A news briefing held at Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre, SIP on July 11 announced that globally renowned classic musical Cats will be staged at the center's Grand Theatre from July 12 to 20. Suzhou is the 7th leg of its six-month tour of 11 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and so on. The performers from British West End theatre, who are hailed as the most formidable lineup among the global Cats crews, attended the news briefing, and the leading actress Joanna Ampil sang Memory, the most famous episode of the musical.
Cats, a sung-through British musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by Nobel Literature laureate T. S. Eliot, 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 come back to a new life.
Since its debut performance in 1981, the musical has won a long list of awards including the Tony Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical. It has been staged in 300 cities of 30 countries in 15 languages.
It is learnt that the props are delivered from London in an attempt to keep the authenticity of the performance, and the audiences will have chances to interact with the "Cats" during the show.
