Cats (musical) Cats (musical) Cats is a sung-through musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on "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 what is known as "the Jellicle choice" and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, "Cats" first opened in the West End in 1981 and then with the same creative team on Broadway in 1982. It won numerous awards, including
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats Scheffler (2009). The contents of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", along with the names of the featured cats where appropriate, are: In 1954, English composer Alan Rawsthorne set six of the poems in a work for speaker and orchestra entitled "Practical Cats", which was recorded soon afterwards, with the actor Robert Donat as the speaker. At about the same time another English composer, Humphrey Searle, composed another narrated piece based on the poems, using flute, piccolo, cello and guitar. This work, "Two Practical Cats", consists of settings of the poems about Macavity and Growltiger. The best-known musical adaptation of