The Herd (Taylor Swift, James Corden, Idris Elba) Came Out to the Premiere of Cats
Photo: Getty Images
When Andrew Lloyd Webber’s megamusical Cats premiered on the West End in 1981, it had plenty working against it. Based on the playful and nonsensical, cat-themed poems T.S Eliot wrote for his godchildren and later published as a collection in 1939, it was a hard sell from the beginning. Eschewing a traditional narrative in favor of elaborate dance and music sequences, Cats follows a tribe of—you guessed it—cats called the Jellicles on the night they make the “Jellicle choice,” where one will be selected to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reincarnated in a new life.
But the sheer spectacle (and absurdity) of Cats is exactly what propelled it to the international phenomenon we know it as today. It eventually became one of the longest-running shows on Broadway, snagging the Tony Award for Best Musical. Having since been translated into multiple languages, performed around the world, and parodied everywhere from Saturday Night Live to The Simpsons, it’s shocking a film adaptation of the beloved musical didn’t hit theaters sooner.
But almost forty years after theater audiences were first introduced to the Jellicles, Cats is back for its second life.
Monday night, Lincoln Center hosted the world premiere for Cats, the long-awaited movie musical from Les Misérables director Tom Hooper opening this Friday. Utilizing a much-discussed “digital fur technology” that transformed the human actors into CGI felines, the ensemble cast includes Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, Jason Derulo, and Taylor Swift alongside a bevy of newcomers.
Key among them is Francesca Hayward, a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet making her film debut as Victoria, a sweet-natured cat who acts as an audience surrogate after getting thrown into the world of the Jellicles. While Hayward never got the chance to see a live production of Cats, she regularly watched a video recording of it while dancing around her living room.
“I feel so privileged to be the new Victoria, and I feel like my ballet training helped me stay focused and not get too overwhelmed,” Hayward told Vogue. “But obviously, there were days when I was just freaking out because I had a one-on-one scene with Judi Dench or Idris Elba!”
Hayward says part of the thrill of Cats was the way the expansive cast helped each other fill in the pieces of their performances, with the mix of professional singers, dancers, and actors all open to collaborating. Even Elba, who fell off a motorcycle and crashed through a double-decker bus onscreen in Hobbs Shaw this year, admits Cats was uniquely challenging.
“I think singing and dancing at the same time is something I haven’t quite mastered yet,” Elba joked on the carpet. “And even in Cats, the jury is still out!”
A self-proclaimed “‘70s baby,” Elba grew up in London right when Cats was taking over the West End (and eventually the world). “I remember hearing the music before I knew what the play was about, so when I was asked to be in it, it was just this massive revelation,” he says. “These ideas of getting to heaven and getting to the other side are a big deal for human beings, and Cats made it sort of cute and utilized our imaginations in a big way.”
After admitting he put the finishing touches on the film only hours before the premiere, Hopper introduced the cast to a packed crowd in Alice Tully Hall. “Let the audience decide, but I think we’ve come a long way since that first trailer,” the director said, referencing the barrage of memes that has made Cats a favorite on social media.
The vocal reactions from audience members throughout the screening is proof that they must’ve felt similarly, with the musical numbers bookended by ecstatic applause and giddy whispers between seatmates. When Hudson belted out “Memory,” the most famous song from Cats and possibly of all musical theater, you could barely hear her over the whoops and hollers from the teary-eyed crowd.
After the screening, guests trekked through the pouring rain a few blocks east to Tavern On the Green in Central Park. The outside patio was converted into a “Milk Bar,” thankfully with Champagne and chardonnay in lieu of saucers of cream. Guests mingled into the early hours of the morning, with everyone sharing their thoughts on one of the most magical, show-stopping, spectacularly strange films of the year.
“I went to see it when I was at school, had never seen anything like it before, and have never seen anything like it since so I hope that’s the experience of watching the film as well,” Corden told Vogue. “There’s nothing else like it and there never will be because it’s bold, unique, and excludes nobody. And hopefully, it’s fun!”
Kevin Mazur1/25Laurie Davidson
Photo: Getty Images2/25Robbie Fairchild