Cats is a sung-through musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. As of 2022, Cats remains the fifth-longest-running Broadway show and the seventh-longest-running West End show.
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer and theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times. He is the producer of shows including Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Hamilton.
Jerome Robbins was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Rum Tum Tugger is one of the many feline characters in the 1939 poetry book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, and in the 1981 musical Cats which is based on Eliot's book. Rum Tum Tugger is a rebellious Jellicle cat who loves to be the center of attention.
Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
One Touch of Venus is a 1943 musical with music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the 1885 novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth. The show satirizes contemporary American suburban values, artistic fads and romantic and sexual mores. Weill had been in America for eight years by the time he wrote this musical, and his music, though retaining his early haunting power, had evolved into a very different Broadway style.
Mr. Mistoffelees is a character in T. S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and its 1981 musical adaptation, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. Mistoffelees is a young black-and-white tuxedo cat with magical powers that he cannot yet fully control. He is a featured dancer and his signature move is the "Conjuring Turn", consisting of 24 consecutive fouettés en tournant. His chorus identity is sometimes named Quaxo.
Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are fictional characters in T. S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The Jellicle cat duo are mischievous petty thieves who often cause trouble for their human family. Although originally published as part of a collection, the poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" was published as a standalone book by Faber and Faber in 2018.
Du Barry Was a Lady is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and the book by Herbert Fields and Buddy DeSylva. The musical starred Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman and Betty Grable, and the song "Friendship" was one of the highlights. The musical was made into a 1943 Technicolor film Du Barry Was a Lady, starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly and Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.
Robert Sanford Brustein was an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded the Yale Repertory Theatre while serving as dean of the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as the American Repertory Theater and Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a creative consultant until his death, and was the theatre critic for The New Republic. He commented on politics for the HuffPost.
Brent Carver was a Canadian actor best known internationally for performances in both London's West End and on Broadway in Kiss of the Spider Woman as Molina, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 1993 and was nominated for an Olivier Award. A subsequent Broadway appearance in 1999 in Parade as Leo Frank, led to a second nomination for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
Michael Grandage CBE is a British theatre director and producer. He is currently Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse in London and from 2000 to 2005 he was Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres.
Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne was an English ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. At age 87, she was made a DBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List.
Cats is a 1998 British direct-to-video musical film based on the 1981 stage musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber, itself based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) by T. S. Eliot. Lloyd Webber oversaw orchestration and called on Gillian Lynne, the show's original choreographer, to train the cast members. David Mallet served as the director of this production.
Robert Westenberg is an American stage actor and singer, acting teacher, and professor. He received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods.
Lara Teeter is an American dancer, actor, singer, theater director and college professor.
Brent Barrett is an American actor and tenor who is mostly known for his work within American theatre. Barrett has performed in musicals and in concerts with theatres, symphony orchestras, opera houses, and concert halls internationally. He starred in the original production of Maltby and Shire's hit Off-Broadway musical Closer Than Ever in 1989 and the 2001 West End revival of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate. He has also appeared sporadically on television and in films.
Marcia Milgrom Dodge is an American director, choreographer and stage writer. After working in regional theatre, Dodge directed and choreographed her first Broadway production, a revival of Ragtime in 2009. The production received four Helen Hayes Awards in 2010, including one for Best Director, and received 7 Tony Award nominations including one for Dodge for Best Director of a Musical.
Cats is a 2019 musical fantasy film based on the 1981 Broadway musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which in turn was based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The film was directed by Tom Hooper, in his second feature musical following Les Misérables (2012), from a screenplay by Lee Hall and Hooper. It features an ensemble cast, including James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and Francesca Hayward in her film debut.
Brent Crayon is an American pianist, musical director, orchestrator and copyist.
