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CATS The Musical is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber (ALW) in 1981 based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot.

Cats was first shown in London's West End, at New London Theatre, on May 11, 1981. It was originally produced onstage by Cameron Mackintosh and ALW's The Really Useful Theatre Company . The show then made its debut in Broadway on September 7, 1982 at the Winter Garden Theatre. It played 8,949 performances in London and 7,485 in New York, making it the longest-running musical in both Broadway and London history. (On Broadway, it is the longest running show, musical or non-musical; in London, it is surpassed by The Mousetrap, which opened in the 1950s and is still running.)

While Cats is often criticized for its lack of plot, it does have a minimal story used to string its musical numbers together. Cats tells of a particular English feline tribe, the Jellicles, who have convened at a junkyard to decide which of them will be reborn. Each cat "auditions" with a different song or dance number, and some minor complications (involving the abduction of the Jellicle patriarch, Old Deuteronomy) occur before a cat is chosen. It turns out to be Grizabella, "the glamour cat," whose faded charms don't prevent her from singing " Memory ." (The show's best-known song, it has been recorded by over 150 artists.)

In 19981998 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Ocean''. Events January January 1998 A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting, ALW produced a video version of Cats, the first of its kind, an actual stage performance captured on film, starring Elaine PaigeElaine Paige (born March 5, 1948 as Elaine Bickerstaff , is a world-renowned British singer in musicals. She was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire. She is most famous for playing many of the female leads in musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber and/or Tim Rice (wit (who originated the role of Grizabella in London), Ken Page (who originated Old Deuteronomy on Broadway), Sir John MillsThis article is about the British actor. For the 18th-century British encyclopedist, see John Mills (encyclopedist Sir John Mills (born February 22, 1908) is a British actor. Born John Lewis Ernest Watts Mills in Felixstowe, Suffolk, he took an early inte, and John PartridgeJohn Partridge (born January 18, 1644 (OS)) was an English astrologer, discredited, and even thought to be dead, in the public eyes of the time by Jonathan Swift writing under the name of Isaac Bickerstaff. Partridge, John Partridge, John., among other talented dancers and singers, most of whom appeared in various stage productions of the show. It was directed for film by David MalletDavid Mallet (or Malloch (~1705- 1765) was a Scottish dramatist. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and went to London in 1723 to work as a private tutor. There he became friendly with Alexander Pope, James Thomson, and other literary figures in London's Adelphi TheatreThe Adelphi Theatre in London was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil ("Without Parallel"), changing its name in 1819 to Adelphi, after the complex of 24 terraced houses occupying the land between The Strand and the River Thames which had been built by the, and was released on VHS and DVD, as well as broadcast on PBS in the United States.

The show's popularity comes despite never being critically acclaimed. Many argue it has a mainstream, family appeal that many other more "prestigious" musicals are lacking. It is and has been one of the most loved musicals of all time, being translated into over 20 languages. It is still playing in a tour across The United Kingdom and in several tours around the world.

At the time Cats was running, several other Broadway plays were promoted with a series of television commercials in which audience members gave bland endorsements; one of these included the phrase "I laughed, I cried...It was better than Cats!", which entered common parlance, and was usually used mockingly: the idea was that a given movie/play/product wasn't just merely good, but surpassed even the wonder that is Cats (the irony lying in the evaluation that Cats wasn't really a standard of great excellence.)