The two Andrew Lloyd Webber productions start a limited run later this year at the Palladium and Dominion Theatre.

Cats was wildly successful when it first showed, enjoying multiple awards

Andrew Lloyd Webber is to see two of his renowned 80’s musicals revived at the West End later this year. ‘Cats’ was originally aired in 1981 and is scheduled to run for 12 weeks at the London Palladium. Evita, which originally closed in 1986 after a successful eight year run, is set to perform 55 shows over eight weeks at the Dominion Theatre.

In their hey-day, both musicals became long running and mass award winning shows that claimed international success on the stage and will no doubt still prove familiar to many. ‘Cats’ closed more than a decade ago and makes its anticipated comeback in December, with a cast that had yet to be announced when GTW went to press.

Evita follows the story of the estranged wife of former Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, perhaps more familiar with its association to the late Madonna film release in 1996. A short revival of the drama was seen on the West End in 2006 and later on Broadway in 2012. From September, the upcoming musical is to star Marti Pellow and Madalena Alberto in the key roles of Che and Eva.

The news follows the comeback of 80’s production Miss Saigon, which features the original producer from ‘Cats,’ Cameron Mackintosh. Miss Saigon recently had its booking period extended after highly acclaimed, sell out performances in its opening weeks.

Of course, this does not bode well with the more contemporary titles struggling to survive on the modern stage as reported in GTW’s May issue, The X Factor inspired musical ‘I Can’t Sing’ failed to triumph after it closed a mere two months into production.

Tickets to see Evita are already available to purchase, with tickets to see ‘Cats’ scheduled to go on sale on July 7. Visit www.dominiontheatre.com for more information.