Original musical score for the musical Cats
date: label: date made
content: 1982
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Original musical score for the Broadway musical <i>Cats</i> by Andrew Llyod Webber. The leather-bound score features fold-out interior pages with musical bars and notes, notations in black ink and in pencil. “CATS CONDUCTOR” is printed in white on black label-maker-generated plastic label adhered to the front cover.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Achieving an eighteen-year run of 7,397 consecutive performances at Manhattan's Winter Garden Theatre, <i>Cats</i> is one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history. The show, which premiered in London in 1981, is the work of composer-impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, who envisioned a musical based on poet T. S. Eliot's work, <i>Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.</i> The original London and New York productions were enhanced by designer John Napier's imaginative scenery and costumes. The most expensive Broadway musical ever produced at the time, <i>Cats</i> recouped its $5.5 million production cost many times over through its long and successful run. The show’s spectacular sets, costumes, and innovative special effects, and its emphasis on visual pageantry and epic scale over dialogue and plot were key components of the “megamusical” genre that dominated Broadway theater in the 1980s and 90s.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Musical Theater
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2000.0219.08
label: catalog number
content: 2000.0219.08
label: accession number
content: 2000.0219
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Musical Score
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30.2 cm x 30.5 cm x 10.1 cm; 11 7/8 in x 12 in x 4 in