Taylor Swift in “Cats" at the Figge Art Museum -- August 14.
Thursday, August 14, 6 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Presented in conjunction with the venue's current exhibition of the same title (with an added exclamation point), director Tom Hooper's arguably legendary screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats enjoys an August 14 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, with kitty costumes encouraged for this free event in the Thursdays at the Figge series.
Based on the 1981 West End musical by Tony-winning composer Webber, which in turn was based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, the 2019 Cats film was directed by Tom Hooper, in his second feature musical following 2012's Oscar-winning Les Misérables. It features a screenplay by Hooper and War Horse author Lee Hall, and the star-studded cast includes James Corden, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and noted ballet dancer Francesca Hayward in her big-screen debut.
Webber began setting Eliot's poems to music in 1977, and the compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980. Producer Cameron Mackintosh then recruited director Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne to turn the songs into a complete musical, and Cats opened to positive reviews at the New London Theatre. It won numerous awards including Best Musical at both Britain's Laurence Olivier Awards and, later, the Tony Awards, and despite its unusual premise that initially deterred investors, the show turned out to be an unprecedented commercial success, with a worldwide gross to date of more than $3.5 billion in ticket sales and merchandising.
The London production ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances, while the Broadway production ran for 18 years and 7,485 performances, making Cats the longest-running musical in both theatre districts for many years.
Cats has since been revived in the West End twice and on Broadway once, and has also been translated into multiple languages and performed around the world untold thousands of times. Long-running foreign productions include a 15-year run at the Operettenhaus in Hamburg that played more than 6,100 performances, as well as an ongoing run in a purpose-built theatre in Japan that has played in excess of 10,000 performances since opening in 1983.
A musical of memorable characters with baroque names – among them Grizabella, Run Tum Tugger, and Rumpleteazer – Cats started the mega-musical phenomenon, establishing a global market for musical theatre and directing the industry's focus to big-budget blockbusters, as well as family- and tourist-friendly shows. The musical's profound but polarizing influence also reshaped the aesthetic, technology, and marketing of the medium, in addition to creating a new audience for musical ballads, with "Memory" eventually covered by artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Barry Manilow to Johnny Mathis.
Cats will be screened in Davenport's John Deere Auditorium on August 14, and for those who might want to partake, the Figge Bar (cards only) will be open at 5 p.m. before the 6 p.m. film showing. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
