A report on Really Useful Group, Cats (musical) and West End theatre

Logo by Really Useful Group
The Palace Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, built in 1891
Really Useful Films logo
T. S. Eliot's poetry provided most of the lyrics for Cats
The London Palladium in Soho opened in 1910. While the Theatre has a resident show, it also has one-off performances such as concerts. Since 1930 it has hosted the Royal Variety Performance 43 times.
The original 1981 London cast of Cats
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Opened in May 1663, it is the oldest theatre in London.
The Jellicle cats gather every year to make the "Jellicle choice" and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.
Original interior of Savoy Theatre in 1881, the year it became the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.
From left to right: Old Deuteronomy, Jemima, Grizabella and Victoria during an event in Germany, 2011.
The Lyceum Theatre, home to Disney's The Lion King.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Queen's Theatre showing Les Misérables, running in London since October 1985
Gillian Lynne
The restored facade of the Dominion Theatre, as seen in 2017
Cats at the New London Theatre (1999)
The St Martin's Theatre, home to The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play.
Broadway revival of Cats at the Neil Simon Theatre
The exterior of the Old Vic
The CATS Theatre in Shinagawa, Tokyo (2008)
The Royal Court Theatre. Upstairs is used as an experimental space for new projects—The Rocky Horror Show premiered here in 1973.
The Operettenhaus where Cats played for 15 years
West End theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue in 2016
The first non-replica production of Cats was staged at the Teatr Muzyczny Roma in Warsaw, Poland (2007).
Gilbert and Sullivan play at the Savoy in 1881
A school production of Cats in Bangalore, India (2014)
Victoria Palace Theatre (showing Billy Elliot in 2012) was refurbished in 2017.
The cat's-eyes logo and the "now and forever" slogan were used to advertise the musical at the New London Theatre (1999).
Radio microphones have become the norm in live theatre since Cats.

Cats opened to positive reviews at the New London Theatre in the West End in 1981 and then to mixed reviews at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in 1982.

- Cats (musical)

The majority of West End theatres are owned by the Ambassador Theatre Group, Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, Nimax Theatres, LW Theatres, and the Nederlander Organization.

- West End theatre

Cats – Lloyd Webber/T. S. Eliot – London, Broadway, worldwide

- Really Useful Group

Lloyd Webber thus decided to turn Practical Cats into a musical, co-produced by Mackintosh and the Really Useful Group's Brian Brolly.

- Cats (musical)

Lee Mead, who won the lead role in 2007's West End revival of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat by taking part in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do! recorded a single of the song "Any Dream Will Do".

- Really Useful Group

It overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, which closed in 2002 after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest-running West End musical of all time on 9 October 2006.

- West End theatre

3 related topics with Alpha

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Lloyd Webber in 2008

Andrew Lloyd Webber

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English composer and impresario of musical theatre.

English composer and impresario of musical theatre.

Lloyd Webber in 2008
Lloyd Webber studied at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2014, he was honoured for his "contribution to musical life" with an honorary doctorate from the college.
Jesus Christ Superstar, starring Paul Nicholas, at the Palace Theatre, London in 1972. Its success saw Lloyd Webber and Rice expand and release their previous biblical-based musical Joseph.
Evita at the West End's Adelphi Theatre. Lloyd Webber purchased the theatre in 1993. The 1998 video of Lloyd Webber's Cats was filmed at the venue.
Cats at the London Palladium
The Phantom of the Opera at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto
Lloyd Webber was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993 for his contribution to live theatre
U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honourees in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception Sunday, 3 December 2006. From left, they are: singer and songwriter William "Smokey" Robinson; Andrew Lloyd Webber; country singer Dolly Parton; film director Steven Spielberg; and conductor Zubin Mehta.
Lloyd Webber and the UK's Eurovision entrant Jade Ewen
Lloyd Webber and Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow
After the 2016 English National Opera's revival of Sunset Boulevard at the London Coliseum was well-received, in 2017 the production transferred to the Palace Theatre on Broadway (pictured) in New York City
Cinderella at the West End's Gillian Lynne Theatre in July 2021
Lloyd Webber (middle) with his then-wife Sarah Brightman (right) in 1985. He would cast her as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera which debuted in London the following year.

Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway.

Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were successful outside of their parent musicals, such as "Memory" from Cats, "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita, and "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2001, The New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially successful composer in history".

His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London.

Poster

The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)

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Musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe.

Musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe.

Poster
At the Majestic Theatre
Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman performing the title song
Steve Barton and Sarah Brightman in the final scene

The musical opened in London's West End in 1986 and on Broadway in New York in 1988, in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring English classical soprano Sarah Brightman (Lloyd Webber's then-wife) as Christine Daaé, and Michael Crawford as the Phantom.

In 1984, Lloyd Webber contacted Cameron Mackintosh, the co-producer of Cats and Song and Dance, to propose a new musical.

In November 2019, the co-producers of Phantom, Cameron Mackintosh and Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group (RUG), announced that the show would again tour the UK and Ireland, but this time with a return to the original production rather than the 2012 production.

Adelphi Theatre in 2007

Adelphi Theatre

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Adelphi Theatre in 2007
Sketch of a scene from Jane Scott's 1816 play, The Old Oak Chest
Charles Dickens' The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain at the Adelphi, in the Illustrated London News, 30 December 1848
Plaque commemorating William Terriss beside the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre
Cover of Vocal Score of Seymour Hicks' The Earl and the Girl
The Adelphi Theatre, 27 August 2011

The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London.

In 1993, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group purchased the theatre and completely refurbished it prior to the opening of his adaptation of Sunset Boulevard.

The 1998 video of Lloyd Webber's musical Cats was filmed at the theatre.