Cats (musical)

Cats is a musical that is entirely sung through, with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Its source material is the 1939 poetry collection *Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats* by T. S. Eliot. The plot follows a group of felines known as the Jellicles during their annual gathering, where they select one cat to journey to the Heaviside Layer—their version of an afterlife—and return to a new existence. By 2024, the show ranks as the fifth-longest-running production in Broadway history and the eighth-longest-running in the West End.

Lloyd Webber first set Eliot’s poems to music in 1977, and these pieces debuted as a song cycle in 1980. Producer Cameron Mackintosh then brought in director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne to develop the songs into a full musical. *Cats* premiered to positive reviews at the New London Theatre in London’s West End in 1981, followed by a mixed reception at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre in 1982. It won several major awards, including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards. Despite its unconventional premise, which initially scared off investors, the musical became a massive commercial success, earning a worldwide gross of US$3.5 billion by 2012.

The original London production ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances, while the Broadway run lasted 18 years and 7,485 performances. For a time, *Cats* held the record as the longest-running musical in both theatre districts. It has since seen two revivals in the West End and two on Broadway. The show has been translated into many languages and staged globally. Notable long-running international productions include a 15-year stint at the Operettenhaus in Hamburg, with over 6,100 performances, and an ongoing run in a custom-built theatre in Japan that has exceeded 10,000 performances since opening in 1983.

*Cats* is credited with launching the megamusical trend, creating a worldwide market for musical theatre and shifting the industry’s focus toward big-budget, family-friendly, and tourist-oriented spectacles. Its deep but divisive influence also changed the aesthetics, technology, and marketing strategies of the medium. The musical was adapted into a direct-to-video film in 1998 and a feature film in 2019.

**Background**

*Cats* is built on T. S. Eliot’s 1939 poetry book *Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats*, with the songs consisting of Eliot’s verses set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The musical’s structure is unusual: it emphasizes music and dance over a traditional plot, with musicologists William Everett and Paul Laird describing it as blending elements of a revue and a concept musical. The story centers on the Jellicle cats, who gather for the annual Jellicle Ball to decide which of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer—their version of heaven—and be reborn. Most of the show consists of individual cats being introduced, either by themselves or by others.

**Poems**

*Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats* is a collection of light poetry about cats that Eliot originally wrote for his godchildren in the 1930s. Because of the rhythmic quality of Eliot’s work, there had been earlier attempts to set his poems to music, but none had achieved notable critical or commercial success. Musicologist John Snelson noted that the poems were well-suited for musical adaptation, as Eliot’s style in this collection resembles that of a popular lyricist, using repeated catchphrases, strong hooks, steady rhythm, and witty rhymes. Most of the lyrics in *Cats* come directly from *Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats* with only minor changes. Additional verses from unpublished Eliot poems were adapted for “Grizabella: The Glamour Cat” and “The Journey to the Heaviside Layer,” while “The Moments of Happiness” draws from a passage in Eliot’s *The Dry Salvages*. Director Trevor Nunn and lyricist Richard Stilgoe contributed the remaining lyrics, including the opening number “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” and the show’s most famous song, “Memory.” The opening number was modeled after an unpublished Eliot poem called “Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats,” while “Memory” was written by Nunn based on another Eliot poem, “Rhapsody on a Windy Night,” with additional lines taken from Eliot’s “Preludes.”

**Creation**

**Inception**

Lloyd Webber began composing the songs in late 1977 as a songwriting exercise, partly because Eliot’s book had been a childhood favorite and partly to test whether he could write music to predetermined lyrics. He performed these compositions privately for friends but had no further plans for them at the time. After his song cycle *Tell Me on a Sunday* aired on the BBC in early 1980, Lloyd Webber considered using his Eliot settings for a similar televised concert anthology. He approached producer Cameron Mackintosh to explore possibilities for the songs. The show, then called *Practical Cats*, was first presented as a song cycle at the 1980 summer Sydmonton Festival, performed by Gemma Craven, Gary Bond, and Paul Nicholas. Eliot’s widow and literary executor, Valerie, attended and brought along several unpublished cat-themed poems by Eliot. One of these, “Grizabella the Glamour Cat,” had been rejected from Eliot’s book for being “too sad for children,” but it gave Lloyd Webber the idea for a full musical. He explained that the musical and dramatic images this poem created made him feel the project had much more potential than he had realized, leading him to seek support to rework his settings and explore turning it into a full production.