Cat People Put Magic into Musical

Thomas Sterns Eliot

In 1939, Thomas Sterns Eliot (a British writer who won the Nobel Literature Prize in 1948) wrote a collection of poems for children, Old Possums Book of Practical Cats, a volume whose language is plain, humorous and thought-provoking. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the producer of the musical drama Cats, had a great fancy of this book since his childhood and began to change it into a musical drama from 1977 to 1981.

Valerie Eliot

In 1980, at the Edmonton Festival, Thomas Sterns Eliot s wife Valerie Eliot heard the song adapted from her husbands poem, and gave Webber some more poems, including the Glamorous Cat, Grizabella. Later, it became the  soul of the drama Cats, and thus the origin of Memory.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

The producer of Cats, who won 5 British Olivier Awards, 7 American Tony Awards and 3 Grammy Awards, is dubbed the modern Schubert. He has been making strenuous efforts to make sure every performance is exactly the same as its debut in London. And this is one of the most important reasons for its great success all over the world.

Trevor Nunn

After Webber finished the main tune of Cats in one night, Trevor Nunn read Eliot s poem again and again, and created the marvellous lyric of Memory. He was also the director of Cats.

Babara Streisand

First came the Memory, then a great number of people in the world came to know Cats. Neither the actress in Cats, nor the first singer of Cats, Streisand made Memory one of the most renowned songs for decades.