Welcome to your source for information of special interest to our Theatricals Customers. You may choose from any of the articles to the right:

With a level of excitement and anticipation usually reserved for the holidays or a birthday, our Theatre Library customers have been looking forward to learning when they will be able to produce CATS in their theatres.

Well, at last we are able to let the CATS out of the bag!

Applications are now being accepted for professional performance rights to CATS in the U.S. and Canada for performances beginning January 1, 2004. The interest in CATS has been unprecedented and by this time many of our customers have contacted our office about CATS. As a result most of them know that this happy announcement is not without its inevitable restrictions. We want everyone's experience with CATS to be as positive as possible. Thepurpose of this issue of NEWS for Our Theatre Library Customers is to let all of our customers know exactly what they can expect from the licensing process for this most eagerly anticipated of musicals.

TOURS

We are happy to say that the very successful tour of CATS that has been traveling the country for over a year continues to break box office records wherever it plays. This is good news for everyone. Not only is the tour exceeding the expectations of its producers and of the copyright owners, it is also raising the national profile of this musical theatre phenomenon which hasnot been seen on tour for several years. What this means for our customers is that a new generation of theatre-goers, too young to have seen past tours, will, via this tour, be introduced to this world-famous show. The result: new fans eager to see CATS in their home towns....at your theatres. CATS is a musical that audiences see again and again. After all, it didn't become the most successful musical in history on the strength of one-time only ticket buyers.

ME FIRST!

As with any new release that is under restriction, your requests for performance rights will go through a rigorous clearing process to determine availability in your market.

So, let's say the tour has already played in your market. Does that mean you will automatically be granted performance rights? We wish we could say yes. But when any musical is newly released, greater care is taken to avoid conflicting commercial productions. Though the audience for CATS is plentiful, it serves no one's interests to start out licensing competing productions in the same area. We must therefore follow our primary mandate to license each of the musicals in our catalogue in the most effective way possible. And that means, pending their interest, licensing CATS to larger theatres in each market first.

There is another reason for this necessity. With respect to professional productions in the U.S. and Canada, the creators are requiring that, at least for the first season or two, only productions able to use the full complement of musicians will be licensed. Happily, a new 11-piece orchestration is expected to replace the original 16-piece orchestration making CATS more feasible for more theatres.

Here at R&H we are acutely aware of the current challenges facing our customers with respect to planning their seasons. That is why we have aggressively pursued popular new titles to add to our catalogue - titles that have attracted more people to your theatres - giving you a needed boost at the box office. Many of you who have produced I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE; FOOTLOOSE and SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE have written to us of their great success and know that our commitment to you is real. Now that we are all entering together a new era in licensing - an era inaugurated by CATS, this most long-awaited of musicals - we ask for your understanding of the necessities that will govern our responses to your requests.

Together, we can make the slogan "CATS, now and forever" a reality. Amateur rights to CATS are currently unavailable and at present there is no release date scheduled. We will keep you informed and will provide up-to-the-minute information as it becomes available.

Professional Customers only, please complete in its entirety the application on page D of "NEWS for Our Theatre Library Customers" and fax it to The R&H Theatre Library Professional Licensing Division at . Please allow ten business days for a response to your application submission. You may also apply online by clicking on the following link: CATS APPLICATION

Facts on Cats

 -- CATS opened at the New London Theatre in London's West End on May 11, 1981.

-- Eight years later it celebrated its first important milestone: after 3, 358 performances, CATS became the longest running musical in the history of the British theatre.

-- In April 1999, the gross box office for the London production of CATS was over £115,363,000.00.

-- CATS opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway on October 7, 1982. It closed on September 10, 00, after almost 18 years.

-- On June 19, 1997, CATS became the longest running musical on Broadway.

-- CATS has been presented in twenty-six countries and in over three hundred cities including Buenos Aires, Seoul, Helsinki and Singapore.

-- CATS has been translated into ten languages: Japanese, German (three versions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish (two versions for Mexico and Argentina) and Italian. The Swiss production required a bilingual cast who performed in German and English on alternate nights.

-- The title of the show has never been translated - the Mexican producers did a survey as to whether the Mexican audience would like their production to be called GATOS - the response in favor of keeping the English original was unanimous.

-- On October 1, 1991, CATS became the longest, continuously touring show in American theatre history. The CATS four U.S. tours played a combined total of sixteen years and two months.

-- "Memory" has been recorded by a variety of over 150 artists ranging from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace. Barry Manilow's rendition was a top-40 hit in the U.S.

-- The Original London Cast Recording of CATS won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Cast Album. The next year the Original Broadway Cast Recording won the same award.

-- In its twenty one years at the New London Theatre CATS notched up a staggering 8,950 performances.