The problem with the film was that [director] Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show. The whole thing was ridiculous.”Andrew Lloyd Webber speaking to the Sunday Times about the awful film adaptation of his hit stage musical.
Related: Seth Rogan got stoned and live-tweeted while watching ‘Cats’ and it was glorious
Mister P
Of course the movie is bad. The stage show is horrible.
jayceecook
That’s not entirely true. I mean, ALW did co-write a song for the film with Tay Tay. So is he including himself?
The stage musical has divided audiences for decades so I can’t imagine why somebody would think a film version would do better. No wonder Steven Spielberg never moved forward with one after he bought the rights.
Cam
I had not heard that the stage show was that great. I think the nicest comment I heard was “Stick with it through the first act, it gets better”.
whateverokok
Much like sleeping with you, huh? 😉 LOL. J/K.
Cam
How dare you? lol
Dymension
You all must be young kids. Cats ran on Broadway for 18 years.
Joshooeerr
And it played to audiences who went for the “spectacle” of silly costumes and levitating sets. And maybe the song Memory (which is entirely unrepresentative of the rest of the score). It sure as hell didn’t run and run because musical lovers thought it was a work of genius. By two years into the London and New York runs it was playing almost exclusively to rubes from the sticks and foreign tourists who (mercifully) couldn’t even understand the lyrics. A long run is no measure of quality. The Mousetrap ran in the West End (until Covid) for decades and there’s almost universal agreement that it’s a creaky, tedious piece, almost invariably played by C-grade actors.
johnnymcmxxx
Cats was never a good show but for what it’s worth, it only works as a stage show. The movie version was doomed from the start. It played on broadway for 18 years because musicals were trying to find ways to modernize and appeal to younger audiences and that, they got. But we can all acknowledge popularity is not necessarily the stamp of quality and one hit song does not make a show. I obviously dislike Cats, but I dislike all ALW operettas.
SFMike
This was a weird divisive show on stage and remains so as a film but it’s sad it was killed by online hate before it was even released. Like Moulin Rouge there are great segments and embarrassing ones but overall both are worth experiencing. There is a lot of amazing creativity in the film that few seem to want to give a chance. No one complains about dozens of derivative cookie cutter super hero special effects reels that are hits before they come out. It’s sad actually. L
mikeTigg
The show was always an anomaly and weird enough to attract an audience for nearly twenty years and countless tour revivals. I agree that it might actually be too stage bound and untranslatable to film unless it were animated.
I agree that the film version was interestingly creative in places and in my opinion the film lit up whenever Robert Fairchild as Munkustrap and Francesca Hayward as Victoria were on the screen, however I found the miscasting elsewhere atrocious, the design and costumes grotesque and the choreography atrociously handled. And as for Jennifer Hudson, she would have been better off throwing herself to the dogs.
DuMaurier
I didn’t see the stage show (or the movie version, for that matter), but my recollection is that it was better received than some of the snarky comments here say. I did have the cast album and it was uneven, but a good score. I think the creepiness of the half-cat/half-human effect I saw in the trailers would be enough to put me off any enjoyment of the movie, and what I saw on YouTube of the song renditions was enough to make me confident in saying it was badly cast.
I think it might’ve worked in animation, is all I can contribute.
JessPH
The stage musical is wonderful. The ballet choreography and the songs are great. The movie is tolerable sans the horrible visual effects and make up. Perhaps, they should have just made an animated version of the musical. Cartoon cats singing would have been adorable.
Doug
Webber’s comments are ridiculous. “Cats” was always considered to be a play that was unfilmable, and sure enough, it was. It had nothing to do with the performances. A total bore.