Cats, the long-lived Andrews Lloyd Webber-T.S. Eliot musical, turns 7,000 on July 14 at the 2 PM matinee. Cats became the longest running Broadway show June 19, 1997, when its 6,138 performance passed A Chorus Line. Currently in its 17th season, the musical, which won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, has been seen by more than 8,350,000 people.

Cats is also the longest-running tour in American theatre history, surpassing Oklahoma! Nov. 18, 1997. The fourth national company reached the tour's 5,000th performance milestone July 7 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Based on T.S. Eliot's poems, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Cats has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and was directed by Trevor Nunn. Gillian Lynne choreographed the cast of 36 actor-singer-dancers who play exotically-named felines from Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, to the mysterious Mr. Mistofeles. Cats produced the hit song, "Memory."