Cats came to theaters at the end of 2019 and blew away the world with its horrific cat-people hybrids, questionable CGI, and wild character names. Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots the Gumbie Cat? Get right out of here. But despite its failures as a movie, the musical created by Andrew Lloyd Weber is one of the longest-running shows on Broadway. The first? Lloyd Weber's other show The Phantom of the Opera. But it hasn't been easy for Lloyd Weber since the movie premiered. Variety spoke to the famed Broadway composer about Broadway's reopening and more but he gave us all some insight into his feelings on the movie adaptation. In fact, he seems to hate it so much that it made him buy a dog.
"'Cats' was off-the-scale all wrong," says Lloyd Webber. "There wasn't really any understanding of why the music ticked at all. I saw it and I just thought, 'Oh, God, no.' It was the first time in my 70-odd years on this planet that I went out and bought a dog. So the one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy."
Lloyd Weber went on, talking about how close he and the pup got during the lockdown and how he found a way to bring the dog with him to New York City despite travel restrictions. "I wrote off and said I needed him with me at all times because I'm emotionally damaged and I must have this therapy dog," says Lloyd Webber. "The airline wrote back and said, 'Can you prove that you really need him?' And I said 'Yes, just see what Hollywood did to my musical "Cats."' Then the approval came back with a note saying, 'No doctor's report required.'"
Now personally, I didn't mind Cats as much as I thought I would. Still didn't like it but was pleasantly surprised by how absolutely wild the film was. A more "serious" version of Cats wouldn't work so Lloyd Weber saying that this movie destroyed his musical feels a little overdramatic. Mr. Mistoffolees has done nothing wrong in his life. Cats might not be the best adaptation of a musical but also it is Cats, a musical about a bunch of cats in an alleyway talking about death and being the Jellicle choice. So, they did the best with what they could. Maybe the CGI was a mistake though.