National tour of ‘CATS’ will stop in downtown Youngstown

March 6, 2011 at 5:45p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The national touring company of “CATS” will stop at Powers Auditorium, downtown, for one performance at 7 p.m. March 20.

Tickets are $47.50 and $37.50 and are available at the Powers box office; online at youngstownsymphony.com; or by calling 330-744-0264. The tour is the only production in North American sanctioned by creator composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

“CATS” opened in London in 1981 and would become the longest-running musical in the history of British theater, logging 3,358 performances in a run that extened until 2002.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1982, again shattering the mark for longest-running musical, with 7,485 performances over an 18-year run, until “Phantom of the Opera” claimed the record in 2006.

“CATS” is based on T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” With music by Webber, it won seven Tony Awards in 1983, including Best Musical.