A distant relic of the before-times, the film adaptation of Cats the musical steamrolled its way onto the silver screen back in 2019, with its nightmarish CGI human/cat hybrids and vague plot. Now, Andrew Lloyd Webber – the man behind the musical – has revealed the film left him so “emotionally damaged” that he needed an emotional therapy dog to help him get over it.
Speaking to Variety, the composer described the film as “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’,” he added. “It was the first time in my 70-odd years on this planet that I went out and bought a dog. So the one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy.”
Webber also spoke about taking his dog on board a flight to New York. “I wrote off and said I needed him with me at all times because I'm emotionally damaged and I must have this therapy dog. 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’.”
Refresh your memory with the trailer below. You’re welcome.