
DATE: Monday, June 23, 1997                 TAG: 9706210052

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DOUGLAS J. KEATING, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE 

                                            LENGTH:   94 lines

``CATS'' IS LONGEST-RUNNING BROADWAY SHOW

EVEN BEFORE ``Cats'' opened on Broadway, the advertising slogan ``Now and Forever'' was attached to it, and unlike many marketing catch-phrases, this one proved prophetic. Thursday night, 14 years and nine months later - which in the fickle world of theater is pretty close to forever - ``Cats'' became the longest-running show in Broadway history.

Thursday night's performance, number 6,138, put Andrew Lloyd Webber's feline musical ahead of ``A Chorus Line,'' which closed in 1990, though still far behind ``The Fantasticks,'' which has run for 38 years and more than 15,000 performances in an Off-Broadway theater. ``Cats,'' a British import that premiered in London in 1981, is also the longest-running musical in the history of the British theater.

``When we saw it in London, we wanted to do it,'' said Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, one of the producers of ``Cats.'' ``We didn't think it would be a hit of such dimension.''

So far, ``Cats'' has earned more than $2.2 billion from the estimated 47 million people who have seen performances in London and New York, in many cities throughout the U.S. where road companies have played many times, and in 24 other countries worldwide.

After Thursday night's record-breaking performance, the block of Broadway in front of the Winter Garden theater, where ``Cats'' has played its entire New York run, will be closed off for a celebration slated to include appearances by Lloyd Webber and the rest of the show's creative team.

Lloyd Webber has said he got the idea for what became ``Cats'' in 1972, when, in an airport, he picked up ``Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats,'' a book of children's verse published in 1939 by the poet T.S. Eliot. In 1980, Webber put some of the poems, chronicling the adventures of a tribe of cats, to music and presented them in oratorio fashion at a music festival he holds each summer at his country home in England.

Lloyd Webber then worked with director Trevor Nunn to turn it into a musical, but it wasn't until late in rehearsals that the two came up with a story thread to knit the unconnected song and dance scenes of the various cats. Eliot's widow, Valerie, provided them with a brief fragment about Grizabella, once a beautiful, courtesan cat, who is now a shunned outcast. Eliot had not included the story in ``Practical Cats'' because he thought it too upsetting for children, but Grizabella's story and her ultimate redemption, Nunn has said, provided critical shape to the material. It also inspired Lloyd Webber to compose - and Nunn to write the lyrics for - ``Memory,'' the show's keynote song.

With its attractive, anthropomorphic felines, massive and detailed junkyard set, impressive special effects, elaborate production numbers and the name of Andrew Lloyd Webber - already famous at the time for ``Jesus Christ Superstar'' and ``Evita'' - ``Cats'' was an immediate hit in London.

Due to the show's popularity in Britain and a savvy, expensive marketing campaign, by the time ``Cats'' opened in New York, it had an advance sale of more than $7 million; better seats were sold out three months in advance. The musical was not enthusiastically received by critics, who, despite the last-minute inclusion of Grizabella, judged it plotless and unfocused. Nevertheless, audiences flocked to the Winter Garden and, when ``Cats'' began touring, to theaters across the country and the world. The show has drawn more than eight million theatergoers to the New York venue, where most weeks it is still filling about 70 percent of the seats.

Schoenfeld ascribes the musical's popularity in part to its appeal to children, who make up a significant portion of the audiences, and to its ability to transcend the barriers of language. Because of its assertive musical and visual content, a theatergoer need not understand the words of a performance to be entertained by ``Cats.'' Indeed, said Schoenfeld, ``a good part'' of the New York audience consists of non-English-speaking tourists.

But the incredible popular success of ``Cats'' requires a deeper analysis of the show's allure. New York Times critic Frank Rich may have come up with one in his reservedly praiseful review of ``Cats'' at its opening nearly 15 years ago. Predicting that the show ``is likely to lurk around Broadway for a long time,'' he wrote that ``Cats'' is ``a musical that transports the audience into a complete fantasy world that could only exist in the theater. . delivers.''

The musical allows audiences to escape for a few hours to a world completely unlike the one they normally inhabit. They obviously find it an engaging, entertaining place. It's a reassuring one as well, for it never changes. No matter which actors take the roles - and more than 225 have appeared in the New York production alone - the felines always look, behave and interact as expected.

Indeed, this could be the secret to ``Cats' '' nine lives: it is always the same - now and forever. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

The musical ``Cats'' has been on Broadway for 14 years. The show's

6,138 performance was played before cast alumni.

SEE ``CATS''

Cats'' will prowl into Norfolk's Chrysler Hall from July 22 to

27. Tickets prices range from $32.50 to $39.50, depending on which

show you choose. Tickets are available at Scope box office and

Ticketmaster outlets, or charge at 671-8100. For groups of 20 or

more, call 664-6952.