It’s finally happened: human civilization has finally lasted long enough that there is a second British production of Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster adaptation of TS Eliot’s whimsical book of feline kids’ poetry was the quintessential musical of the ’80s, and the feline perfomers’ garb of facepaint and legwarmers feels embedded in the decade’s aesthetics. And it lasted a lot longer than that: the original Trevor Nunn-directed production’s 21-year-run ended in 2002, with somewhat updated reprisals in 2014 and 2015.
Now, though – undeterred by that film we don’t talk about – there is a new Cats. Audaciously bagged by the Open Air Theatre as its big 2026 summer musical, but embarking on a UK tour thereafter, it’ll be directed and chroegraphed by OAT boss Drew McOnie. He’s a slick, commercial director with something of a dance focus, but he’s unlikely to do a Jamie Lloyd-style deconstruction of it, but any new take will probably feel inherently radical purely by dint of trying something different in any way.
Casting etc is TBC, although in what is essentially a revue-based night of different songs about different cats, the role of Grizabella the Glamour Cat tends to be viewed as the ‘lead’ role (plus she gets to sing all time banger ‘Memory’.
Public booking opens Tuesday October 28.
