KCTS Nine "Cats" Article








This is an article from KCTS Nine Magazine about the "Cats" video being shown on PBS.
It is from the issue dated November 1998.
KCTS is Seattle's PBS station.




A Purr-fect Evening

What do you do for an encore when you're already the most famous stage musical of all time? Take the show to television! Produced under the personal supervision of composer and creator Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats has been restaged for television and recorded with a specially augmented 76-piece orchestra. It took 18 days, a crew of more than 200 and a custom-designed set at London's famed Adelphi Theatre. The set included 16 cameras, each providing multiple angles, stereo surround sound, and all new lighting, all of which combined to give viewers an on-stage theatrical experience like no other.

"We had never really tried to take a theatre show and then interpret it for the camera in this kind of way, so it's a great excitement to break new ground," said Webber. "There were not many changes made to the show itself for the timing. We've been able to keep very close to the spirit of the stage show and that's been the intention from the very beginning. Of course, being close up with cameras, we are able to tell the story a little clearer, a little better. We want people to come into the world of the Cats and then lose themselves in it."

Great Performances: Cats features an all-star cast loaded with original Cats members, led by internationally renowned star Elaine Paige (reprising her role as Grizabella) and British stage and movie legend Sir John Mills (Gus the Theatre cat).

For more on the musical, check out PBS Online at www.pbs.org.



Cats at a Glance

  • The musical score has sold more than 180 million copies around the world.

  • The show has taken in $2 billion at the box office since it opened in 1981.

  • It has been seen by more than 50 million people around the world.

  • Cats is the winner of seven Tony Awards.

  • It is the longest-running musical ever.

  • Cats has been translated into 14 languages.

  • The show is based on 14 poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot.







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