Cats (1998 Film)/Featurettes

Transcripts of the bonus featurettes from the 1998 Cats film.

What's a Jellicle Cat?
["Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" plays]

Cast:

Feline, fearless, faithful and true to others who do what

Man:

Three, four

Cast:

''Jellicles do and Jellicles can '' Jellicles can and Jellicles do Jellicle cats sing Jellicle chants Jellicles old and Jellicles new Jellicle song and Jellicle dance

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Really, none of us knew what we had. Except that we all thought that we had something very extraordinary. I mean if you think back to 1981, I had never really had a success outside of my work with Tim Rice apart from a couple of short pieces like Tell me on a Sunday.

Gillian Lynne (Stage Director & Choreographer)

I staged the show and choreographed it in absolutely record time. I mean, I think we had something like five and a half weeks so we were so up against it for time and it was a very hard show to get the kids through the first time. I don't think we thought about whether we would be a hit or not. We were just praying we could even open.

Lloyd Webber

Trevor Nunn was the head of the Royal Shakespeare Company and there'd never really been a dance show in England and it was poetry being set to music with dance. I mean, it looked like a recipe for disaster.

('Parkinson' 1981)

Michael Parkinson

The stage is not going to be full of people dressed as cats like in a pantomime, is it?

Lloyd Webber

Oh, no, no, absolutely not!

('On the town' 1981)

Host

So it's not going to be a children's musical about pussy cats.

Lloyd Webber

No, not at all.

Lynne

That's the exciting thing about the show. It won't be a Jazz show. It won't be a balletic show. It won't be a modern dance show. It will be all these things we hope and also something that we'd never done before. It's an adventure.

Lloyd Webber

All cats are Jellicles, you see. This is made clear in one of the unpublished poems.

Host

But all the other cats are Jellicle as well.

Lloyd Webber

Well all cats are Jellicle cats, fundamentally. You see, dogs are Pollicle dogs and cats are Jellicle cats.

Lynne

She's saying, the man was wonderful when he made love to me, but I hated him, aren't we? So, if we...

Lloyd Webber

I think that the real moment of truth came when a paying public first saw a cat. Because, either that was going to be one of the biggest moments of legendary bathos ever seen in the history of theater. Or it was going to be...it would work. And luckily, luckily, it worked. But I remember all those kids saying, "What are we doing here?" -

Elaine Paige

Cavorting about as cats, you know

Lloyd Webber

- just before they went on.

Paige

Were we going to get away with this?

('Omnibus' 1981)

Host

But first tonight we'll be looking at 'CATS', the dance musical of that name at the New London Theater in Drury Lane. It's based on T S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The director is Trevor Nunn and the choreographer is Gillian Lynne. The show opened rather shakily, as a matter of fact, because it took a lot of the critics by surprise.

Paige

Eventually I think one realized on the opening night, when it all came together, the response was such that you thought, Yes, I think we are involved in something rather ingenious and rather special.

Lloyd Webber

Trevor Nunn was terrifically helpful on everything to do with the choice of text and everything that we used. And because obviously with his knowledge in the straight theater as it were, he was able to bring something to the party that I think probably other directors would not have done. And then of course, Gillian really is the most experienced choreographer British theater has ever produced.

["Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat" plays]

Cast

''Then he gave one flash of his glass green eyes And the signal went all clear! They'd be off at last for the northern part Of the Northern Hemisphere! ''

On-screen text

Since opening in June 1981 in London, CATS has become the longest running British musical in the world. It has been seen by over 48 million people in 20 countries. In 1997, work began on filming this most famous of shows.

Lynne

I came to work on it because Andrew rang me up and said "Can you get on a plane immediately and come and talk to David Mallet and myself?" And then he explained to me about it. I didn't believe it would happen, frankly. Because it seemed like it was going to be in a rush and after 16 years, I thought they can't be suddenly going to rush this through. And so I didn't take it seriously till I got home.

["The Rum Tum Tugger" plays]

Rum Tum Tugger

Meow

Cast

The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious cat

''If you offer me pheasant, I'd rather have grouse If you put me in a house I would much prefer a flat If you put me in a flat then I'd rather have a house If you set me on a mouse then I only want a rat If you set me on a rat then I'd rather chase the mouse''

Cast

The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious cat

Rum Tum Tugger

And there isn't any call for me to shout it

Cast

For he will do As he do, do 

Rum Tum Tugger

''And there's no doing anything about it. ...No So you'll catch me in it right up to my ears If you put it away on the larder shelf''

Cast

''The Rum Tum Tugger is artful and knowing The Rum Tum Tugger -''

Rum Tum Tugger

''- doesn't care for a cuddle So I'll leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing Cause there's nothing I enjoy like a horrible muddle''

David Mallet

Cut!

Lloyd Webber

And a joy for me, of course, because I'm working for the first time with a proper orchestra. I don't mean we've had a bad orchestra in the theatre, you know, but a big one, which CATS could often do with. Great excitement. It was new ground. The music's been re-recorded. It’s been recorded from scratch for this production. And in places it has a much bigger orchestra than we had originally, like "The Jellicle Ball" or "Memory", which is a great joy for me. But it's marvelous to have a chance of working now. Of course, it was 17 years old. And now we're able to work with some more recent electronic instruments and things. It's been great fun!

Simon Lee (Musical Director & Conductor)

In order to be some kind of definitive CATS, this is, ...has musically become an amalgam of various versions of the show. One of the very points of CATS is that it's written in so many different musical styles.

Nigel Wright (Music co-producer)

We've been through the show, and decided where it needs to be big, it's big. Where it needs to be small, it's small. Whereas before, where it needed to be big, it was as big as a 16-piece could be. But now when it's big, it's a 90-piece, it's a big orchestra.

Wright

OK. Let's start "Memory". Is Sylvia down there? [ --- Yes. ] Have we checked we're OK for 15 minutes overtime?

Wright

If you overrun with a big orchestra, it's hugely expensive. So it's just organisation of making sure that when you start on the day or everything's right. [Memory] And it's not always right. And you can overrun but you try not to.

["Memory" instrumental plays]

Lee

Andrew has total involvement in the project. And it's absolutely imperative that he does. Everybody can put their interpretive ideas into it, but they may not be relevant if that's not what the composer had in mind.

Lloyd Webber

And we really have to look at this. The phrasing of the flute, I thought I'd addressed, but it's completely wrong. It's not supposed to be in these, you know, two-note phrases. It's ... [singing melody] It's not - just none of the poetry here, remotely.

Wright

OK.

Lloyd Webber

And I need to hear what was the "The Ad-Dressing of Cats" ...

Wright

He has an uncanny knack of walking in and putting his finger on the problem, annoyingly so. You may well have sat here for a couple of hours, trying to work out why things aren't going the right way and he'll come in and he'll say "What's the problem?" and you'll tell him and he'll put his fingers straight on it and you think, "How did you know that?"

Lloyd Webber

And then, that comes up. But it doesn't come up in proportion to everybody else. In other words, they're mezzoforte, everybody else has got to forte here. And they hit forte there. And then they come off sforzando, I think we do that. [Singing -- many generations] So they just crescendo up a little later. I think that'll be nice.

Paige

Oh, well, the re-recording of the song was something I thought, “Yikes, here we go. We’ve got to go and do it again. So, we were all at CTS studios and the orchestra struck up, and I sang along.

Paige [singing]

I remember the time I knew what happiness was

Paige

And then there were a lot of discussions and it all went very quiet and we didn't record it again. And I thought "That's rather peculiar."

["Memory" plays]

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