Let the Memory Live Again! Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats Prowls Into the London Palladium

We're positively purring at this news! Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats is returning to the West End this Christmas. The tuner will play a limited three month engagement at the London Palladium, beginning in early December. Casting will be announced shortly.

The production will be based on the current U.K. touring show, which all the original creative team are involved with. Director Trevor Nunn, designer John Napier, choreographer Gillian Lynne and Lloyd Webber will be overseeing the transfer, with Chrissie Cartwright, long term associate director of Cats, working with Nunn and Lynne in re-directing the production for the Palladium.

The composer is even altering two of the numbers for the latest West End incarnation. Lloyd Webber told The Daily Mail: "Today Rum Tum Tugger should be a street cat and so that gives us a great dance opportunity and I must say that I never liked what I did with Growltiger’s Last Stand...so we’re having a go at that."

Cats ran for 21 years in London and 18 years on Broadway, where it won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical. Based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the musical tells the story of the Jellicle cats and each cat's individual quest to be selected as the lucky one that will ascend to "the heavyside layer." In their desire to be chosen to rise above to cat heaven, each cat sings his or her story. Cats features the Billboard top 40 hit “Memory.”