Cats: My Favorite Trainwreck

[@12tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) In case I didn't make it clear, Cats is one of my favorite musicals. When I say it should never have happened I mean that from a practical standpoint: The number of bizarre things that all had to line up in order for this show to come to fruition is truly mind-boggling. 2) Most of this comes from Webber's memoire, Unmasked, which goes into way more detail on a lot of this stuff because unlike me, he doesn't have to animate every word he writes. If you want to know more, maybe check that out, there's definitely some stories I had to leave out for time. 3) I misspoke: The big tearjerker in Cats is called Memory, not Memories. Apologies! 4) Agh! I forgot to link to Patrick's video! Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGLRgqKNo6t1idk

[@composerdavidgiannivaldez367]

I'm sorry I could barely watch the video YOU WERE WASTING SO MUCH BLANK SHEET MUSIC GAHHHHHHH

[@bombygriz]

Oh, 12Tone...why is it that all of us autistics like Cats? Do we just 'get it' better than most?

[@cheesecakelasagna]

The Greatest Virtuoso Valexander! Relatable, have a nice day.

[@HungryGuyStories]

Reference to the Double Slit experiment at 9:33 ...

[@matthewcox7985]

This is one of the things I love about 12tone's analyses. Anything from quantum physics, chemistry, video games, and *nix shell commands can be used to illustrate points.

[@NotHPotter]

I feel like Cats should replace Macbeth as the name you shouldn't speak in a theater without invoking disaster.

[@ProtoNeoVintage]

"It doesn't care if you take it seriously because it is playing by rules only it knows." So, basically, this production is a cat.

[@pinkajou656]

Exaaaactly.

[@gabe_s_videos]

It all makes sense now.

[@cameronjadewallace]

sounds about right, yeah

[@caniofferyousomejewishcrac7318]

I feel like the making of "Cats" could be a movie itself.

[@soaribb32]

True

[@fruitygarlic3601]

Honestly, if they made a film about its creation, I'd watch it. But instead we have... what we have.

[@StrangieStrange]

Herding Cats A story about the birth of the hit Broadway Musical Cats That’s it. That’s the title for the documentary that should exist. Or at least some variant of it. (The herding Cats part was inspired by another comment)

[@atimholt]

The making of Cats is a difficult matter…

[@VoyageOne1]

Sorta like The Disaster Artist

[@TalysAlankil]

I can't believe Judi Dench was supposed to be involved in the stage show, and now she's in the movie, and nobody told me until now

[@sophiaruizuvalle2523]

Didn't she mention it in the behind the scenes that came up around the time the trailer was released??

[@amyclarke41]

Well she hurt her foot in rehearsals couldn't do it but i think she can do it now cgi will help 🐱

[@Seal0626]

She's also playing a completely different character, in what seems to be a well-intended but woefully misguided attempt at addressing the gender imbalance(of which there isn't really one) in the show by having her play the venerable grandfather character. Who is a bass.

[@ladyjennyanytime5195]

yes she snapped her achilies tendon in the middle of rehearsal just after she'd finished doing the old gumbie cat number (she was doubling up as jennyanydots and Grizabella in the show, at that point Grizz wasn't singing memory , that was being sung by Bombalurina) she was walking accross the room and her tendon snapped and it was soooo load everyone heard it and she screamed , fell to the floor and accused Wayne Sleep ,who ws playing Mistofelees of kicking her. He hadnt of course and she was rushed to the hospital. she was in hospital for a few weeks and they recast jennyanydots but she was still wanting to play Gizabella. the 1st day she came back to rehearsal she tried walking up one of the ramps to the stage, fell off the stage and gurt herself all over again. so that saw her out of the show completely then. That was the friday by the monday they'd got in touch with Elaine Paige and casked her to step into the role. Elaine in fact had the night before, was driving home when she heard a snippet of an instrumental version of memory being played on the radio and the announcer said they were going to play the whole things after the break. so as she pulled up to her house she up her garden path , but just before she got through her front door an old, bedraggled black cat crossed her path and into her house before her. She recorded the song and then the very next day she got the phonec all off Cameron Mackintosh or Andrew i believe asking her to step into Judi's shoes and she agreed on the proviso that she got to sing the song to the tune that she'd heard on the radio the night before. And thats how Grizabella wound up singing memory. And it was sooooo close to the 1st preview, she i believe had no more than /3 days of rehearsal to get it drummed into her, including the 1st two numbers as well as her own part. She got so insenced by the constant lyric changes to memory she allegedly had a big tantrum , cursed at them all and launched her shoes accross the stage in temper and told them she was singing Tims version(which i think was called Good Times) and that was it!! she did one more time and then Trevor managed to finish his version which was of course Memory. That wasn't the end of the drama for her though. she was afraid of heights and nobody ahd told her about the heaviside layer ascension on the tyre until the last minute so she was far from pleased about that, but to make matters worse after he first preview they were getting complaints that the audience couldn't see her going up the stairs( she's very short 5ft 2") so they moved the stairs and its entrance even higher and never told her and she wound up almost falling between th gap and the first stair but was grabbed by a stage hand at the last minute. Cue another explosive, foul mouthed tantrum after the show ended. sorry for the long reply. just thought you might like to know a little bit more behind the judi drama. :-)

