Kitten destroys new Webber score

Joined: 29 Apr 2007 Posts: 174 : Items

One of the members of our cast of Cats shared this with me and I felt the need to share as the same thing happened to me with one of my cats and one of my compositions

"Kitten Destroys New Webber Score"

Andrew Lloyd Webber is working on the sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera, but theatre-lovers will have to wait a bit longer to see it, as Lloyd Webber’s kitten has proved the score’s most dramatic critic.

According to reports in The Daily Mail, Lloyd Webber, 59, was working on the score at his computerised grand piano when his six-month-old kitten Otto climbed inside it and deletee everything he had written so far.

The digital Clavinova piano has an inbuilt computer and the ability to play back thousands of songs from its memory. Somehow Otto pressed all the wrong buttons and Lloyd Webber was unable to recover his work from after the kitten had been removed.

Otto is a rare-breed Turkish Van, a breed also known as the swimming cats, which cost up to £400. Lloyd Webber had wanted to own one for some time, so was delighted when Otto joined the family in January.

Says the composer, “I was trying to write some new music; Otto got into the grand piano, jumped onto the computer and destroyed the entire score for the new Phantom in one fell swoop.”

“I’ve got to write another show soon or I’ll go mad. The most important thing is the plot, so I’ve been writing it with Freddie,” he said, referring to Fredrick Forsyth, author of the novel Day Of The Jackal, on which the new musical is partly based.

Source - www.pethealthcare.co.uk

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:18 pm

Yeah he was on tv here in the UK and saying how his cat did that but he didn't say what the score was for. He showed some pics of his cat though, its very sweet!

Joined: 01 May 2006 Posts: 448 : Location: Missouri Items

Romeo (my turkish van) is snickering. Wink

One of the traits of turkish vans is jumping up on things and getting into places that they shouldn't.

Joined: 29 Apr 2007 Posts: 174 : Items

Animals must conspire to destroy music. I posted this because mine destroyed one of my compositions. Agnes knocked my composition book on the floor, Bashevis shredded half of it, then Lucy, my dog, ate the scraps. *sighs* I had already transcribed it into finale, so I was able to save it, but my printer isn't working so I couldn't print it out and play it anymore.

When I was looking at auditioning for Cats, I was thinking about auditioning with Don't Cry for Me Argentina. Once again, Agnes knocked the book on the floor and Bashevis ripped it up. I managed to tape it back together. I guess this was my cats way of telling me not to audition with that song.

I wasn't home when it all went down, but I know exactly who did what because Agnes knocks EVERYTHING off the counters and Bashevis shreds everything that is paper. When I go shopping at the Lush stores and I bring my bags home, he immediately pounces on the bags, shreds them, then lays on the bag with his eyes closed like he just had an orgasm or something.

Joined: 01 May 2006 Posts: 271 : Location: Caos Items

Does he think that, hey, maybe that's a sign? Maybe he should respect his kitty's wishes. Wink

That's quite funny, I have to say. Considering he's ALW, he should know better than to let his cats near anything!

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:46 pm

. . . *dies of laughter*

That's all I have to say. XD

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:57 pm

It's a sign! Shocked

...Although obviously Lord Froggy doesn't get it...

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:10 pm

HAH! That's priceless.

Maybe it's a sign for him to pack it in, the poor man hasn't had a hit in years.

Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 591 : Items

It's a sign for ALW to quit working on POTO2 and work on bringing back Cats to Broadway and the West End. For, as Otto rightly shows, POTO2 will be nothing but rubbish.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:20 am

Give that kitten a medal.
I'd love to see a (good) new ALW show, but the idea of a Phantom sequel just doesn't excite me.

I wonder if I'd feel the same about a Cats sequel? Smile

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:26 am

*cracks up* imagine how frustrating that would be though!! all that work, and you have to do it all over again!!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:40 pm

One wonders ... if TSE had finished his Pollicle Dogs book, would ALW wanted to have done a musical of it? Shocked

The kitten stories are priceless though. Yes, Andrew, it IS a sign!! Rolling Eyes

Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 591 : Items

There was a Pollicle Dog book?

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:20 pm

I think (and I may be wrong, as it's been a while since I rewatched this), that the second disc on the Cats Ultimate Edition dvd has a documentary that talks about this. Old Possum's Book was originally going to be a book about cats and dogs, but got switched to Cats somewhere as he was writing. Thus we have this snippet that was put to the original tune of "Jellicle Songs," and can be heard on the second disc I mentioned (I'm sure of that part, at least).

I was lunching one day at the Princess Louise
When I passed some remark to a man in white spats
Who had ordered a plate of fried gammon and peas
And we soon fell to talking of thises and thats

Such as Pollicle dogs and Jellicle Cats
Pollicle dogs and Jellicle Cats
Pollicle dogs and Jellicle Cats
Pollicle dogs and Jellicle Cats.

He said I've been here confided a jack of all trades,
A true rolling stone that has gathered no moss.
I have seen most of life in its various shades
And the fat and the lean and the profit and loss.
I have done everything, and I've been everywhere.
I'm at present an agent of small furnished flats.
But the one thing that makes life worthwhile, I declare,
Is Pollicle dogs and Jellicle Cats.

Now my sister, for instance, who lives in the hills,
That lie on the border of Shropshire and Wales
In a comfortable house, where her husband fulfills
His vocation of retail purveyor of ales.
She says that for me, I've no reason to doubt
Her opinion, repeated in dozens of chats.
She says there is one thing she can't do without
And that's Pollicle dogs, and Jellicle Cats.

(Spelling errors, etc., are mine, as I'm typing this from memory.)
I'm fairly certain it's one of the poems Valerie Eliot provided Andrew with when he told her of the idea. (And I keep meaning to audition with that song sometime, but I've never remembered to.)
(And sorry for off-topicness!)

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:36 pm

It's hard to imagine a musical about dogs, but I guess that's what people said about Cats when it came out!

It's a shame really that we'll never know how it would have turned out. I can just imagine one of the Cats doing a cameo appearance getting chased off the stage too.