Cats (musical)
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Cats is a sung-through musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. As of 2022, Cats remains the fifth-longest-running Broadway show and the seventh-longest-running West End show.
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Eliot's poetry provided most of the lyrics for Cats
The original 1981 London cast of Cats
From left to right: Old Deuteronomy, Jemima, Grizabella and Victoria during an event in Germany, 2011.
Megamusical
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A megamusical is a large-scale musical produced for large commercial profit. Such musicals utilize spectacle and increased technology to "radicalize the imagistic potential of musical theatre." Early concepts of the megamusical came into existence in the 1970s, and the form was established and popularized in the 1980s by individuals such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh. Megamusical is analogous to the film industry term "blockbuster".
The megamusical Starlight Express features spectacle elements as seen in this photo.
This is a photo from a touring production of Wicked, a megamusical from the early 2000s.
The chandelier in The Phantom of the Opera is featured in a moment of spectacle during the musical.
One of the qualities of a megamusical is having a large ensemble cast, as seen in Les Misérables.