The Cats' Broadway Show: How Long Does It Last?

cats broadway run time

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 poetry collection, 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'. It premiered on Broadway in 1982 at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 18 years, with 7,485 performances. With a run time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission, Cats is the fifth-longest-running Broadway show.

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The musical's run time is 2 hours and 20 minutes, including a single intermission

The musical Cats, based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 poetry collection 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats', has a runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes, including a single intermission.

The musical follows a tribe of cats called the Jellicles who gather at the annual Jellicle Ball to decide which one of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer (their version of heaven) and be reborn into a new life.

The original Broadway production of Cats premiered in the Winter Garden Theatre on October 7, 1982, and played a total of 7,485 performances and 15 previews. It was the second production of Cats to open worldwide, following the original London production.

Cats earned 7 Tony Awards in 1983, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. The musical was the longest-running show in Broadway history from June 19, 1997, until January 9, 2006, and remains Broadway's fifth-longest-running show of all time.

The musical has been translated into over 20 languages and has been performed worldwide. The original London production ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances, making Cats the longest-running musical in London's West End for a number of years.

A Broadway revival in 2016 featured new choreography but retained the original creative team, including director Trevor Nunn and designer John Napier.

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Cats is the fifth-longest-running Broadway show

The musical is based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 poetry collection, 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats', and features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Webber began setting Eliot's poems to music in 1977, and the compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980.

The show's success is attributed to its innovative and visually spectacular production, which included pioneering use of lighting and audio technology. It also featured an unusual amount of "group-description" numbers, with four Jellicle-defining songs: "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats", "The Naming of Cats", "The Jellicle Ball", and "The Ad-Dressing of Cats".

"Cats" was the first Broadway show to capitalise on merchandising as a major revenue stream, and the second-best-selling t-shirt in the world in the 1980s was the official Cats t-shirt. The show's success also led to a surge in sales of Eliot's book.

The musical's legacy includes introducing a marketing strategy that set the template for subsequent megamusicals, pioneering a genre of musical theatre produced on a grand and global scale, and paving the way for the Broadway trend of musicals aimed at families and tourists.

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The musical is based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book, 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'

The musical Cats is based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book, 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'. Published by Faber and Faber, the book is a collection of whimsical, light poems about feline psychology and sociology. Eliot originally wrote the poems in letters to his godchildren in the 1930s, signing off as 'Old Possum'.

Eliot's work provided the perfect basis for a musical, with its rhythmic, catchy, and witty verses. The poems were set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who began composing in 1977. Webber's compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980, before being developed into a full-blown musical, co-produced by Cameron Mackintosh and the Really Useful Group's Brian Brolly.

The musical opened in the West End in 1981 and on Broadway in 1982. It became the longest-running Broadway show until it was overtaken by Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of the Opera'. The show has been translated into multiple languages and performed around the world, with long-running productions in Hamburg and Japan.

Cats is an ensemble show with no leads, featuring a large supporting cast of cats. The story centres on a tribe of cats called the Jellicles, who gather at the annual Jellicle Ball to decide which one of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer (their version of heaven) and be reborn. The bulk of the musical consists of the different cats being introduced, either by themselves or by other cats.

The musical's unusual construction, with its focus on music, dance, and poetry at the expense of a traditional narrative structure, proved to be a successful formula. 'Cats' started the megamusical phenomenon, reshaping the aesthetic, technology, and marketing of musical theatre.

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Cats has been translated into over 15 languages and performed in over 30 countries

The first non-English production of Cats premiered in Budapest, Hungary, in March 1983. Since then, it has been performed nearly 1,500 times as part of the Madách Theatre's repertoire. Cats was also translated into Norwegian for a production in Oslo that ran from November 1985 to January 1987. A Finnish-language production ran from September 1986 to December 1988, and a Swedish version opened in 1987.

Cats has been performed in numerous other languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, and Chinese. The musical has been a huge success worldwide, with a worldwide gross of US$3.5 billion by 2012 and a total of over 10 million tickets sold.

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The Broadway show came to a close in 2000, after running for 18 years

The Broadway show Cats is based on T.S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book, 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'. With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles, who gather at the annual Jellicle Ball to decide which one of them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer (their version of heaven) and be reborn into a new life.

Cats first premiered in the West End at the New London Theatre in 1981, before opening on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre a year later. The Broadway production ran for 18 years and 7,485 performances, finally closing in 2000.

The show's success is often attributed to its innovative choreography, set design, and costume design. It was the first Broadway and West End show to capitalise on merchandising as a major revenue stream, and its cat's-eyes logo is considered to be one of the first globally marketed logos in musical theatre history.

Despite mixed reviews when Cats opened in New York, it became a cultural phenomenon, introducing more children to theatre than any other production in history and providing hundreds of chorus singers and dancers with years of steady work. It also established the theatrical careers of the original creative and production team, who went on to collaborate on other global blockbusters.

The Broadway-run record held by Cats was surpassed in 2006 by The Phantom of the Opera. However, Cats remains Broadway's fifth-longest-running show of all time.

Frequently asked questions

Cats ran on Broadway from 1982 to 2000, with a total of 7,485 performances.

Yes, Cats won seven Tony Awards in 1983, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score.

The musical's duration is 2 hours and 20 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.

The musical was recommended for ages 5+. Children under the age of 4 were not permitted in the theatre.

Yes, after the success of the London production, there was an intense bidding war among American producers. The Shubert Organization and David Geffen eventually won the Broadway rights to Cats.

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