Last Night on Broadway Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cats

'Cats' was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics largely based on T.S. Eliot's 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'. The exception is the famous song 'Memory' in which the ageing cat Grizabella sings a lament to the fact that she is approaching the end of her life - "I remember the time I knew what happiness was" - and ponders what a new day (and the next life) might bring for her. That song was written by the theatre director Trevor Nunn using a couple of T.S. Eliot's other poems as inspiration.

The show had its premiere in London's West End in May 1981 and transferred to Broadway's Winter Garden Theater the following year. A relatively short-lived revival production was also available to Broadway theatregoers from July 2016 to December 2017.

Answer: Les Misérables

'Les Misérables' is based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The main character is an escaped prisoner named Jean Valjean who turns over a new leaf and starts a new life with his adopted daughter Cosette. However, the plot largely revolves around the violence of the French Revolution and its impact on their lives, as well as those of their friends and enemies.

The musical was composed by Claude-Michel Schonberg with original lyrics (in French) by Alain Boubil and Jean-Marc Natel. It premiered in France in 1980 before moving to the West End in 1985 and Broadway in 1987 and is one of the most successful stage musicals of all time.

At the 1987 Tony Awards it won in eight categories - including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Well known songs from it include 'I Dreamed a Dream', 'One Day More', and 'On My Own'.

Answer: A Chorus Line

'A Chorus Line' is about a group of dancers who are all auditioning for a part in a Broadway musical. A large ensemble cast is gradually whittled down as dancers drop out or are removed from the process. In addition to singing and dancing, the auditions forces them to reveal (often very personal) facts about their lives to date as well as what they would do if their career were to end tomorrow.

The musical debuted on Broadway in 1975 and won nine Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama the following year. It took the record for the longest-running Broadway production in 1983 and held on to it for nearly 14 years before being "surpussed" by 'Cats'.

Answer: Mamma Mia!

'Mamma Mia!' is a jukebox musical featuring the songs of the ABBA, the phenomenally successful Swedish band of the 1970s. Set on a sunny Greek island, the storyline about a young woman's quest to discover the identity of her father linked a mixture of ABBA's popular hits ('Dancing Queen', 'Super Trouper' and the titular 'Mamma Mia') with lesser-known album tracks ('Our Last Summer' and 'Slipping Through My Fingers'). The music and lyrics are credited to ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, but the characters and script were developed by the playwright Catherine Johnson.

The musical had its premiere in London's West End in 1999 and opened on Broadway in 2001. Its massively popular film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth (among others) hit the screens in 2008.

Answer: Beauty and the Beast

Disney's animated musical film 'Beauty and the Beast' was first released in 1991 and its Broadway stage adaptation premiered three years later with Susan Egan and Terrence Mann as the titular love-struck duo. The remainder of the cast were largely the Beast's servants, who in the film version had been turned into household objects but in the stage show were still shown as partially human and in the process of transformation.

The story is based on an 18th century version of the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The stage musical featured all the songs included in the film, which were composed by Alan Menken and with lyrics by Howard Ashman, as well as new songs by Menken but written by Tim Rice (as Howard Ashman had died prior to the film's release).

Answer: Rent

'La Boheme' by Giacomo Puccini was about lovers named Mimi and Rodolpho from Paris who are finally separated when Mimi dies from 'consumption' or tuberculosis. 'Rent' by Jonathan Larson is about lovers named Mimi and Roger from Chicago who are both HIV positive and live faced with the knowledge that they are likely to die in the near future.

'Rent' had its Broadway premiere at the Nederlander Theater in 1996 and the original production remained open for over 12 years. This longevity and the four Tony Awards that it earned - including Best Musical - make it one of Broadway's most successful shows. By contrast it opened in London's West End in 1998 and lasted just 18 months (albeit with some short, limited revival performances in the following few years).

Answer: Jersey Boys

'Saturday Night Fever' features songs by the Bee Gees, 'We Will Rock You' uses Queen's music, and 'Rock of Ages' contained a mixed selection of 1980s rock songs. That leaves 'Jersey Boys' as the musical featuring the work of the Four Seasons. Popular songs included in the show are 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' and 'December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)'. It was the brainchild of former Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio and is split into four separate parts - or "seasons" - each narrated by one of the four band members and telling the story of their role in the band along with other events from their lives. The first section 'Spring' is about Tommy DeVito, the lead guitarist; 'Summer' features Gaudio, who played keyboards; 'Fall' concentrates on bassist Nick Massi; and the last part, 'Winter', is about lead singer Frankie Valli.

The show was at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre for 12 years and took home the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2006. Its soundtrack album won a Grammy Award in 2007.

Answer: Miss Saigon

'Miss Saigon' was composed by Claude-Michel Schonberg with lyrics by Alan Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It premiered on Broadway (at the Broadway Theatre) in 1991, 18 months after it first appeared in London's West End. It is set in the city of Saigon (later known as Ho Chi Minh City) during the Vietnam War and follows the story of the doomed love affair between Chris, an American marine, and Kim, a teenage Vietnamese bar worker. It is another popular Broadway musical based on an opera by Puccini - in this case, 'Madame Butterfly' (which had a similar storyline but was set in Japan in 1904 rather than 1970s Vietnam).

The show gained Tony Awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Jonathan Pryce and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Lea Salonga. They played the main roles of Chris and Kim in both the original West End and Broadway productions.

Answer: 42nd Street

The original Broadway production of '42nd Street' was shown at three different New York theatres during the 1980s but still managed a run of nearly nine years. The show was based on a 1933 film of the same name, which had been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar at the 6th Academy Awards ceremony. The plot is based around the production of a musical stage show in New York in 1933 - the height of the Great Depression - and the problems the director and cast run into regarding funding, jealous benefactors, and injuries before their opening night.

The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1981 and a revival production took home the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2001.

Answer: Grease

The film version of 'Grease' starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John is probably more famous than the stage musical on which it was based, but the stage show still had great success during the 1970s. It first opened on Broadway in 1972 and held the record for longest-running Broadway production when it closed in 1980 (a title it held for three years until the 3,389th performance of 'A Chorus Line' occurred in 1983).

Set in Rydell High School in 1959, the musical differs from the film in several key points, including the name of Danny Zuko's group of "greasers" (the Burger Palace Boys rather than the T-Birds); Sandy's surname and nationality (Dombrowski rather than Olsson and American rather than Australian); and the absence of famous songs such as 'Grease', 'You're the One That I Want' and 'Hopelessly Devoted to You'.