It has been almost 37 years since the first feline-costumed dancer did a grand jete across the junkyard-filled stage of the New London Theater in the British capital, and life for dog lovers has never been the same since.
Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats went on to run for 21 years in London and 18 on Broadway, win countless awards, be translated into about a dozen languages and spawn touring companies that traversed the world — and inflict endless renditions of the song Memories on talent-show audiences, school recitals and karaoke nights.
In 2014, Webber and his Really Useful Group company decided to revive the show, albeit with some tweaking from the original creative team of director Trevor Nunn, choreographer Gillian Lynne and designer John Napier.
Photo Courtesy of The Really Useful Group
Webber told the BBC in July 2014 that he had wanted to “rework” a couple of the poems for many years, and had come to the conclusion after rereading Eliot’s work, that “maybe Eliot was the inventor of rap.”
So Rum Tum Tugger has become a dreadlocked, rapping street cat and Growltiger’s Last Stand was rewritten, among other revisions.
Audiences in Taiwan will finally get a chance to compare the new with the old as a touring company arrives next week as part of an Asian schedule that includes three cities in Taiwan and then a six-month, 11-city tour of China.
The cast is made up of singer-dancers from England, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the Philippines, many of whom performed in the earlier versions of the show in the UK, Europe and Australia, including Joanna Ampil, who as Grizabella gets to sing Memories.
Since the Taiwanese dates, sponsored by Lexus, have been organized by Taichung-based Kuang-hong Arts Management (KHAM), it is no surprise that the show will stop first at the National Taichung Theater from Thursday next week to March 4.
The show then moves to the Tainan Cultural Center from March 8 to March 11 and to Taipei, where it will be performed at the National Taiwan University Sports Center from March 15 to March 18.
Tickets went on sale in December last year and the only seats left for first Taichung shows are a few in the NT$4,800 and NT$5,800 range, while the two Sunday shows are sold out. In Tainan and Taipei, only the seats left are in the NT$3,800 to NT$5,800 range.
■ Tickets are available online through kham.com.tw (Chinese only), by calling (07) 780-7071, Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 5:30pm, or faxing (07) 780-5353, or from OK Mart ticket kiosks.
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