FELINE GROOVY
Mum used to read TS Eliot’s cat poems to me at bedtime when I was a kid. Years later I wanted to see if I could set existing verse to music and I thought of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
The idea grew from then, but it didn’t really take off until I met my ‘soulmate’, producer Cameron Mackintosh, over a long lunch in 1980. The first thing that struck me was Cameron’s boyish, bouncing, giggly, girlie enthusiasm. I have never come across such a passionate force of nature or anyone so sure of himself.
But by the first dress rehearsal in 1981, the sight of our cats donning cardboard boxes as footwear to resemble dogs reminded Cameron and me of amateur theatre at its worst. We were about to become the laughing stock of London. Cameron and I agreed that Cats could go no further. We were pulling the show.
At the first preview, Cameron and I were still not convinced it would be a hit. We clutched each other as the final ‘cat theme’ thundered out and waited for the debacle. Instead there was a huge round of applause.
Furtively, Cameron and I tiptoed round to the front of house. The audience was loving the show. Over the stage speakers came gales of laughter and occasional bursts of applause. Were they laughing at or with us? They were with us. Cameron and I embraced. To quote The Producers, ‘Where did we go right?’
The resulting celeb-fest that erupted around Cats kindled enough stories for a mini-series. One night we were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales. When the Prince wondered how the dancers managed their feats, Princess Diana responded by demonstrating the splits.
Unfortunately, she had a wardrobe malfunction and displayed more intimate royal parts than is usual for members of the House of Windsor.