Click to return to Dave’s Music Database home page.

cover of cast album

Opened:
May 11, 1981 L
October 7, 1982 B

Charted:
November 6, 1982 L
February 6, 1983 B


Notations:
L London cast
B Broadway cast


Rating: 4.167 (combined average of 6 ratings for cast album)


Genre: show tunes


Quotable: --


Album Tracks:

    Act I:
  1. Overture
  2. Prologue: Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats
  3. The Naming of Cats
  4. The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball
  5. The Old Gumbie Cat
  6. The Rum Tum Tugger
  7. Grizabella: The Glamour Cat
  8. Bustopher Jones: The Cat about Town
  9. Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer
  10. Old Deuteronomy
  11. The Jellicle Ball
  12. Grizabella: The Glamour Cat (Reprise)
  13. Memory

    Act II:

  14. The Moments of Happiness
  15. Gus: The Theatre Cat
  16. Growltiger’s Last Stand
  17. Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat
  18. Macavity: The Mystery Cat
  19. Magical Mr. Mistoffelees
  20. Memory (Reprise)
  21. Journey to the Heavyside Layer
  22. Finale: The Ad-Dressing of Cats


Sales:

sales in U.S. only 1 million B
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated 1 million B


Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 86 L, 113 B
peak on U.K. album chart --


Singles/Hit Songs:

  • Memory [ELAINE PAIGE] (6/6/81) #6 UK


Notes: --


Awards:

rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.


Cats
cast album

Andrew Lloyd Webber/ T.S. Eliot (composers)
Review:
“Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic Cats takes its characters from T.S. Eliot’s book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Though the book contains no narrative structure, Webber has created one, although what drew audiences to the theatre in droves was the charm of the feline characters, not the tale of what happens to them. The score is rather fetching but simple, with moments of elegance, as in during the now-standard Memory. The longest-running musical of its time, Cats is at times overrated, but as a whole it retains the charm that attracted audiences” (Ruhlmann/ Erlewine).

Cats was first shown in London’s West End, at the New London Theatre, on May 11, 1981. It had a troubled beginning with Judi Dench cast in the role of Grizabella, which was subsequently taken over by Elaine Paige when Judi snapped a tendon during rehearsals prior to the London opening. The role was beefed up for Paige and ‘Memory’ (originally to be sung by Geraldine Gardner)…was given to Paige” (Wikipedia).

The show “was originally produced onstage by Cameron Mackintosh and Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. It was directed by Trevor Nunn, associate director and choreographer Gillian Lynne, designed by John Napier with lighting by David Hersey. It played a total of 8,949 performances in London. Its final performance in London’s West End was on its 21st birthday, May 11, 2002, and broadcast on a large screen in Covent Garden to the delight of fans who could not acquire a ticket for the final performance. It held the record as London’s longest running musical until October 8, 2006, when it was surpassed by Les Misérables” (Wikipedia).

“The show made its debut on Broadway on October 7, 1982, at the Winter Garden Theatre with the same production team. On June 19, 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 January 9, 2006, by The Phantom of the Opera, which was also composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Cats’ final performance on Broadway was on September 10, 2000” (Wikipedia).

“In 1998, Andrew Lloyd Webber produced a video version of Cats, based upon the stage performance augmented for the medium of film…It was directed for film by David Mallet, with choreography and musical staging by the show’s respected original creator Gillian Lynne in London’s Adelphi Theatre” (Wikipedia).


Review Source(s):


Last updated August 12, 2008.