This is the London performance, actually performed on stage but put out on video. I was fortunate enough to see several Broadway shows, but Cats was by far the most amazing ❤. My children watched this over and over. She was Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, she had been beautiful as a younger cat, now tattered and torn she is rejected my most of the other cats, but she has her memories. Cats is based on TS Elliotts Practical Book Of Cats and put to music by the great Andrew Lloyd Webber, such an incredible story, the musical give’s glimpses into several different cats stories, each of those cats telling their story, the premise is based on the theory of cats having 9 lives, and this is about seeing who is chosen to go to the Heavyside Layer (heaven), and being reborn to their next life. Sarah, I highly recommend that if you can find this video, the London performance with Elaine Paige, it is spectacular, the choreography, the music, the staging, the stage props are enlarged as if seen from the perspective of a cat, I think that you will love it❤. Thank you so much, I am going to find my copy and watch this again, ironically Memory was one of the songs that I performed in a concert many, many years ago.
A lot of people think the "touch me and you'll understand what happiness is" lines are something sexual, but in the context of the musical, being touched by other cats was being accepted in their society. She was ostracized, and at the end of the clip you can see them touching hands and the relief on her face as she was finally accepted again.
This song was once used as an example how a performer can put a different spin on the same performance. This, of course, is Elaine Paige. One reviewer compared this performance to that of actress Betty Buckley (who played the same role in the Broadway production), ""When Betty Buckley sings "Memory," ger version of Grizabella is a Grand Dame who is burdened by regrets about the life she's lived, having spurned all those who once knew her for her days of glamour and now wants to reconnect with others as a form of redemption for her betrayals. Paige's performance, however, is a lonely, lost forgotten star who is now past her prime, and simply wants someone to remember that she was there." I thought that was brilliant.
Remember, this is a song about resurrection not sadness. Betty Buckley understands that and you can see the light in her face and the power in her voice as she is resurrected with new life into a "new day". That moment is what the whole play is about.
Grizabella is an old cat, once a 'glamour cat'..... remembering her days in the sun (her youth). I always look at old people and try to remember they once were young, with their own days in the sun, and try to extend kindness to them. Sometimes they have very interesting stories.
We shall not see her like again I think..... The lyrics of this song always bring tears to my eyes..... As an "old cat" myself (80 now) I know the end is near, and all I have is my memories, like most folk of my age...
This is the scene where she (Grizabella the Glamour Cat) is slowly dying. And all she has now is her memories of what she once was and how she once lived. Now she is asking for some other cat to touch her before she passes. Beautiful.
I have met Elaine Page who was the original singer of this song in the leading role in the musical "Cats". "Memory" is actually about an old cat, Grizabella, who has once been the beauty of the city, admired by everyone, but now is old and everyone is avoiding her. No one wants to caress. She sings about the memories of her happy days, just some minutes before she is going to die. Shortly afterwards the wise and old leader of the cat tribe, Old Deuteronomy, leads her to the gates of Heaven, while all the other cats takes a warm farewell of her, moved by her song "Memory".
Sarah, you just listened to and watched one of the greatest moments in the history of musical theater. Elaine Paige has secured her position as the absolute diva, the G.O.A.T. Find more of her performances and react to them, please. Anyone who does not burst into tears, or feels goosebumps all over their body when they hear this has serious emotional problems. Sarah, what is astonishing is you can listen to this 100 - 200 - 300 times and react the same way EVERY TIME! This was pure magnificence. A true MASTERPIECE!
This is such a beautiful, appreciative comment. I always loved this filmed version. My 80's theatre geek heart will always love this and Elaine...and Griz.
@@kc-lp6wg Thanks, kc! People who did not go to a theater to see 'Cats' live are missing out on a very special moment. No one can replace Elaine but whoever the lead was in the Show, when the song 'Memory' starts everyone in the audience is frozen in their seats, not wanting to move a muscle or an inch and the goosebumps consume their ENTIRE bodies! It would be a moment listeners would never forget. kc, there is a video of Elaine singing 'Memory' at a Birthday celebration for Andrew Lloyd Webber in London and it is a very special moment. Enjoy!
I first saw Cats 35 years ago at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles (the Shubert is no longer there, as it was torn down in 2002). I was dating my now wife and took her there for a Valentine's Day theatre and dinner date. I cried then when this song was performed; and even now I tear up when I hear pretty much any number from the show. The memories these songs bring back are that strong. My wife and I are still married today.
I still have my playbill from the show I attended. I'm grateful that even at a younger age, I could find the due respect and appreciation for the beauty, power, and emotion of the show.
Extremely powerful song . Trying to hold back any kind of emotion is next to impossible. It will make you instantly think of loved ones and friends who have gone before you.
