Up,up, up to heaviside layer

It all started with T.S. Eliot’s book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” Andrew Llyod Webber wrote the musical Cats based on T.S. Eliot’s book. The musical Cats started in New London Theatre in the West End on May 11th, 1981. It ran its production on the West End until 1991. It crossed the borders to the new world with the premier night on Broadway October 7th, 1982. It stayed on Broadway till September of 2000. Cats had the longest continuously touring show in American theatre history. Also it boasts a statistic of being performed in over twenty countries and translated into 10 different languages. Impressively, in Sweden the cast had to be bilingual. One night the cast would perform it in English and the next night in German. This musical is standard musical style and has almost a show tunes theme to the songs. The plot consists of the Jellicle cats celebrating at the Jellicle ball, the ball is really just a dump. While at the ball the cats audition to the wise leader Deuteronomy. They audition to Deuteronomy because he decides which of the cats gets to take the journey to the Heaviside layer. The Heaviside layer is a place of rebirth and any cat that takes a journey there is reborn and given another life. One by one, the audience is introduced to each cat as they audition, just like they are portrayed in the book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”. From the shadows we are introduced to a former Glamour Cat named Grizabella. She is an outcast a former beauty, as her beauty faded so did her status and now she walks the lowest alleys a cat can roam. Barred from the ball she reflects on the memory of what she used to be and how she would use a new life. Her character has the greatest depth to it and for this reason Deuteronomy takes her “Up,up,up, past the Russell Hotel. Up,up,up, to the heaviside layer.” I have not actually seen the musical “Cats” but learning about all the superficial characters and the depth of Grizabella, it really has sparked an interest in me to see this musical. Also, the costumes are extremely in detail and it adds to the vision of each cat dancing and singing while they perform. If you are interested in viewing a small portion of the musical I suggest "Memory" performed by Elaine Paige.