included The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Peer Gynt and a musical version of Around the World in
Eighty Days. In 1964, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, was made an Associate Director in 1965 and became the company's youngest
ever Artistic Director in 1968. He created The Other Place, the Donmar Warehouse and the Swan Theatre, and led the RSC into its new
home in the Barbican. He was responsible for running the RSC until he retired from his post in 1986. From 1997-2003, he was Director
of the National Theatre. Theatre: His productions for the RSC included The Revenger's Tragedy, The Relapse, The Alchemist, Henry V,
The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter's Tale, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra,
Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, All's Well That Ends Well,
Once in a Life-time Three Sisters, Juno and the Paycock, Othello, The Blue Angel, Measure for Measure, Henry IV, Parts I and II ,
The Fair Maid of the West; and with John Caird, Nicholas Nickleby (winner of five Tony Awards), JM Barrie's Peter Pan and
Les Misérables, which won eight Tony Awards and has become the most performed musical in the world. Trevor Nunn's work at the NT
includes Arcadia, Enemy of the People, Mutabilitie, Not About Nightingales, Oklahoma!, Betrayal, Troilusand Cressida, The
Merchant of Venice, Summerfolk, Albert Speer, The Cherry Orchard, My Fair Lady, The Relapse, South Pacific, The Coast of Utopia,
A Streetcar Named Desire, Anything Goes and Love's Labour's Lost. Other credits include Hamlet (Old Vic), Skellig (Young Vic),
The Lady From The Sea (Almeida Theatre), CATS, Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Chess, The Baker's Wife,
Timon of Athens, Heartbreak House. Opera: For Glyndebourne: Idomeneo, Porgy and Bess, Cosi Fan Tutte, Peter Grimes. For The
Royal Opera House: Porgy and Bess, Katya Kabanova, Sophie's Choice. Television: "Antony and Cleopatra" (BAFTA award), "The
Comedy of Errors," "Macbeth, Three Sisters," "Nicholas Nickleby" (Emmy Award), "Word of Mouth," "Othello," "Porgy and
Bess," "Oklahoma!" (Emmy Award), "The Merchant of Venice." Film: Hedda, Lady Jane, Twelfth Night.
Gillian Lynne, CBE
Original Associate Director and Choreographer
Gillian Lynne was instrumental in the development of jazz dance in Britain leading to ground breaking work as a director and choreographer of
film, television and stage. Her 50 plus Broadway, West End and International shows, films and TV include: Tonight at Eight, Cabaret,
What the World Needs Now, Gigi, The Roar of the Greasepaint, How Now Dow Jones, My Fair Lady, The Secret Garden, Half-a-Sixpence,
Man of La Mancha, Yentl, "A Simple Man"(1988 BAFTA Award) and "Le Morte d' Arthur" (Samuel G. Engel Award). She is best known for her
direction/choreography/staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS, The Phantom of the Opera and
Aspects of Love. She was awarded the CBE in 1997, and in 2001, she choreographed and staged Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
John Napier
Designer
is an Associate Designer of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Notable productions for them include Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors,
King Lear, Once in a Lifetime, Nicholas Nickleby, Hedda Gabler, Peter Pan and Mother Courage. Productions for the Royal National
Theatre include Peter Shaffer's Equus, Trelawny of the Wells, Peter Pan, An Enemy of the People and Candide. He designed
Lohengrin and Macbeth for Covent Garden, Idomeneo at Glyndebourne, The Devils for ENO and Nabucco for
the Met. In the musical theatre, Napier designed Cats, Starlight Express, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard,
all seen worldwide. He also designed Time, Children of Eden, Burning Blue, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Jesus Christ
Superstar in London's West End. He designed Captain Eo starring Michael Jackson and Hook for Stephen Spielberg. Design awards
include SWET awards for King Lear and Lohengrin, an Olivier for Burning Blue and Tony Awards for Nicholas Nickelby, CATS, Starlight Express,
Les Misérables and Sunset Boulevard. John Napier is a Royal Designer for Industry, a Fellow of the London Institute and a
member of the American Academy of Achievement.
David Hersey
Lighting Designer
has designed the lighting for over 250 plays, musicals, operas and ballets. His work has been seen in most corners of the globe and his
many awards include Tonys for Evita, Cats and Les Misérables and the Olivier Award for Lighting Design given in 1996. His work has been
represented in London's West End by CATS, Starlight Express and Les Misérables. He has also been active in the world of theme parks in
Florida and Italy as well as lighting extravaganzas at The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio Hotels in Las Vegas. He is founder of
DHA Lighting which concentrates on the design of specialist lighting. For 10 years he was lighting consultant to the National and is
a past Chairman of the Association of Lighting Designers. David has recently returned from a two year sabbatical during which he sailed
over 38,000 miles around the world.
“Cats approaches purrfection... One of the most imaginative and eye-pleasing musicals of the century... Spectacle it is... A mixture of delights and glitz... Genuinely good moments... Kids will be utterly captivated.”
|
Gallery Click on an image to enlarge.
Photos by © Joan Marcus.
|