Musical Theatre is such an underrated genre. There have been/are some indcredible singers for whom it's not enough to just stand and sing their songs.... they also have to act them. How they manage to re-create the quality and emotion singing LIVE for 7 or 8 performances a week is staggering. I've attached a link to another incredible perfomance of a song called 'On My Own' from the musical Les Miserables. It is sung by wonderful Lea Salonga from the Phillipines. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VjfmP7h3gBw.html
I grew up watching this musical on VCR since I was 3…4..? Memory is one of those songs that will stick with you forever. It’s so enchanting and hauntingly beautiful. Your reaction was so sincere and so touching. Thank you for giving it a chance. 💕
I grew up listening to Elaine Page singing Memory. For me she set the standard. When Grizabella was a younger cat she began spending a lot of time in the seedy part of town, around brothels and the like. She comes back to the junk yard hoping that the other cats will accept her. Instead she is shunned by the other cats in the “tribe”.
Hi Sarah, I feel Elaine did very well in the West End due to the short time limit that she had to step in to the project and deliver it so quickly . . . Betty Buckley also did an amazing performance over in the US on Broadway, too . . . Of course, these were theatre renditions being sung during Cats . . . However, my own favourite version of Memory was by Babs Streisand . . . simply for me, the range and power of her voice just drives this song to another level altogether . . . but as always, everyone will have their favourite - but you should give a listen to Betty's and Babs' versions of it as well if you can manage to . . . Cheers.
I was fortunate enough to see Cats, on Broadway, with Betty Buckley assuming the role of Grizabella in 1983. There was not a dry eye in the Winter Garden at the close of this song. I cannot speak for Elaine Page, as I never saw her version live. But, from this video, I'd hate to have to choose between hers and Betty Buckley's version. Fortunately, I don't have to. Thanks for the beautiful reaction!
As a life-long cat lover, this performance destroys me. She was amazing! If you touch me you'll understand what happiness is...I grieve all over again for every cat I've loved and lost. There are many songs to comfort you on the loss of loved ones, but not so much for pets who became a big part of your life and your heart. Don't think I'll ever hear this without crying. Thank you for your beautiful, very sensitive reaction!
I was extremely fortunate to attend this version of the show. A friend gifted me and my then girlfriend tickets as a present (he couldn't make it due to illness). It was absolutely mind-blowing seeing all of the original cast. My girlfriend and I also ended up marrying as I proposed to her that night :). 20 years later she bought us tickets to the version with Nichole Scherzinger. While still wonderful, no one can touch Elaine Page.
I'm so impressed you understood this song and it moved you. I once went to see this show with a group, and most of the people I was with just didn't understand the song at all.
The old possum's book of practical cats by t s eliot has some fab poems in it - I had a rescue cat I named Jennyanydots as that poem described her so well. She lived to 17 and was a great friend.
Elaine is the undisputed Queen of british musical theatre. She had been in few shows before her big break came when she was cast to play Eva Peron in the musical Evita. Since then she has played many of the leading roles on the London West End stages first including her role in Cats, as Florence in the musical Chess and as Edith Piaf.
I got to work on Sunset Boulevard in Broadway with Ms Page. Every performance I would stand in the wings down stage right to watch her perform As If We Never Said Goodbye and got chills every time. I would think this is what it must have been like to see Judy Garland perform live. This is a talent for the ages.
My daughter and I saw Cats about a year ago at the Fabulous Fox in St. Louis. When Grizabella sang this, we both wanted to take her home, brush out the mats and giver her a place to curl up on a pillow so she could sun herself and look out the window.
It brings tears to my eyes when I hear it also. I love the whole performance of Cats. It you ever get a chance, it is worth watching. I love having my television loud when she sings this, you can feel her singing.
My abs fav. Did you see how the tension releases as she keeps singing? That is what catches me up in this song. That the attitude towards Grizabella changes. If you watch really closely, one of the performers cannot hold back her emotions either. :D
Elain Page was a last minute replacement for (now Dame) Judi Dench, who snapped an Achilles Tendon during rehearsals. Elain only had three or four days to rehearse, and they hadn't even settled on which version of memory they were going to use on the First Night. Oh and that first performance was delayed by a suspected bomb threat. But it lasted for 25 years, in the same theatre, The New London Theatre, now known as The Gillian Lynne Theatre, in honour of the choreographer, who, amongst a great many other shows, created all of the original dance routines for Cats.
I love Cats, it's my favourite musical and also memory if you want a more uplifting song there is Rum Tum Tugger played by the incredible John Partridge.
