A horde of "cats" invaded the Beijing Exhibition Theater on Saturday, and conquered the audience with a spellbinding two-hour show.

Representing "Cats," the longest-running musical on Broadway, performers from Australia put on a successful opening of their Beijing tour.

The musical "Cats" is performed at the Beijing Exhibition Theater on Saturday.

At the performance, the cats were not confined to the stage. They jumped into the audience and surprised theatergoers with intimate interactions.

The night's climax occurred when the actors sang the musical's long-familiar song, "Memory," in Chinese.

The musical runs through January 27.

(CRI January 21, 2008)