Eight Lives Left! Twin Characters Revived on Cats National Tour

They say cats have nine lives, and two particular felines in the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber tour of Cats are getting a another life in the spotlight. Twin characters that were originally in the Broadway production, but have been absent from the tour for years due to budgetary reasons, are making a return to the stage. The characters, Tantomile and Coricopat, and the rest of the clowder are arriving at Omaha's Orpheum Theatre from February 17 through February 19.

“The cut was one of those cost-cutting things,” current tour director Richard Stafford recently told San Diego’s North County Times. Stafford has has a soft spot in his heart for the duo—he played Coricopat in the 1985 tour.

Now, three different sets of actors play alternate in the roles of Tantomile and Coricopat—a magical pair of Jellicles able to see the future. “ They add further texture to the show," Stafford said. "They have a mysterious bond, so people will recognize that they are twins right away.”

Lloyd Webber’s show ran for 21 years in London and 18 years on Broadway, where it won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the musical tells the story of the Jellicle cats and each cat's individual quest to be selected as the lucky one that will ascend to the "heavyside layer." In their desire to be chosen to rise to feline heaven, each cat sings a song telling his or her story. Cats features the Billboard top 40 hit “Memory.”