Broadway in Amherst: the CATS meow!

Amherst is set to catch a glimpse of Broadway on April 19 when the hit musical "Cats" comes to the Mullins Center Arena. Based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Cats" won seven 1983 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Lighting and Best Costumes. The scene unfolds: It's midnight. Not a sound from the pavement. Suddenly an explosion of music and lights reveals a larger-than-life junkyard. Probing car lights tear across the darkened landscape of bottles and boxes, briefly catching the darting image of a running feline. Tonight is the one special night each year when the tribe of Jellicle Cats reunites to celebrate who they are. Tickets are on sale now. For more information, contact the Mullins Center box office. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the show starting at 7:30 p.m. www.mullinscenter.com Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It introduced the song standard "Memory." The musical first opened in the West End in 1981 and then on Broadway in 1982. Each time directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, it won numerous awards, including both the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award for Best Musical. The London production ran for twenty one years and the Broadway production ran for eighteen years, both setting long-run records. Actresses Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley became particularly associated with the musical. One actress, Marlene Danielle, performed in the Broadway production for its entire run (from 1982 until 2000). Cats has been performed around the world many times and has been translated into more than 20 languages. In 1998 it was also made into a television video. Cats is based on Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939), which the composer recalled as having been a childhood favourite. The songs of the musical comprise Eliot's verse set to music by the composer, the principal exception being the most famous song from the musical, "Memory," for which the lyrics were written by Trevor Nunn after an Eliot poem entitled "Rhapsody on a Windy Night." Also, a brief song titled "The Moments of Happiness" was taken from a passage in Eliot's Four Quartets. An unusual musical in terms of its construction, the overture incorporates a fugue and there are occasions when the music accompanies spoken verse. The set, consisting of an oversized junk yard, remains the same throughout the show without any scene changes. Lloyd Webber's eclecticism is very strong here; musical genres range from classical to pop, music hall, jazz, rock and electro-acoustic music as well as hymnal songs such as "The Addressing of Cats." "Cats" was first shown in London's West End Theatre West End, at the New London Theatre. 11 May 1981. The show made its debut on Broadway on 7 October 1982, at the Winter Garden Theatre with the same production team. On 19 June 1997, Cats became the longest-running musical in Broadway history with 6,138 performances. It played a total of 7,485 performances in New York. Its New York record was surpassed on 9 January 2006 by The Phantom of the Opera, which was also composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The final performance of "Cats" on Broadway was Sept. 10, 2000. It remains Broadway's second longest-running show in history. Interestingly, Andrew Lloyd Webber pointed out that when the original show was put on, it cost 900,000, but on Broadway, it cost $5,000,000, highlighting how expensive it is to put a show on in New York. In 1998, Lloyd Webber produced a video version of Cats, based upon the stage version, starring Elaine Paige, who originated the role of Grizabella in London; 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. Many other dancers and singers joined the perormance, drawn largely from various stage productions of the show. It was directed by David Mallet, with choreography and musical staging by the show's respected original creator Gillian Lynne in London's Adelphi Theatre, and was released on VHS and DVD, as well as broadcast on television worldwide. Since its premier decades ago, Cats has been translated into more than 20 languages for worldwide performances. -Courtesy of The Mullins Center