Grizabella in the award-winning musical "Cats" when its Taiwan tour opens Thursday.
Ampil, a leading actress in the West End and on the international stage, has been wowing audiences since 2013 with her portrayal of Grizabella, a once glamorous but faded cat who has become an outcast among her peers and reminisces in the song "Memory" about her former glory.
"She has three keywords -- proud, hurt, and indomitable," Ampil says of Grizabella, in a recorded video. "And being indomitable is basically not giving up."
The award-winning musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber was scheduled to open in Taiwan last June as part of its 40th Anniversary Tour, but that leg was postponed due to the COVID pandemic.
Gareth Williams, one of the producers of the Taiwan tour, said that when the show goes on stage Thursday in Taiwan, it will be the exact same production as in London and North America.
"We have a fantastic group of actors from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Philippines," he said. We've assembled a group of actors who have all done the show before, but some of them haven't worked together before, so they've come together for this season."
The "Cats" musical, loosely based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, had its world premiere in 1981 at the New London Theatre in the West End, where it played for 21 years.
Since then, the award-winning musical has been performed worldwide and translated into more than 20 languages.
The Taiwan leg of its 40th Anniversary Tour will feature 36 performances in six cities and counties, starting in Taipei Feb. 10-13, then on to Taichung Feb. 17-20, Hualien Feb. 24-27, Kaohsiung March 3-6, Tainan March 10-13, and Hsinchu March 17-20.
