CATS Ends Run at Colonial Theatre, April 18th

CATS, the show that revolutionized musical theatre, will end its return in Boston April 18 at Boston's Colonial Theatre.

CATS is part of the Lexus Boston Area Dealers Broadway Across America - Boston Series.

Produced by CATS-Eye, LLC, the national tour of CATS is the only production in North America sanctioned by Andrew Lloyd Webber. With original direction by Trevor Nunn and choreography by Gillian Lynne this is the CATS credited with the British invasion of Broadway. The national tour of CATS recently celebrated its 27th anniversary season, holding its place as the longest continuously touring Broadway musical in history.

On May 11, 1981, CATS opened at the New London Theatre in the West End. Eight years later it celebrated its first important milestone: after 3,358 performances CATS became the longest running musical in the history of British theatre. CATS played its final performance on its 21st birthday, May 11, 2002.

CATS opened on Broadway October 7, 1982 at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City and continued to live up to its motto "Now and Forever." On June 19, 1997, CATS became the longest running musical on Broadway. It ended its 18 year run on September 10, 2000 with 7,485 performances. That record was broken by The Phantom of the Opera on January 9, 2006 when Phantom celebrated its 7,486th curtain.

Based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, CATS won seven 1983 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Lighting and Best Costumes.

In October of 1991 CATS became the longest continuously touring show in American theatre history. Five continents, 26 countries, over eight and a half million audience members and 27 years later, CATS is still America's most loved family musical. Celebrating not only 27 years but the birth of the musical spectacular, CATS is still revolutionary and awe inspiring.

Now that it was been seen by millions of audience members worldwide, it is time to celebrate with the whole family the magic, the mystery, the wonder of CATS.

Thomas Stearns Eliot (Lyrics) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888, and was educated at Harvard, the Sorbonne and Merton College, Oxford. His family was of English origin, having come to the United States in the 17th century. He settled permanently in England in 1915. 

His first published work, Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), contained one of his best loved poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." His second book, Poems (1919) was hand-printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. The Sacred Wood, a collection of critical essays, appeared in 1920. His most famous works, The Waste Land (1922) and The Hollow Men (1925), were products of his artistic generation's post-World War I mentality of despair.

Around this time Eliot's interests began to move toward playwriting. His post-mortem tribute to the actress Marie Lloyd was well received in 1922. In 1927 he published the Sweeney Agonistes fragments, the same year that he became a naturalized British citizen and was welcomed into the Church of England. His plays all dealt with religious and moralistic themes: 1930's Ash Wednesday and his 1934 pageant play for the London churches; his Murder in the Cathedral (1935), an examination of the martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket; The Family Reunion (1939), dealing with guilt and redemption in the aristocracy; and The Cocktail Party (1949), The Confidential Clerk (1953) and The Elder Statesman (1958), all of which examined serious religious themes in the form of modern social comedy.

Eliot received the Order of Merit in January 1948 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature later that year. He was an Officeur de la Legion d'Honneur, the recipient of the Hanseatic Goethe Prize in 1954, and was awarded the Dante Gold Medal in 1959.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which provided the book for this musical, was published in 1939. Eliot received the Tony Award for the book of Cats in 1983, 18 years after his death.

Trevor Nunn (Director) was formerly Artistic Director (1968-78) and then joint Artistic Director (1978-86) of the RSC. His productions have included The Revenger's Tragedy, Tango, The Relapse, The Alchemist, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter's Tale, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby, Peter Pan, Henry IV Parts I and II, All's Well That Ends Well, Once in a Lifetime, Three Sisters, Juno and the Paycock, Les Miserables, Fair Maid of the West (which opened the new Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon), Othello and The Blue Angel and Measure for Measure (the opening two productions in the new Other Place Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon).
His work outside the RSC includes Cats, Starlight Express, Chess, Aspects of Love, The Baker's Wife, Heartbreak House and the operas Idomeneo, Porgy and Bess, Cosi Fan Tutte and Peter Grimes at Glyndebourne. His film and television credits include Hedda, Antony and Cleopatra, Nicholas Nickelby, Lady Jane and Othello.

ABOUT Broadway Across America

Owned and operated by British theatre producer John Gore (CEO) and entertainment industry veteran Thomas B. McGrath (Chairman), Broadway Across America presents first-class touring musicals and plays across 40 North American cities. Under the supervision of Beth Williams (COO & Head of Production), Broadway Across America is also dedicated to the development and production of new and diverse theatre. Recent productions include Hair, West Side Story, Memphis and the West End production of Breakfast At Tiffany's. Upcoming Broadway productions include Promises, Promises, Million Dollar Quartet and Minsky's. Touring productions include Dreamgirls and Nickelodeon's Storytime Live.

Please visit www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.