To understand why this is so emotional, you have to know the context. She's the oldest cat, an outcast, and meeting for the gathering of cats to determine who will be called to the moon and reborn.
Here's something to consider, Between 1983 and 1989, everybody in North America, (and almost everywhere else) who had the slightest interest in seeing a spectacle, saw her do this live on stage. My whole family went. It was an incredible show. Still playing somewhere.
I've seen and heard others do this song, and some of them are great. But NOBODY combines the vocal performance and the acting in character the way Paige did.
Sorry, you hit my area of musical love with this reaction, so I would like to request The Phantom of the Opera, again by Andrew Lloyd Webber, performed by Sarah Brightman and Antonio Banderas. Just a bit of interesting information about Sarah, she had been a dancer in the London production of Cats when Andrew heard her voice, history changed for her. The range of the soprano is based on Sarah’s voice and she performs it, Sarah and Andrew were married for a time, not sure how long, but she definitely isn’t doing background dancing anymore ❤
A little info on a couple of the other "cats". The one that joins in about halfway through, is Jemima (some productions call her Syllabub) played by Verle Castlyn. The all white cat is Victoria. The male Tuxedo cat is Mr Mistopholes (aka Quaxo) the magical cat. This was filmed with an international cast, with some performances dubbed.
I saw this in Canada many years ago and I loved it. This and Phantom of the Opera were unforgettable. Great performance in this verison. Thank you so much for sharing your heartfelt reaction.
Elaine Paige was not cast as Grizabella, she was a late stand-in for Judi Dench who broke her ankle in rehearsals. This is a rare Cats song with lyrics not by TS Eliot but based on various lines and ideas he wrote, rewritten by the show’s director, Trevor Nunn. In previews Paige was given different but similar lyrics every night to test them, that must have been hard. When she had first heard the song she’d asked ALW if she could record it. When she created the role and sang it for the first time it was instantly recognised as a major new song and just about everybody has covered it. I can’t imagine Judi Dench singing this at all now! She appeared in the disastrous movie decades later in another role.
My son and DIL took me to see a performance of Cats in Perth Western Australia at Her majesty's theatre because I'm a cat person. I cried all the way through this song and my son was concerned that I wasn't happy. But to me it said all I felt about my awful marriage and the wasted years.
I love Elaine Paige!! Wish I could’ve seen her perform on stage!! I have a good friend whose wife performed on stage as one of the leading ladies of The Phantom Of The Opera .. fabulous!! Something very exciting about live theatre!! 👏👏
wow. so much emotions. I cried too. As a pet lover. I have cats too and i can imagine and i saw cats who are abandoned by their owners when they are old and not beautiful anymore. It hurts so much :( I can feel the song and she became the song indeed.
Thank you Sarah for your response, that is one of favorite Broadway musical, now my wife and I, are going to see the musical pretty women , see you there.
I became aware of this song from covers by other artists. A pretty song, but no one gives it quite the emotion that Ms Page gives it. I didn't know that until I caught this stage performance broadcast on TV. Not only was it the context of the full story, but also her delivery of the emotions underlying it. What I also had not heard in the cover versions but was prominent in Ms Page's version was the subtle inclusions of 'cat' sounds in the performance. I can't say whether Andrew Lloyd Webber meant those 'meows' in the way he wrote the music, but they occur very naturally when Ms Page sings this. It's not at all theatrical or 'cute'.
A lot of great singers have performed this West End classic, but once you know it was actually written FOR Elaine Paige to perform, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, you realise what a force she was, in musical theatre!
I have always loved this play. I was a teenager when I saw it for the first time. They changed the song and characters, of course, but I still love the song Memories and the Cats play. Memories is definitely a show stopper and tear jerker👏👏🤩😘.
Hi Sarah! "Memory" is composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was written for the 1981 musical Cats. The first commercial release of "Memory" was an instrumental single by guitarist Gary Moore. It was in early 1981 by MCA Records to promote Cats while the musical was still in development. Paige heard this version driving home one evening and rushed into the house to record it from the radio. Paige contact Lloyd Webber to insist on recording a vocal version of it. "Memory" has been covered by several artists. Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand are some of them.
I've never heard of this singer and I've never experienced this before. The song I have experience with Barbra Streisand singing it. This woman Elaine Paige and Barbra Streisand the ultimate heartbreaking tear-jerking episodes I've ever listened to. Thank you for this thank you
Elain is one of the big names in British musical theatre, I believe she played Eveta, and was on the album. Was in Chess, (best known song is "One Night in Bangkok") plus many others.
Interesting story. Judi Dench was originally cast as Grizabella but a few weeks before opening she was injured and had to withdraw from the show and was replaced by Ms. Paige.
