Producers Michael Harrison and Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals have announced the first casting for the major UK and Ireland tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS, following the production’s record-breaking summer season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
The brand-new production, directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, will open at Theatre Royal Plymouth on 6 October 2026 before touring across the UK and Ireland through to June 2027.
Leading the newly announced company are Fin Adams, Kalisha Amaris, Carla Bertran, Elliot Broadfoot, Grace Burrows, Matthew Caputo, Josie Chambers-Sims, Briana Craig, Katie Dunsden, Joshua-Samuel Freeman, Regan Garcia, Aaron Jenkins, Hannah Joseph, Taziva-Faye Katsande, Diante Lodge, Shona Mairi Masson, Owen McHugh, Danny Nattrass, Millie O’Connell, Andrew Parfit, Dean Rickards, Nathan Rigg, Lucie-Mae Sumner, Laura Tyrer, Jaydon Vijn, Jack Wilcox, Jet Yau, Taela Yeomans-Brown and Patricia Zhou.
Casting for the role of Grizabella will be announced later this year.
The production arrives on tour after becoming a record-breaking success at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, where it continues its run until 19 September 2026.
Drew McOnie said: ‘CATS has always celebrated the unique talents of its performers, and I can’t wait for audiences across the country to experience this company’s brilliance in this brand-new production. Each of these cast members will play their own special part in creating animalistic harmony under the Jellicle Moon. It’s going to be quite an adventure, and we look forward to welcoming you to join us.’
Featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, CATS remains one of the most successful musicals ever created. Since its world premiere in London in 1981, the musical has been seen by more than 77 million people worldwide, been presented in over 54 countries and translated into 23 languages.
McOnie’s production relocates the Jellicle tribe to contemporary London, inviting audiences from Euston Station to Victoria Grove as the cats gather beneath the Jellicle Moon in the hope of being chosen for a new life.
The celebrated score includes beloved songs such as Jellicle Ball, Macavity: The Mystery Cat, Old Deuteronomy and the chart-topping hit Memory.
Joining McOnie on the creative team are set, costume and wigs designer Sami Fendall, lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun, sound designer Adam Fisher, makeup designer Guy Common, intimacy director Ingrid Mackinnon, fight director Kev McCurdy, casting director Will Burton and musical supervisor Alex Parker.
The tour will visit Hull, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Llandudno, Glasgow, Nottingham, Canterbury, Sunderland, Aberdeen, Norwich, Belfast, Dublin, Oxford, Southampton, Edinburgh, Bradford, Liverpool, Woking, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Newcastle following its opening engagement in Plymouth.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