[@micheleparker8123]

As an avid cat lover, I think that the way the play "Cats" came about is a perfect example of what a cat is all about-- grace through chaos. Anyone who has ever owned (or as we like to call it, been owned by) a cat sees this plainly. 😻

[@libbybollinger5901]

e- w- you’ve never had a cat, we get it

[@micheleparker8123]

Libby Bollinger- YES, you are absolutely right- that person has no concept of how cats really behave. We know them to be just as loving as dogs, and as attached and faithful; playful and funny as hell, as well as being totally weird and independent indeed, that is until you call them (and they DO come sometimes 😊) and demand loving. One of my cats loves to play fetch, bringing the fluff ball right back to me, and will happily do this for an hour.😺😺😺

[@markmcknight9601]

So, could we summarize by stating that making "Cats" was tantamount to "Herding Cats"?

[@semperfi818]

More onerous than managing software developers, then (and I speak as someone who has written many more thousand lines of code in my professional life than anyone should admit to in civilian company 😉💻)...😉😖

[@Markle2k]

9:15 The moment Weber decides to borrow his business plan from _Springtime for Hitler_ , but with an additional out.

[@lauram5905]

I really want to see examining musical theatre become a regular feature on 12tone and ily for starting with the best of the best of the weirdest

[@robburgess4556]

You know you're talking about ancient history when Cameron Macintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber couldn't come up with 200,000 pounds 🤣

[@Bealzabub]

If I remember correctly that also would have been at a point in the timeline where Webber had *already* mortgaged his estate to help fund the production.

[@AdelWolf]

I was following with fair-to-midlin' interest, having never seen Cats (but always wanting to, mind you)... but then you brought up Starlight Express. This NEEDS TO HAPPEN. Starlight Express was my childhood fever dream, and I want someone to do right by it, damnit!

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

The making of Cats is a difficult matter. It wasn't just one of your holiday games.

[@thekatazsiuniverse4868]

This is the first thing I've seen where someone knows about Starlight Express, and someone who likes Cats. They're two of my favourite musicals and my family has the original cassettes of both of them. Not even my friends who do theatre have head of starlight express, seeing it as a movie would be awesome.

[@sisi7304]

recently Sideways did a huge hour+ long video, but this was definitely a bit more of a simple way, although I did like how Sideways explained in detail (both about the movie & musical), I also like the simplicity of this, so thank you 12tone!

[@Kai-qu5jj]

When he says 'unsure' around 9:40, he draws the double slit experiment about quantum 'uncertainty' Pretty clever not gonna lie

[@zaynab-to-a]

This reminds me of my favorite short film ever--Captain EO. It was made in the 80s to be played in Epcot at Disneyland, it was produced by George Lucas and Francis Coppola, and it starred Anjelica Huston and Michael Jackson, who also wrote the two main songs. It's considered the first 4D film ever made, and it's about a space captain who shoots rainbows and uses the power of music to turn a planet made of trash into a flowery paradise populated by flower people and robots.

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

So, Cats is the Calvinball of musicals. That's a metaphor I like.

[@RianeBane]

Hobbes would approve.

