| Meow Wow: CATS to Prowl Winter Garden 'Til Sept. 10 |
In mid-February, the producers of the Broadway musical CATS told the world the show would close June 25, after 7,397 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre. An outpouring of media coverage, fan sentiment and heightened ticket sales ensued. Since the announcement, in fact, grosses have regularly leapt past the $500,000 per week mark, with the week ending May 7 a case in point ($635,639-at 96.9 of seating capacity).
Well, fans have voted with their wallets and purses, and CATS will prowl on for another eleven weeks, closing Sept. 10 after 7,485 performances. (The Sept. 9 Saturday night performance, by the way, will be a special benefit for the Actors' Fund. The final performance, Sept. 10, will be by invitation only.)
According to production spokespersons at the Bill Evans press office, CATS sold $4.7 million worth of tickets in the month following the closing announcement. Said one spokesperson, "We really did feel it was going to close, but as you can see by the figures, people have been going and going and going. We've been doing close to sell-out business. It didn't make sense to close."
At this point there are no points to bring back start players from the show's history for return visits runs, and the current Grizabella (Linda Balgord) and Rum Tum Tugger (Stephen Bienskie) are expected to stay on the prowl through the summer.
A seven-time Tony winner, (including Best Musical), CATS opened October 7, 1982, and, on June 19, 1997, passed A Chorus Line as the longest-running Broadway show of all time. According to the Bill Evans press office, the show has grossed more than $388 million and played to more than 10 million people.
In its February story about the closing, the New York Times quoted Andrew Lloyd Webber spokesperson Peter Brown as saying, "Obviously, I am sad that CATS has to close on Broadway at the end of June, but it is also a day of great celebration," he said. "Eighteen is a great age for a cat."
--David Lefkowitz