Cats

Wow, can clearly see myself in the circle in that opening shot. What a night that was.

Hi David - which point in the video is it? I couldn't see it... Thanks.

It's the only good film adaptation of any of his musicals. He wouldn't be saying any of this if the film had been a success. It's not a perfect adaptation but it is hugely underrated. I would go as far as to say it's one of the best film adaptations of a stage musical, though there are relatively few that are good. How can he lambast this adaptation but not have a single bad thing to say about Joel Schumacher's woefully miscast and tasteless Phantom film? He's doing himself no favours by trying to side with the film critics since their reaction to it had more to do with their dislike of him than the film.

I'll defend the Cats movie, too. I preferred it to the stage show because it turned the piece into a kind of dream, set in a vividly depicted, half-remembered post-war London. It wasn't perfect but I thought it had a lot of atmosphere and an uncanniness which suited the material. It also gave me an underlying subtext that the original show didn't quite have - which is that, perhaps, these figures that appear after dark and dance in the ruins are actually ghosts (the new song, which is my favourite melody ALW has composed in a long long time, certainly suggests this might be possible). Souls in purgatory, perhaps, in a bombed-out London, hoping to move on? I think it was hugely underrated and a lot of the response was a knee-jerk reaction. But equally, maybe, other people just didn't get from it what I did! Perhaps one day it will be re-evaluated. 

I also love the Evita movie and hate the Phantom one. JCS feels hard to compare because it feels quite basic, like the central conceit wasn't quite followed through, but it's a great idea to frame it as travelling players, who then leave Jesus on the cross and depart at the end. Pretty powerful stuff, really.

I doubt we'll see any other ALW shows turned into feature films now.

He had no control over the movie because he had sold the rights decades ago. The only say he had over the live action was what the director allowed (and that was very little). He had a say over the music as composer and was responsible for the new orchestrations.

I remember seeing the huge TV van outside the theatre on the day of the final performance. It's great to see these clips. I think Film is over rated generally. Sweeping statement, but I'm so often disappointed by film, and amazed what a tough ride theatre gets critically in comparison to what they get away with in the cinema.

When it comes to recording stage I think it's even better when it's 'just' video rather than film (or video graded to look more like film). Just 'TV quality' is great, and I don't care if it's lower status - it feels live and immediate, as do these clips of the final performance).

I agree about Rebel Wilson, she was miscast, a less than adequate singer, and the presentation of her song was in poor taste. You're right that this causes a lull very early on which is unfortunate. However, James Cordon was an inspired choice in my opinion, he is a fine singer and I see nothing wrong with his performance. I like his comic touches, I don't think these were excessive at all, except perhaps the eating out of bins which presumably wasn't his idea. These comic touches are not laugh out loud funny of course but they add a touch of lightness which works well on film for this kind of sequence. It's not as if the theatre performance is entirely free of camp, it is a humorous piece in CATS so I think it was appropriate here. Any more than that would have been too much though.