Its sad knowing some of these great people arent alive anymore :(

Just hearing this passable audio of Betty Buckley's "Memory" give me chills. Imagine being in the theater when she performed. She'd suck the oxygen out of your lungs. Powerful!

January 14 2024. It doesn't get better than this. I've seen so many Broadway shows growing up in the NYC area & we were blessed to get house seats in first row orchestra. I was an embarrassing wreck at "Memory", thinking of all the strays I fed; this show will never be "cheesy", "kitschy", or anything derogatory. It is one of the most magnificent productions in theatre. Thank you Trevor Nunn and Sir Andrew. Love from the great city of New York. 🐾❤️

The cat who sings "Can you say of your bite that it's worse than your bark" is Terrence Mann, the original Broadway Javert in 1987 and lately Charlemagne in "Pippin."

The best performance of this Broadway musical ever! It is perfect! The very Pretty and extremely talented actress singer, dance and entertainer Betty Buckley is the best and one and only Grizabella, the Glamour Cat and received the Tony for best actress in a Broadway Musical for Cats in 1983! The song Memory truly belongs only to Betty Buckley! The original entire Broadway Cats cast are excellent and the best ever! They are perfect! Everything is perfect! I was born in the late fall of 1978. I remember watching this! Thank you so much for posting and sharing this!

I kinda love this. This is the raw form of Cats, and even through the blurry lens of the camera, it's amazing to see the original show and compare it from here to now. The makeup itself is amazing in it's own way. The scariness in it's own way is beautiful... I wish I could watch the whole show throughout the different generations.

It looks so much better than the 2019 one

For anyone criticizing the dance, Dame Gillian Lynne (choreographer) wanted this show to not be a jazz show or a balletic show, she wanted this to be something different, which they achieved. You have to open your eyes and look at it. I've loved this show for most of my life and have been in it and watched the movie hundreds of times and saw it live three times. It's a metaphor for being accepted where you came from because Grizabella left the tribe to go find success as the "glamour cat" but she didn't succeed, so she came back to the tribe, and they didn't accept her because she left. Then, Victoria the White Cat sees the good in her and accepts her back.

I love these costumes! Especially the variety in the wig lengths- I think that’s been a little bit lost over the years.

I got to watch the entire original Broadway show at the New York Public Library's archives. It was awesome finally putting faces to the voices I'd heard all these years. :D

I'm glad they kept making improvements to the hair and makeup, because they used to look so terrifying! Still an incredible show though!

Videos of then are the treasures for now and the future! The show has developed so much in the course of the last 30 years, that it's just wonderful to see how the originals did it. And Betty Buckley is simply phenomenal!

I remember seeing the cats posters everywhere in the 80s I was a kid .but now I am watching this amazing video now I understand...

That shot of Terry and then Bonnie looking into the camera shook my bones. Wonderful memories. We miss you, Bonnie.

Damn that Grizabella's voice was phenomenal!

This is the first time seeing or hearing a Cats performance except for the commercials as a kid in the 90's and I must say I like it. I was missing out.

I love how "Cats" has changed so much over the years

Look up “A Cat’s Diary” by Stephen Hanan (Gus/Growltiger), about the rehearsal and staging process of the broadway production. Incredible portrait of this group of people.

Elaine Page (if I'm not mistaken) originated it in London, and Betty Buckley was the first to play it on Broadway.

My first introduction to Betty Buckley was "Eight is Enough," though I loved her there, I enjoyed her stage performances more. Especially CATS!

Why compare this version with the dvd version? Obviously the DVD version is better to watch online or on tv because it was made for that purpose. The chosen actors, the costumes and the make-up on the DVD was all specifically done to look amazing on DVD. This youtube clip was a taping of a live performance when they didn't even have a concept of DVD or HD. It's an unfair comparison. Plus, things progress and get better over time - the DVD cast could watch this clip and study this cast 1st.

RIP Timothy Scott. 🥀

4:53 I get so many goosebumps at that part!

Betty! ❤ A true DIVA!

Aw man, thank you for uploading this! This was bloody fantastic! Cats will always be my favorite musical!

Betty is just amazing!!!!!!

i was lucky enough to see the original cast when i was 14. they were much better singers and WAY better dancers! They should have made the movie version; today's generation (and i speak as a mom) was robbed!

My lucky daughter got to have as her Musical Theater instructor at her Drama Workshop and voice coach an actual original Broadway cast member of this Cats. He was really great and wildly talented and I'm jealous as when I was a Theater major in college I had no instructor that even came close.

