Three West End stars to share the role of Grizabella in the «CATS» tour of Britain and Ireland

The iconic role of Grizabella in the legendary musical «CATS» will be performed by three well-known West End stars on the major tour of Britain and Ireland, as BroadwayWorld reports. Louise Dearman, Alice Fearn and Rachael Wooding will share the role on the tour of the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production, which is closing its summer season in London.

The tour, presented by Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals and directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, opens at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. Louise Dearman — the only actress in the world to have played both Glinda and Elphaba in «Wicked» — will be Grizabella in Plymouth, Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich and Edinburgh; Alice Fearn (Come From Away, Wicked) will play the role in Llandudno, Glasgow, Nottingham, Canterbury, Sunderland, Aberdeen, Belfast, Dublin, Oxford, Southampton, Bradford, Liverpool, Woking, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Newcastle; while Rachael Wooding — who also played Grizabella at Regent’s Park — will be in Hull and Manchester.

All three actresses have spoken enthusiastically about the role. “‘Memory’ is one of the most famous songs in the history of musical theatre, so singing it every night is extraordinary,” Dearman said. For Fearn, the role was on her dream list: “The opportunity to be part of this great «CATS» legacy and to sing one of the most iconic scores ever written is something I will cherish forever.” Wooding calls it a “full-circle moment”: “«CATS» was my first musical after drama school, and to be part of the Jellicle tribe again, this time as Grizabella, feels truly special.”

“Memory” remains one of musical theatre’s defining songs: it won the Ivor Novello Award for best song in 1982, while the original West End Grizabella, Elaine Paige, reached the UK top 10 with it. «CATS», based on T. S. Eliot’s book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” and with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber, first opened at the New London Theatre in 1981, where it ran for 21 years with almost 9,000 performances, winning the Olivier and Evening Standard awards for best musical. The Broadway production won seven Tony Awards in 1983, including best musical, and ran for 18 years. Since its world premiere, «CATS» has been presented in more than 54 countries, translated into 23 languages and seen by more than 77 million theatregoers worldwide.