I saw Cats shortly after it premiered at the New London Theatre in 1981. With the opening chords, the stage began to revolve – and some of the audience with it – while performers in tight unitards, legwarmers and feline makeup appeared from the light-festooned junkyard set before launching into song and dance.

Directed by Trevor Nunn, with set and costumes by John Napier, and jazzy, moggy-inspired choreography by Gillian Lynne, it was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Forty years on, staged in a proscenium arch theatre, the show doesn’t have the surprising wow factor it did back then. Though Cats has recently been reimagined in a new US production, set in the underground ballroom scene, this production is a slightly tweaked version of the original staging, and it does feel somewhat dated.

Gabriyel Thomas and the cast of Cats, 2025. Photo © Daniel Boud

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of TS Eliot’s collection of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Cats, was first seen in Australia in 1985 and has returned several times since. It’s back again for the 40th anniversary of the Australian production, opening its tour in the venue where...