Australian audiences are in for a treat with a national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-breaking musical CATS.
Final seats for the Perth season have been released on pre-sale with general public sales from Friday, 26 September.
The iconic production will play at Crown Theatre for 4 weeks only from 8 November to 6 December.
The coveted role of Grizabella, the former “glamour cat” ostracised by the Jellicles, is played by Gabriyel Thomas, while Todd McKenney plays the dual roles of Bustopher Jones and Asparagus the Theatre Cat , and classical performer Mark Vincent returns to the musical theatre stage as Old Deuteronomy, the patriarch of the Jellicle tribe.
Recently seen as Roxie Hart in the sold-out national tour of Chicago, Lucy Maunder has taken on the role of Jellylorum, while the rebellious cat Rum Tum Tugger is Des Flanagan. WAAPA graduate Jarrod Draper has been cast as Munkustrap, and returning to CATS after many years is Leigh Archer as the motherly character Jennyanydots, also known among the tribe as the “Gumbie Cat”.
Based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, CATS has been captivating audiences around the globe since it opened at the New London Theatre in 1981, where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances, winning both the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical.
Since then, CATS has been presented in over 50 countries, translated into 23 languages and has been seen by over 81 million people world-wide. On Broadway, CATS played for 18 years and won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical.
CATS is running at Crown Theatre from 8 November – 6 December. Get your tickets now at catsthemusical.com.au
Images: Daniel Boud