[@cheesecakelasagna]

I first read this thinking you meant Alvin & the Chipmunks and I was about to nod like I absolutely know shit.

[@cameronjadewallace]

That's a perfect explanation

[@wido123123]

As a professional Linux sysadmin, I loved your 'sudo' reference!

[@cheesecakelasagna]

Timestamp?

[@billcook4768]

This was great, but you can't tease us like this. Do a music theory analysis of some of the music from Cats.

[@SunflowerSpotlight]

I second this motion.

[@zekumi]

Yessss.

[@tukachaka264]

Misto or Mac would be perfect

[@jaschabull2365]

I fourth this!

[@Bealzabub]

Please!

[@potatopatata1511]

Nobody: Absolutely no one: Andrew Lloyd Webber: Go big or go home

[@cameronwyatt9467]

12tone: I can't wait to see the movie Oh how naïve we were

[@onnayoung7699]

9:23 and this is when things become a real life version of the producers?

[@violet_broregarde]

I think this might be my favorite video of yours, which is really weird considering that there's no music theory happening at all. Your style works really well for these storytelling videos.

[@GLAASJEMELC]

Before watching this video, I thought I should at least have a vague notion of what Cats is, outside of references on The Nanny. 2 hours later I now know everything about Cats, both the upcoming movie, the live stage shows and the recorded direct to video performance from 1998

[@danaxtell2367]

Thank you for this delightful look at a modern masterpiece. I was arrogant about Cats when it arrived on Broadway (at one of the three Broadway theaters that are actually on Broadway and not a 40-Something Street). How could such froth succeed? Worse, I hoped it would fail because I wanted elevated art to win the day. Eventually, I got tickets six months ahead--the first date with front row balcony seats (a bit stratospheric relative to the stage, but with a price that is not actually in the stratosphere). My young daughters were thrilled, especially when the cats crawled up to the cheap seats during the intermission and the white ballet cat settled on the very wide balcony rail in front of two wide-eyed girls. (The white ballet cat is the one that is not required to sing, because Broadway talent is expected to "sing and dance, often at the same time" [that's a line from Spamalot], but you can't ask an undernourished ballerina to do that.) It was Broadway at its best; everything done unimaginably well. When "Mamma Mia" finally replaced "Cats" at the Winter Garden Theatre, I was sure it would flop. At this point, I consider crow a comfort food. I'm really writing about the DIsney connection to this story that is not mentioned in the video or the comments. Walt Disney wanted to make an animated adaptation of Cats, T.S. Eliot famously refused. There is video somewhere of Andrew Lloyd Weber telling the story of approaching Widow Valerie Eliot, promising that the cats would be full of mischief and not mere "pussycats." I can't find a citation, but please search for the phrase "You, realise, don't you, that Tom turned down Disney?" and you'll read some good stories.

[@edslushie570]

“There’s something to be said for just taking a bunch of really, really talented people and having them all work wogether to make something truly ridiculous.” I think the same can be said for the soundtrack to the Sponebob Squarepants Movie.

[@cheesecakelasagna]

Now that it's out, the making of the Cats Movie also has some incidents of mishaps. Art imitates art?

[@morganj426]

Finally someone else believes in the future Starlight Express screen adaptation! Also you left out the part where Nunn initially envisioned the show as a chamber musical for 5 singers and a piano, and a parody of early 20th-century British society.

[@ladyjennyanytime5195]

some of the ideas of it being a slice of early 20th centruary society still exist in the charcaterisation of the cats. especially when it did play in london. the class element and background very much existed in the piece and still does in some ways even now. might not have transfered so well in other countries, but is still so in uk productions

[@markstanbrook5578]

I saw it in its London home in 1985/6. Had seats in the rotating front rows. It was a wonderful experience.

[@LeelandCopeland]

Bonus points for the shell code reference to permission.

[@randysterbentz5599]

More bonus points for the double-slit experiment exemplifying light's wave/particle duality.

[@TornaitSuperBird]

Randy Sterbentz even more bonus points for Frieza.

[@yuvalne]

My thoughts about the Cats trailer is that if Doctor Who, with their approximately 0$ effects budget, managed to pull a better looking humanoid cats than Holywood, then something went terribly wrong.

