Songs from the Musical "Cats"

The musical CATS with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber is based on the collection of poems Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot from 1939. After the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, it was Lloyd Webber's third major success. He began setting Eliot's poems to music in 1977 and the compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980. Producer Cameron Mackintosh then hired director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne to turn the songs into a complete musical. CATS became one of the longest running shows in the history of the West End and Broadway. It celebrated its world premiere in 1981 at the New London Theatre, where it played for a record 21 years and was performed almost 9,000 times. The following year, CATS opened at New York's Winter Garden Theatre, where it remained for the next 18 years, winning seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 1983. The show returned to Broadway in 2016, where it had a successful run at the Neil Simon Theatre prior to its tour. CATS has been presented in over 30 countries, translated into 16 languages and seen by more than 73 million people worldwide. Lloyd Webber's magnificent score includes the poignant hit Memory, which has been recorded by over 150 artists, as well as Barbra Streisand, Liberace and Barry Manilow. It took 7,486 chandelier drops for Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera to replace CATS as the longest running show in Broadway history in January 2006.