CATS may have finally closed in London but the touring show is really getting about having been to Lebanon, Malaysia, Korea, China, Taiwan, Sweden, Norway and Finland in recent times. Last week it popped up at the superb Ritz-Carlton in Doha (upsetting the tennis fraternity who lost their two air conditioned indoor tennis courts - it made for a superb theatre). Eighty tonnes of equipment was flown in plus a crew of 80, including technical experts and the cast of 34. Quite what the Qatari nationals made of T. S. Eliot”s collection of poems featured in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, we are not sure but they certainly were amongst the 750 enthusiastic audience for each of the eight shows. Nothing on this scale has ever been performed in the Gulf before! (ABTN readers might query why we ran this story but the unique setting deserved a mention and it is holiday time).
http://www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/doha/default.html