CATS

On May 11, 1981, CATS opened at the New London Theatre in the West End. Eight years later it celebrated its first important milestone: after 3,358 performances CATS became the longest running musical in the history of British theatre.

CATS opened on Broadway October 7, 1982 at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City and continued to live up to its motto “Now and Forever.” On June 19, 1997, CATS became the longest running musical on Broadway. It ended its 18-year run on September 10, 2000 with 7,458 performances – a record that was broken by The Phantom of the Opera on January 9, 2006 when Phantom celebrated its 7, 486th curtain.

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.

In October of 1991 CATS became the longest continuously touring show in American theatre history. Five continents, 26 countries, over eight and a half million audience members and 27 years later, CATS is still America’s most loved family musical. Celebrating not only 27 years but the birth of the musical spectacular, CATS is still revolutionary and awe inspiring.

All those statistics aside, CATS made me laugh, CATS made me cry. In fact, CATS made me buy my first Cat, Caligula, within weeks of experiencing this purrrfect performance and I never looked back. Seven cats later – and who knows how many pounds of kitty litter – and I am still a cat person.