25th Anniversary Tour of “Cats,” Now through March 18, Warner Theatre, 13th & E, Washington, D.C.
Frankly, I am not a big fan of this Andrew Lloyd Webber dance-musical, based on the poems of T.S. Eliot. But I don’t pretend to have the same tastes as others, and I’ve met many a person who loves this thing. After all, in 1997 it smashed the all time record for performances on Broadway. Debuting on Broadway in October 1982, it won seven Tony Awards in 1983. I concede that the haunting song, “Memory,” ranks among the all time favorites as sung by Barbra Streisand and may be worth going to see “Cats” just to hear it performed in the setting for which it was written. Lyrics by Trevor Nunn, it is based on an Eliot poem, “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” Urban legend has it that this song is a paean to Giacomo Puccini in his sunset years, sounding so much like a Puccini aria. Tickets through Ticketmaster.
