Lloyd Webber's Cats Enters 18th Year

Andrew Lloyd Webber's blockbuster musical Cats enters its 18th year on the West End today. The play is the longest running musical on both sides of the Atlantic.

The internationally award-winning show is based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats which unveils the secret lives and personalities of the feline characters in the lead-up to the annual Jellicle Ball. During the ball, one cat will be selected to enter the Heavyside Layer, thus earning a precious extra life. The score includes many now well-known songs such as 'Memory' and 'The Magical Mr Mistoffolees'.

Cats West End home, the New London Theatre, was specially gutted and rebuilt to showcase Cats and John Napier's now famous set of alley junk. It continues to run there to full houses and is currently booking to December 1998.

In spite of ongoing health problems, composer Lloyd Webber recently celebrated his 50th birthday with a star-studded gala at the Royal Albert Hall. His new musical Whistle Down the Wind, based on the novel by Mary Hayley Bell, will receive its world premiere at the Aldwych Theatre on 1 July 1998. His Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express also continue on the West End.

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