[@ZipplyZane]

Bur they look exactly how I'd always imagined they'd look. I've never thought they were supposed to look "realistic."

[@doctorbobstone]

I think what makes a great humanoid cat (Dr. Who) and what makes a great cat played by humans (Cats) seem like pretty different things. Also, the Dr. Who cats are nuns, so they are mostly a face and hands/paws. I don't think they really needed and body or even arms or legs for the costume.

[@kneau]

Chris Sloan that’s a very good point; I cannot recall whether or not the humanoid cats of Doctor Who are shown to have tails.

[@doctorbobstone]

@@kneau neither could I, so I looked and while I thought they might have tails, I can't see them, so I think they either don't or they don't show them in most shots. Also, I forgot they have gloves! I remember one shot where a nun extended her claws through the gloves. So really, almost all of their shots were just the face in a wimple. One or two shots with short claws extending from gloves. They really simplified it. I mean, they did an awesome job, but they kept it simple, too. There was also Thomas Kincade Brannigan (the cat in the motorway). He had an aviator's helmet and gloves, so again, I think they just had to deal with the face. The fact that we didn't notice how much they simplified things means they pulled it off as far as I'm concerned.

[@quietone610]

As someone who has never seen "Starlight Express" but heard the two soundtracks from the most famous versions, and has watched both Hollywood's take on "living robots" and "Phantom of the Opera" I can honestly say that I'd rather Hollywood NOT get their hands on it, nor that Webber be allowed to freeze it as his own vision. The dynamics of a long track call for a dynamic director, and so, so much could go wrong.

[@puppyofwrath]

I always liked Cats. First saw it as a kid in London around '86 on the stage with the rotating audience!

[@phadenswandemil4345]

I've always known Cats was a trainwreck, but what I've never known is that sometimes a trainwreck can be art

[@CrunchRatSupreem]

Drawing [~]$sudo to signify "permission" may be the most genius thing you've ever done

[@cheesecakelasagna]

Timestamp?

[@joneelillard892]

12:27 Really liking the Calvin and Hobbes reference

[@BigSh00tsie]

I have a fun idea for a video (which I actually got watching curiosity stream, one of your sponsors!). I was watching a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef and, since I have a kid (who was napping) I was watching with captions. A caption came up that said “mystical orchestral music playing.” I thought it was interesting and then realized every time music comes on the captions, an adjective is used to describe the music. You should do a theory analysis of why some specific adjectives are used to describe certain music in the documentaries and shows on curiosity stream!

[@oldgoat381]

So when this was made I was practicing for my first ever musical, I was keyboard 4 in Mamma Mia. The drummer for the show approached me at one point right towards the end of rehearsals before we were doing tech runs and full dress rehearsals saying that I was doing really really well (she has years of experience in musical theatre) when I was convinced I was letting the team down. She then explained that apparently it was not normal to only have two rehearsals with the cast one week before opening, having done each number once. That it was not normal that we had 2 understudies for the lead, because the lead had health issues and the first understudy was unreliable and was cast because of their connections (and ended up as the lead anyway and SUCKED). Long story short, that was the most complicated, frequently set back and chaotic production she had ever done, and the damn thing was the most successful show in the theatre company's history.

[@JeddtheJedi]

9:13 "A catastrophic flop" (draws Magikarp) "or a spectacular success" (draws Gyarados)

[@Tiza126]

Diglett made an appearance earlier in the video as a stand-in for Old Possum.

[@qwertyTRiG]

I grew up on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Read it. Listened to it read on the radio and on tape. Loved it. So when the local youth club put on a performance of Cats, I went to see it (alone, as a man in his early thirties, watching kids on stage). It was a strange experience. Poor audio quality, so I could barely hear the words, didn't help.

[@sammy3212321]

I didn't realise that Titus' discovery story of Cats' higgledy piggledy nature was quite so on point

[@mickrobertson7782]

9:34 Was that...was that a quantum physics joke?

[@tompw3141]

Not if you look too closely.

[@pintpullinggeek]

Well the two subjects are entangled.

