Another Royal Ballet dancer joins the cast of Cats the movie – Olivia Cowley

Kevin O’Hare faces the possibility of ever more complicated cast changes on the Covent Garden stage when filming of the adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s stage musical musical Cats begins as another Royal Ballet dancer is chosen for the movie cast.

Soloist Olivia Cowley will be joining her colleagues Francesca Hayward and Steven McRae on the set of Universal Pictures and Working Title’s project which has Judi Dench (Old Deuteronomy), Ian McKellen (Gus The Theatre Cat), Idris Elba (Macavity), Jennifer Hudson (Grizabella), Taylor Swift and James Corden among the cast.

English dancer Cowley was promoted to Soloist in 2013 and has created numerous roles for Wayne McGregor, including Raven (Raven Girl) and roles in Multiverse, Carbon Life and Acis and Galatea. It is not her first time away from The Royal Ballet – she appeared in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Timon of Athens at the National Theatre in 2012.

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.