Andrew Lloyd Webber on Initial Reaction to CATS: 'Everyone Thought We Were Completely & Utterly Crazy'

As previously announced, Nicole Scherzinger will make her West End stage debut as Grizabella inAndrew Lloyd Webber's record-breaking musical Cats. Returning to the West End for a strictly limited run at the London Palladium, press night is on 11 December at 7pm.

Based on T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the original creative team - Director Trevor Nunn, Associate Director and Choreographer Gillian Lynne, Designer John Napier and Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber - are reunited to bring Cats back to the West End this Christmas.

In today's Telegraph, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber spoke about the excitement of bringing his work back to the stage. "It's been so extraordinary seeing all these kids in rehearsals and realising that 99 per cent of them weren't born [when Cats began]," Lloyd Webber jokes. "And there they are, listening to Trevor Nunn - talk about déjà vu."

The composer recalled that initial reaction to the idea of dressing young actors up in skin-tight costumes to sing the lyrics of one of the 20th century's greatest poets was far from positive. "Everybody in the West End thought we were completely and utterly crazy," Lloyd Webber shares. "The moment that Cats came on stage could have been one of the most ridiculed moments in the history of theatre."

Lucky for us, the great composer proved them all wrong! Read the article in full here.

Cats, one of the longest-running shows in West End and on Broadway, received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981 where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The production was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, and ran for eighteen years. Since its world premiere, Cats has been presented in over 30 countries, has been translated into 10 languages and has been seen by over 50 million people world-wide. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards for Best Cast Album. The classic Lloyd Webber score includes Memory which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.

Cats West End cast comprises Cameron Ball (Macavity/Admetus), Kathryn Barnes (Tantomile), Cassie Clare (Cassandra), Ross Finnie (Skimbleshanks), Charlene Ford (Bombalurina), Stevie Hutchinson (Pouncival), Adam Lake (Alonzo), Paul F Monaghan (Bustopher Jones/Asparagus/Growl Tiger), Joel Morris (Carbucketty), Natasha Mould (Jemima), Benjamin Mundy (Coricopat), Antoine Murray-Straughan (Rum Tum Tugger), Joseph Poulton (Quaxo/Mistoffelees), Nicholas Pound (Old Deuteronomy), Sophia Ragavelas (alternate Grizabella), Clare Rickard (Jellylorum/ Griddlebone), Adam Salter (Bill Bailey), Laurie Scarth (Jennyanydots), Nicole Scherzinger (Grizabella), Hannah Kenna Thomas (Victoria/White Cat), Callum Train (Munkustrap), Zizi Strallen (Demeter), Dawn Williams (Rumpleteazer) and Benjamin Yates (Mungojerrie) who are joined by swings Ryan Gover, Barry Haywood, Alice Jane, Grace McKee, Dane Quixall and Libby Watts.

Source: Telegraph.com

Photos by Alessandro Pinna