The Rum Tum Tugger is the bad boy of the cast of Cats. He’s sexy and he knows it and takes pleasure in teasing his many admirers. Andrew Lloyd Webber gives Rum Tum Tugger’s theme song a rock n’ roll edge. Tall and lithe, this Rum Tugger is played by John Partridge in the made-for-film version shot in London in 1997.
“Yes, the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat –
And there isn’t any need for me to spout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there’s no doing anything about it!”
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, the second longest-running Broadway musical (only surpassed by Lloyd Webber’s own The Phantom of the Opera), and fourth longest-running West End musical, returns in high definition and digital sound to Great Performances where it had its 1998 world television premiere. The special encore presentation will air Friday, November 21 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival.
