Musical ‘Cats’ set fur big screen debut
Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed a new song for a film of the musical Cats, to be directed by Oscar-winning film-maker Tom Hooper, who has spent more than 18 months developing a radical new way of bringing the story to cinema screens.
The composer is considering writing more numbers, but he confirmed that he has already completed one: a song for Victoria, a perky white kitten.
In director Trevor Nunn’s production, inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats and which has been running on a stage somewhere on the planet since 1981, the choreographer and associate director Gillian Lynne created a solo dance for Victoria. There’s a twist involving Victoria,’ Lloyd Webber revealed, and the song is based on that.’
Hooper and his producers at the Working Title film studio in London have started initial casting, to see what level of stars might be available before the production proper is officially greenlit.
Glamourpuss Grizabella, who gets to sing the soaring ballad Memory, with lyrics by Nunn, will be one of the first of the clowder of cats to be cast.
Judi Dench was going to be the original Grizabella, but had to withdraw when she tore her Achilles tendon and was, famously, replaced by Elaine Paige. An executive cautioned: “The film’s still in development stage, but we have moved up several notches. We want to see who’s out there before the big Meow”.
Hooper, who made the film version of Les Miserables, was tasked with coming up with a method for bringing Cats to the screen. He and his technical collaborators have explored a way of using live actors and computer generated images. It’s very early days, but the film will (according to an executive) have real performers singing and dancing.
Eliot’s beloved feline creations were the subject of a series of poems he sent to his god-daughter.
They were read on BBC radio on Christmas Day, 1937, and published two years later. –