A Sunday conversation with theater great Andrew Lloyd Webber turned into a drive-by when the famous composer laid into the theatrical release version of one of his famed musicals -- Cats.
In a wide-ranging interview that ran in The Sunday Times UK, Webber talked about his new musical Cinderella and the impact of COVID-19 on the theater industry, but his comments about the 2019 theatrical box office flop Cats are the most delicious tea. Webber was frank in his assessment of the movie, laying the bulk of blame on director Tom Hooper and confirming what critics and a majority of the audience thought of the movie. “The problem with the film was that Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show,” Webber said. “The whole thing was ridiculous.”
On paper, the theatrical version of Cats reads as a film that would find success. It had an all-star cast featuring Taylor Swift, Judy Dench, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden and Rebel Wilson. Its director won an Academy Award in 2010 for directing The King’s Speech and Webber even wrote an original song for the film teaming with Swift to write “Beautiful Ghost.” In reality, the movie was a box office bust, losing Universal more than $100 million. The movie ended up sweeping the Razzies in 2019 winning Worst Picture, Supporting Actor and Actress, Worst Screenplay and Worst Director.
Looking back at Cats right now is like looking at the autopsy of an accident victim given the end result. Whether Webber is right about the cause being a disconnect between the director and his original vision is a matter of debate but the first signs that something wasn’t right was the release of the first trailer in July 2019, four months before the film released. The criticism of the visuals was immediate with a bulk of conversation about the awkward way so many well known-actors were morphed into cat-like creatures. This took the focus away from any of the movie’s strong points.
The criticism of Cats' visual aesthetic continued to haunt the movie when a new version was released after "some improved visual effects" were added at Hooper's request. Hooper later made comments to Empire Magazine about the controversy over the visuals, saying “I was just so fascinated because I didn’t think it was controversial at all. So it was quite entertaining. Cats was apparently the number-one trending topic in the world, for a good few hours at least.” One of the other criticisms Webber levied at the movie was Corden’s portrayal of the cat Bustopher Jones, which was a reference to a T.S. Eliot poem. He called the portrayal “absolutely un-Eliot.”
While it's gratifying that Webber’s comments seem to validate what most viewers thought about Cats there are only so many ways to call a movie "bad." At this point it's like beating the proverbial dead horse. Or dead cat, perhaps.
Source: Sunday Times/Interview