8 Oct – After keeping mum about his thoughts on his most successful Broadway being butchered on the big screen by Tom Hooper in 2019, musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber recently admitted that - just like millions who gave the movie a scathing review - he was not a fan. In an interview with Variety recently, Lloyd Webber stated that the film seemed to have no understanding as to why the stage production is such a success that it became one of the longest-running show on Broadway. 'Cats' was off-the-scale all wrong. 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," he said.
Lloyd Webber then added lightheartedly, "So the one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy." The composer then stated that he even got his puppy to travel with him to New York by telling the airline that it was his therapy dog for his emotional damage. "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'," he said. It is noted that the film, which had a star-studded cast that includes Idris Elba, Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Rebel Wilson and even Taylor Swift and James Corden, was widely criticised and became a subject of ridicule on the internet when it came out two years ago, especially for its so-called "digital fur technology" and Hooper's decision to use the seemingly creepy method instead of sticking to costumes like the original stage production did.