Exactly and it's LIVE. Can't exactly take cuts and edit everything together. Saw this live. Amazing.

First off I want to say that I adore cats! one of my favorite musicals. That being said, I think I prefer the DVD to this one. I know they were just starting and all but the tempo is sooooooo fast, I know all the words and I could barley keep up singing in my head! And I just like the cast better, the man who plays munkustrap voice gives me the tingles.

come on like you guys know how to dance this????????? Well I actually do, and I can tell you that to do this eight times a week, is amazing, I apllaud this fantastic performance! Not everyone can be brits! STOP WITH THE CRITIC OF THE DANCING, UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY HAVE IT DOESN'T COUNT!

The woman that played Demeter in this production later played Bombaruna on broadway. She was one of few original cast members to do so!

Lovely costumes. :-)

I'm sorry XD I lol'd really hard at the cat at 1:52 !!!!!!! What a great face!!! XD

honestly I think the makeup and outfits is as fine as the 1998 one just the video quality is not the best. I wish they can publish this musical in higher quality. always love and appreciate the original cast (I kinda feel bad 1998 is getting so much more attention, even tho it's the first of this musical I watched and love it too )

This was a pretty raw form. They hadn't quite figured out the make-up to the perfection that we have it now. I'm playing Munkustrap in Central Illinois' first high school rendition of this show ever this weekend. We are blessed to have the funding to make the costumes amazing. I agree with Elphie31 though; you have no idea how difficult this show is. I'm glad they learned from this first experience.

Great musical.I was so fortunate to see it at the old Shubert WinterGarden in late fall of '1982. It was quite demanding.You had to be good dancers with stamina and have much better than average singing voices. The person in the cast with the absolutely stunning soprano was the incomparable Betty Buckley. That voice was so resonant it could 'rattle the rafters'.. It was like no other voice I've heard on Broadway.The best,IMO. By the way,there was another soprano in the cast with a beautiful voice,Bonnie Simmons. I wonder what happened to her. She had a wonderful and ringing soprano tone.

This looks way better than Universal's movie tbh

i totally agree! I saw this in a smaller theatre, with a smaller company (probably only 15 actors/actresses) yet they all sang amazingly well, and still moved really fast. It was incredible!

Memory was amazing!!!!

Just saw her LIVE this past Dec and she does it with the gestures.

I love, hate, and am SHOCKED that the arrangements for Jellicle Songs HAVE NOT CHANGED IN 40 YEARS!!!

It is definitely Betty Buckley singing here. There is a vid here on the Tube where she sings "Memory" on Johnny Carson. She validates it was herself in this production. Btw, Dame Judi Dentch" (sp?) was ALW's first choice for the original Grizabella but suffered a torn Achilles tendon and Elaine Page agreed to step in...

4:52 s h o o k

Splendid! Saw it years ago, loved it!

Buckley owns this piece forever.

The lines actually help the add depth to the make up from all the way in the back. Close up it does look strange which is why in the video they changed the make up.

I love this musical so much! If I could have seen this version live, I SO would! To all who say it should be changed/made cuter, go watch the movie.

hahaha Demeter went cross eyed! priceless

omg! love cats! and i just watched the original production!!!!!!! : D soooooo lucky!

The thing is, this was BEFORE the film was in production at all, and this production is the raw talent and coppery sound that it was originally, and some people, like thyself, like the other stuff better. I like both, but am open to any production. =^.^=

Chills Every Time.

Elaine Paige is my favorite Grizabella but Betty Buckley is also wonderful.

I love CATS!

RIP Timothy Scott.

simply.... TERRIFiC!!!!!!!

Sorry to break your spirits guys but go watch the remake trailer of this, it's terrifying and I'm really sad what they did to this masterpiece

I think it is just his wif...but you have a point. I loved timothy scott as misto and he was in the movie annie. It is a shame he died so young from HIV. I don't think anyone can play a better misto than him.

Betty Buckley the queen

Yes thats him its always like that with the costume he gets into the tugger suit when the rum tum tugger song comes on

thank u!

Betty Buckley Is best! Gone are the days of good Broadway shows... sigh 😔

@garrymusic91 The singing in the original cast is a thousand times better than the movie.

