Celebrated on the stages of Broadway and the West End, the musical Cats will return to the Venetian Theatre in March. Tickets go on sale today at Cotai Ticketing, according to a press release issued yesterday by Sands China.
Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats premiered in London on 11 May 1981 at the New London Theatre, and has come to be known as one the most exhilarating and innovative musicals ever staged. The following year it premiered at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre.
The musical remained on Broadway until 10 September 2000, having been performed 7,485 times. Cats held the title of the longest-running musical in Broadway history for almost ten years, before being overtaken in 2006 by The Phantom of the Opera.
Cats toured extensively in America (where it played for a combined total of sixteen years and two months) and worldwide. Since its première, the musical has been presented in twenty-six countries and in over three hundred cities. Over 73 million people have seen the show worldwide.
It has been translated into 15 languages, including German (three versions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish (two versions for Mexico and Argentina), and has had over 40 different productions in a variety of venues, including a big top tour in Australia and an engine shed in Switzerland.
Since 2007, the musical has played in 24 Asian cities, including Macau, where it premiered in 2007 at the Macau Cultural Center.
The show is based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939), which Andrew Lloyd Webber has recalled as a childhood favorite. It tells the story of the ‘Jellicle Cats’ who come out to play at night in a rubbish dump.
It’s the night of the annual Jellicle Ball when their leader, Old Deuteronomy, is set to make an announcement. While they wait, the cats amuse themselves, and their audience, by singing and performing stories about famous cats of the past and present. When dawn comes, Old Deuteronomy gathers the Jellicle Cats together for his announcement: the name of the cat chosen to be reborn on the other side.
The Cats performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. Monday to Friday and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday from Mar. 6-15, 2015 (no show on Mar. 9). Tickets are priced at HKD/MOP680 (A Reserve), 480 (B Reserve) and 280 (C Reserve).
Eliot, one of the most influential poets of the 20th century
Thomas Sterns Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri, on September 26, 1888. He was educated at Harvard, at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Merton College, Oxford. Eliot’s book of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats appeared in October 1939. ‘Possum’ was Eliot’s alias among his friends. His other works include Sweeney Agonistes, The Rock, Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion and Four Quartets.
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