Cats
'Cats' is celebrating its 40th Australian anniversary with a new season of the feline-fancying musical at Theatre Royal Sydney.
Overview
It's time to get the word "Jellicle" stuck in your head once more: to mark 40 years since it first hit the stage in Australia, Cats is prowling through theatres again in 2025. Back in July 1985, Aussie audiences initially experienced Andrew Lloyd Webber's acclaimed production, which turned a tale inspired by poems from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats into an award-winning theatre hit. The place: Sydney, aka where Cats plays again from Tuesday, June 17.
Four decades ago, the show pranced through Theatre Royal Sydney — and the new season is scampering across the boards there again, too, to help you make some new Cats memories.
If you're new to Cats, it spends its time with the Jellicle cat tribe on the night of the Jellicle Ball. That's the evening each year when their leader Old Deuteronomy picks who'll be reborn into a new Jellicle life by making the Jellicle choice. And yes, "Jellicle" is uttered frequently.
Of late, audiences might be more familiar with Cats as a movie. In 2019, the musical made the leap from stage to screen with a star-studded cast including Idris Elba (Hijack), Taylor Swift (Amsterdam), Judi Dench (Belfast), Ian McKellen, (The Critic) James Corden, (Mammals) Jennifer Hudson (Respect), Jason Derulo (Lethal Weapon), Ray Winstone (Damsel) and Rebel Wilson (The Almond and the Seahorse) playing singing, scurrying street mousers. If you ever wanted to see Swift pouring cat nip on a crowd of cats from a suspended gold moon, or were keen to soothe your disappointment over the fact that Elba hasn't yet been James Bond by spotting him with whiskers, fur and a tail, this was your chance.
For its efforts, the Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl)-directed film picked up six Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture. But while the movie clearly didn't hit the mark, you can see why this feline-fancying musical has been such a huge theatre hit thanks to its Aussie stage comeback.
Images: Alessandro Pinna.
Information
- Where to Find the Best Steak in Sydney
- A List of All of the Wes Anderson Films, Ranked
- The Eight Best Coastal Spots for Whale Watching Across Australia
- It's Eurovision Time: Here's When You Can Watch 2025's Song Contest (with Tony Armstrong and Courtney Act Hosting Australia's Coverage)
- The Best Glamping Sites Around Australia
- Eight Unexpected Natural Wonders to Visit Around Victoria