Cats to purr on Istanbul stage

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

‘Cats’ can be seen on stage at Istanbul’s Zorlu Center Performing Arts Center until Feb 2.

The second longest-running show in Broadway history, one of the world’s best known musicals, “Cats,” comes to the stage at Istanbul’s Zorlu Center Performing Arts Center (PSM) under the main sponsorship of Akbank.. The musical, which started shows on Jan. 21, will be on stage until Feb. 2. with 16 shows. The musical comes to Turkey within the scope of its U.K. and Europe tour. “Cats” was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T. S. Eliot, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as “the Jellicle choice” and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Cats also introduced the song standard “Memory.”

According to the information on its website, since “Cats” first opened on the West End stage in 1981, it has become one of the world’s best known and best loved musicals and has grossed over £1 billion.

With a plot based on T.S Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” and award-winning music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber; the musical, originally directed by Trevor Nunn, has since been presented in over 20 countries and in about 250 cities, including such diverse destinations as Buenos Aires, Seoul, Helsinki and Singapore.

The show has been translated into 10 languages including Japanese, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish and Italian. The Swiss production required a bilingual cast who performed in German and English on alternate nights. The title of the show has rarely been translated, the Mexican producers did a survey as to whether the Mexican audience would like their production to be called “Gatos” – the response in favor of keeping the English original was unanimous.

Also, the film version of “Cats” was released in 1998. Directed by David Mallet, it starred original London cast member Elaine Paige as Grizabella, Sir John Mills as Gus The Theatre Cat, original Broadway cast member Ken Page as Old Deuteronomy and Michael Gruber as Munkustrap.The film was shot in London’s Adelphi Theater and the accompanying soundtrack was completely re-recorded with a seventy piece orchestra to create a full digital sound. In the film, the license plate on the car that can be seen at the back of the stage reads “TSE 1” for T.S. Eliot, whose collection of poetry, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award-winning musical.