Producers announce cast for Manila season of CATS

After announcing the return of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-breaking 2015 Olivier award nominated musical Cats to Manila, producers have just revealed the full cast for the Manila season. CATS plays for a strictly limited season at The Theatre at Solaire beginning 6th November 2019.
World-renowned theatre star and the Philippines’ very own Joanna Ampil reprises her role as Grizabella. Joanna Ampil has performed in several West End musicals, including Miss Saigon, Jesus Christ Superstar and Avenue Q, and she played the role of Fantine in Les Misérables in London.

Joining her in the cast are Luke Fraser Yates, George Hinson, Gavin Eden, Kirsty Ingram, Elizabeth Futter, Sally Frith, Erica-Jayne Alden, Amy Whittle, Ellie Young, Holly Willock, Danielle Cato, Gabrielle Coca, Cian Hughes, Rhys Batten, Thomas Inge, Mukeni Nel, Lloyd Davies, Abigail Dever, Alexandra Wright, Elly Shaw, Liam Buckland, Lee Nicholson, and Brian O’Muiri. Resident director is Dane Quixall.

Based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Cats first returned to the West End in December 2014 reuniting the original creative team - Director Trevor Nunn, Associate Director and Choreographer Gillian Lynne, Designer John Napier and Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Following a second season at the London Palladium in 2015 and a UK Tour in 2016, the production embarked on an international tour in 2017 and now continues to tour the world throughout 2018 and 2019.

On just one special night of the year, all Jellicle cats meet at the Jellicle Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, makes the Jellicle choice and announces which of them will go up to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

Cats, one of the longest-running shows in West End and on Broadway, received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981 where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The production was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, and ran for eighteen years. Since its world premiere, Cats has been presented in over 30 countries, has been translated into 15 languages and has been seen by over 73 million people world-wide. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards for Best Cast Album. The classic Lloyd Webber score includes Memory which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.

The international tour of the Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Theatre production of CATS is again presented by David Ian Productions.

RCBC Bankard is a proud sponsor of the 2019 Manila season of CATS.

Photo by: Stephen Frak