For movie people, there's only one "Liz." But Broadway has a Liz of its own: Liz Callaway, who starred in 1983's Baby and later went on to a long-running career playing Grizabella in Cats. She'll return to that role -- the one that leaves many Cats fans with their strongest "Memory" -- Sept. 22.
Callaway also starred in Roundabout Theatre's 1986 musical, Brownstone and the Hudson Guild's 1987 No Way To Treat A Lady. She also appeared in York Theatre's Marry Me A Little (1987).
June 19, Cats celebrated its 6,138th performance -- the longest of of any Broadway show in history. Fireworks and laser lights marked the event, as did composer Andrew Lloyd Webber sitting at the piano and singing a tune that never made it to Broadway. Webber also told a crowd gathered in front of the Winter Garden Theatre, "As someone who, as a child, loved musical theatre and American musical theatre . . . more than anything -- for something like this to happen to me is extraordinary."
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented the creators and producers a proclamation that June 19, 1997 was Cats Day in New York.
In other Cats news, Elaine Paige and Ken Page will star in a film to-video production currently being shot in London. Look for the home video version of Cats to prowl to vcrs in spring 1998. Really Useful Group spokesperson Nicole Levine confirmed (Sept. 11) that Paige, who originated the role of Grizabella in 1981, will play that shunned but ultimately redeemed cat in the video release. Lloyd Webber spokesperson Peter Brown added that Page, Broadway's original Old Deuteronomy would repeat his role, but other cast members -- drawn from current and previous Cats alumni -- have yet to be announced.
Paige made her Broadway debut in Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. Page appeared as The Lord in Randy Newman's Faust at La Jolla Playhouse.
Gillian Lynne, original choreographer, directs and choreographs here, with David Mallet directing the film itself. The Adelphi Theatre will be used, says Brown, "because it was dark, and we needed a theatre. Plus, Andrew owns it." The theatre has a proscenium arch stage.
For tickets ($37.50-$70) and information on Cats at the Winter Garden Theatre call (212) 239-6200.
