Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS

The original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS opened in London’s West End on 11th May 1981. On 29th January 1996 it became the longest-running musical in the history of West End and Broadway.

In the West End production alone the box office used more than 3/4 of a million paper cups, 60 miles of adding machine paper, 1,3 million envelopes and 32,000 headache tables. 1,618 litres (356 gallons UK) of varnish have been used to cover the floor, more than 6,000 seats and almost 500 microphones replaced.

The wardrobe department replaced 3,900 pairs of shoes, sewed 3,450 costumes, using 11,954 lb of wool. The make up department issued 10,800 sponges and 72 batches of each available eye shadow, blusher, lipstick and mascara per year.

The song ‘Memory’ had airtime on radio and television in the UK 46,875 times and in the US it passed the one million mark in 1988. If you listened to the song continuously one million times, it would take five years to listen to it all.