[@diggingattycho7908]

I remember first seeing Cats in Los Angeles in 1985, I was enthralled by the whole show. But 18 year old me was very distracted by the girl's costumes. Seeing the Starlight Express in London years later, I was really hoping for more of this nonsensical over the top theater. It was really fun. Besides being really impressed my the performers doing the whole show on rollerskates(the Vegas version didn't live up to the original). After seeing both shows, I'm not sure a movie format would be the best medium.

[@abramthiessen8749]

At 4:20 is that a golden strawberry? I didn't think songwriting could be that difficult. I don't think anything can be.

[@co_iso]

reflection B...

[@GammaFn.]

I don't know of reflection B (for the raw difficulty) or summit B (for the length) would be more difficult, I haven't tried any golden Bs.

[@Tree-Salmon]

Maybe Farewell will be even harder!

[@GammaFn.]

@@Tree-Salmon Welp...

[@Tree-Salmon]

GammaFunction It is...

[@exohead1]

I’ve never liked Cats, but having watched this I have much more appreciation for the weirdness.

[@edslushie570]

Imagine listening to an instrumental version of “memories.” That would be like a piano cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” I don’t know about you, but I would have been like “it’s... it’s just long strings of the same note! With just a couple syllables of melody at a time!” I’m not saying they’re bad songs, I’m just saying their melodies exist to serve the lyrics, not the other way around.

[@dirkkrohn1907]

Watching this brought back memories of a music box my mom had (don't know if she still does or not ) that played memory.

[@TakaComics]

Cats is by far my favorite musical. On the surface, it seems silly, disjointed, and incoherent, but then you start to see how it all comes together. I even had a copy of "The Book of Practical Cats" and tried to see where the connections were. There are none. It's all in the show. Whether it was a deliberate choice by the directors or actors, or just a miracle, it plays around with life, death, purpose, good, and evil. There are bad cats who aren't evil. There is an evil cat who you feel totally invested in. There are good cats that aren't perfect, and there are godlike figures, saint figures, a story of reincarnation and appreciating your life as it is... I don't know how or why it came together so well, but for me, it did.

[@edslushie570]

You should write for documentaries or something. That explanation of the backstory, especially the part about the contract saying how long the play could run, was way more exciting than I expected it to be, and in fact more exciting than most other sources explaining the topic.

[@shingshongshamalama]

No, bro, everyone was just talking about how the CGI looks goddamn awful and the movie is just a giant vanity project for a bunch of celebrity A-listers who don't need the attention. If you wanna actually talk about the musical, the TV movie CATS: The Musical was amazing and you should all go watch it right now it's by the BBC.

[@morganfreeman9106]

Never seen any of your content before but I loved watching the animation.

[@renskedunnewold1995]

Cats is not for me, though hearing someone absolutely belt out their hart in Memories is a very memorable musical theater experience

[@devon6236]

Absolutely incredible video. Thank you!

[@skyewalker40]

9:32 "But they weren't really sure yet what it was going to be..." Draws a classic two slit experiment. Wow... Just. Wow.

[@utahnash]

Heh, starlight express would be a literal and figurative trainwreck. I played Nintendo in a production of it and... WHOA, thats... thats a show? (Racing in rollerskates is some of the scariest stuff anyone will ever do.)

[@KannikCat]

Now we're all expecting a theory/breakdown video on Memory! :) :)

[@FranDraws]

I absolutely love your style of videos! This one was so interesting

[@Gunner5644]

Thank you for the tilde on top of Perón's last name! Not often you see Americans respecting grammar rules of other languages.

[@columbus8myhw]

It was contractually obligated to either blow up or burn down

[@Nono-hk3is]

I miss my kitties. They had good, long lives, but now they are gone.

[@Ackbar96]

Look at that Calvin! 12tone is Bill Watterson confirmed?

[@ashleygillman3104]

Did you use the double slit experiment for "they weren't really sure what they were going to be"? Brilliant!

[@jamesa9004]

For fun, watch the old Logan's Run movie, and listen to what the old man is quoting when they first meet him..

[@7over21]

Ha! Love the `sudo` reference!

[@captainsnake8515]

Is the drawing from 4:15-4:18 a golden berry from Celeste? Didn’t know 12 tone played video games

[@cdh79]

12tone's sneaky way of being able to upload his own cats-video onto the internet..