I loved this show for years, I saw original tours and on broadway, but I could never figure out why they kept on bringing on grizabella over and over and make her sing the same song over and over, different words, but the same song, for a time I couldnt figure out if this was memory or the next time she came out or the other times she came out in act 2 and sang it again and again. tee heee. I still love it though, lots of darkness and mystery.

Do keep in mind that this is the ORIGINAL Broadway cast. CATS originally opened in London in NINETEEN-EIGHTY-ONE. The makeup and costuming are bound to be "primitive". At least we can identify certain cats. Especially Victoria, Mr. Mistoffolees, Munkustrap, Old Deuteronomy, Sillabub, and Grizabella.

@tppipersa I am a huge Brent fan, but don't knock Timothy until you understand him. Did you know he hated his Mistoffelees vest (because it weighed like 15 pounds,) but her wore it anyway? It even caused him to faint under the hot stage lights, during a performance, and he still acted in it afterward. That's a devotion most of us will never understand. Without people like Timothy Scott, you wouldn't even know who Jacob Brent was! Mr. Scott died before I was born, and I am still a grateful fan!

Betty Buckley.❤

i went to see cats back in April in London, and its changed a lot over the years, but its still amazing

I for real just clicked this video and said to myself, "..at Tony's? Who's Tony?" 🤦‍♀️😂🤣😂🤣💀

I'm kind of sad that their performance medley has been shortened in later years. Compare this to the 2016 revival performance on GMA or at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. It's shortened a LOT. It's not bad, I just miss this version.

But I still don't know what a "Jellical" is.

well said!

Wow This is way different than the 1998 version

Wish I could get the year on any of these vids

right on dude

No, Demeter sings her regular line in OBC recording and in this. Its Bombalurina because she has the same makeup and costume in the Book of the Musical.

Yes it is :D

I love Betty Buckley.

And I totally understand that. ^^

@daytonville Not to mention a lot of the voices on the DVD version were overdubs. Some were cast for their looks and dancing, and someone else sang. You're right, there is no comparison at all.

LOL at Misto!

@KennethStalsworth I think Webber Agreed with you. Speilberg wanted to do an animated version of this musical and while it was in planning stages he consulted with Webber who decided not to grant rights saying he was making it too cutesy which is why webber did the video version.

This is theatre. It is experimental and adventurous. It's raw, un-refined beauty; the beginnings of what would be a great and popular show. If it wasn't for this version, we wouldn't have the cute, fun video we all know and love. I am grateful that these people were all brave enough to try something new and set the trend that made it what it is today. You know, the reason T. S. Elliot turned down Disney? It is because they wanted to turn his beloved creations into pussycats. He DIDN'T want that!

betty buckley sings like a pro

i love grizabella ....... thats what my sisters rule in her participation this coming oct.10

I love cats, and now im terrified of them.

I can't even tell which cats are which for most of them

See look, the original show looked like this as well, people freaking out over the movie is hilarious.

Betty Buckley

correct!

i:52 i LOVE this girl! she's so funny!

I kind of like the movie cast better, is that bad? Edit: not the 2019 cast

@PhoenixBorealis Very true and if you watch the documentary about the making of cats, when Webber met with Elliot's widow she was concerned about that and Webber told her he didn't see them as cute and cuddly but as something more like "Hot Gossip" and more edgy.

would anyone happen to know the name of the woman playing the cat who sings "when you're walking alone"? it's definitely not betty buckley, she appears from offstage before memory, and this cat never leaves the stage before then.

Its Donna King I believe. She played Bombalurina.

@Randomifyify I've been singing this music ever since I first saw the London taped version when I was like... maybe 6 or 7? It's by far my favorite musical and I can "synchronize" my voice to not only the speed of the music (which is a bit fast in this version) but to the other cast members. Once again, I really do admire their effort. I'm not bashing them, I'm just saying they could do with some work.

I so wish there was a good quality footage of Harry Groener and Terrence Mann in this show. I love them both to pieces from their other works, only recently I found out that they were the original members of Cats. I so wish that Harry and Terrence had choose to work in movies instead because then I could see more of them. Musical theatre is very antiWhite men.

hello i was the first to see this but forgot to comment. Not that it matters. Any way i just wanted to thatnk you. I have been looking for this video ever since i heard about cats so thanks a million. P.S. If you dont mind telling where did you get this vid?

@Shinglemump That would take all the incredible dance out of it though, which I believe is its best quality.

@RippedWhetheredStar i totally agree with everything u said. especially the waxy-ness thing XD