[@absofjelly]

I had a book about the making of Cats. It created a kind of mythology in my mind. When I saw the musical years later I was hugely disapointed. It was so dated and only has one good song. It made me sad.

[@Seal0626]

10:00 Tim Rice's lyrics are so good, though. Clearly a first draft, with a little more polishing needed, but wow, they're effective. I can only try to imagine Dench sprechsinging and emoting the fuck out of them. And yeah, that injury? Never land a jump in heels without a plie. That's how Achilles tendons snap. Apparently her calf muscle was up around her knee.

[@gregsaltis1661]

There's a classical radio station in Cleveland that used to have 90 minute Saturday night program. The host played eclectic and offbeat music and it's on this show where I first and fell in love with "Memories". This was before the musical made it to Broadway and he would play the London cast recording with Elaine Paige. Great stuff.

[@BigHenFor]

Sorry, but the song is called "Memory". Glad you love it though, because it's an ear worm.

[@gregsaltis1661]

@@BigHenForArg. You're right and I know better. Yes it sure is.

[@GiantPetRat]

Please please PLEASE put your music theorist hat back on and cover one of Cats' songs in a future video (my vote would be for the overture tbh, but Memories would probably have the best draw). All of the weirdness you mention seems to distract most people from appreciating the fact that every single song from this musical is memorable, distinct, and often beautiful (Old Deuterotomy, anyone?). Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this video, too! I grew up with this musical, and knowing that they almost had an incentive to make it bizarre truly tickles me. I just want to see somebody smarter than me picking apart Magical Mister Mistoffles.

[@TheHopperUK]

Please do one of these about Starlight Express and how the 1990s revision in London removed half the plot :D

[@craigh5045]

Starlight Express had a plot ??? Ahhhh, I saw it in 1994 so I missed it... This I want to know about ! :-)

[@TheHopperUK]

I mean... sort of?:) The character of CB the Red Caboose used to be a scary little psychopath who acted adorable for half the show and then abruptly tried to wreck people, and it turns out he enjoys derailing trains for no apparent reason. They cut him out of the 1990s revision and so there's essentially nothing going on except the very basic 'trains race!' narrative. Which is fine, but man, I love CB.

[@Trainwreck3000]

is that a golden strawberry from Celeste at 4:15 ?

[@Stephen-Fox]

Even weirder than I thought it was. Fascinating.

[@jemimathekitten7435]

im a massive cats fan and i didn't even know some of this stuff

[@alexandraberson5687]

Tbh it bothered me when you called it "technicals" lol. We call it tech week, technical rehearsal, or sometimes hell week

[@stillvisionsmusic]

So I guess we’re not gonna get that Starlight Express movie adaptation, are we...

[@BigCityPalooka]

Fabulous. So glad you made this.

[@paulmuaddib451]

This video is absolutely brilliant. Do 'Blade Runner''s Memories of Green next!

[@ernieernst2296]

In the 1933 James Cagney film “Footlight Parade” (choreographed by Busby Berkely) much of the plot revolves around a musical where the performers all sing and dance in cat costume...would be a weird coincidence if neither Webber nor Lynne were familiar with it.

[@hideomodarmani2087]

9:34 Wave Particle duality, a physics reference?

[@baylinkdashyt]

I saw the movie when it came out -- and I have seen CATS in a theatre 10 times now, I think ... and can't wait for the pandemic to get out of the way of the upcoming tour -- and I have two thoughts: The movie's real goal was to provide fans an excuse to sit in a nice comfortable air conditioned theatre for 2 hours while listening to the soundtrack -- and possibly occasionally ogling Taylor Swift (or whichever member of the appropriate sex seems indicated for you)... and the one thing they added (in order to get an Oscar-Bait Song out of the thing)... actually went in the one place that it could have gone, thematically, to kick the thing over from mostly character study into something that could be interpreted as having an actual plot all the way through. And that number was well written and well sung, even if you don't think it was really 'CATS'... though I've always wondered how they got away with it, given my understanding that the estate had required the stageplay script not to contain any spoken words. Now if we could just figure out why they ripped a couple lines out of Bustopher, everything would be perfect. Those recliner seats are *really* comfortable.

[@happychaosofthenorth]

This video makes me think that a movie about making of the musical "Cats" would be better and more interesting movie - and I could be wrong, but isn't that how Webber met Sarah Brightman, who would later be his wife and star of Phantom of the Opera? It could feature a lot of scenes from the show, but stage production rather than the CGI monstrosity that we've got. Great video but the drawings were distracting, though an interesting way to present a video.

[@ladyjennyanytime5195]

yes he did meet her on the show. but not before original Mr Mistofelees , Wayne Sleep had his wicked way with her during the run of the show.

[@Tangobutton]

The song is called “Memory,” not “Memories.” Thanks for this history!

[@stuartcoyle1626]

I fell asleep watching Cats. Admittedly I had just worked all night on the bump in, but it really bored me.

[@SunflowerSpotlight]

It’s my least favorite musical I’ve seen. Although, it was the touring group, the lead was out sick, and we watched her understudy. She did... okay, but she didn’t do well on Memory, which was my favorite part of the show. She really tried, you could tell, but it was a bit much for her. It felt a bit like Cirque Du Soleil in that it was just vignettes. Vignettes can be very powerful, yes. But these... I so wanted it to make more sense than it did. I’m an editor by day and writer by night, so my need for a plot is to be expected, I think, but it still bugged me. If you look for dots to connect for long enough without finding anything, you start to have eye strain, lol. Man, did I feel it by the time the show was over. I would enjoy a tenth viewing of The Lion King or The Phantom of the Opera far more than my first viewing of Cats. Maybe the movie will bow and accept more narrative structure.

[@erikbarrett85]

This is basically how Glengarry Glenn Ross worked. Plot that doesn't do much, but amazing acting

[@MeganKoumori]

Anyone rather see a movie about the making of "Cats" than "Cats"?

[@danielkoontz6732]

1:55 starting to describe the heavy spot. At the end he says "they come together and die." 2:13 is when it ends. That is the EXACT moment my bluetooth earbuds made the shutting off sound. ... I lolled hard.... XD

[@pinkfeiry]

Someone should make a movie about the story of cats as a play instead of a movie adaptation of the thing.

[@rattyeely]

Honestly that's not a bad idea. It would have a stronger plot but they could also include all the iconic songs dietetically

[@Ngasii]

Never seen cats. Would love to see it. I never knew what it could be about but now I really wanna check it out 🔥

[@RaccoonHenry]

and then the movie came out...

[@Shatterpath]

I adore this goofy, catchy play to my bones. It hurts to hear his enthusiasm for the movie that turned out to be such a failure because TPTB refused to understand what it was.

[@Barabyk]

Great video, as always. My thoughts on AI writing musical... how about "Today is the Spaceship Day the Musical" for starters...

[@graphgiraffe]

I don’t know how to feel about that. Hagrid the table singing would be the best part, though,

[@Barabyk]

@@graphgiraffe Absolutely! Can hear it already! :D

[@jrpggolf]

12:27 😬😬😬, so I guess Starlight Express won’t happen.

[@XprPrentice]

Thank you for this history! However, I believe his surname is double-barrelled: Lloyd Webber rather than Webber.

[@jessepinkeye2339]

Variations became an album played by his brother whom he lost a bet with lol

[@Somefool669]

To describe what happened, let me quote some Tool; I had a friend once, he took some acid

[@alouise]

Can 12tone make me not hate Cats (the musical, love cats the animals)? Let's find out.

[@pulaski1]

What a fascinating video! :) I have never seen Cats the musical, or Cats the movie - but I did meet Andrew Lloyd Webber, or at least I was in the same room as him when I was working, briefly, at Really Useful Group (his company). .... Don't ask what I was doing, as I am not at all musical; or artistic. :(

[@jaycee330]

I'd be interested in seeing some Sondheim related videos.

[@MRolledProjects]

Starlight Express? I mean, I love Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cats, but Starlight Express? I have never liked that music (thought I haven't gotten to see a performance so maybe that makes it better).

[@12tone]

Yeah, Starlight Express is something you really need to experience live.

[@LauchSkillerTV]

@@12tone have you ever seen it? I saw it in 2011 on Bochum and it was amazing.