Andrew Lloyd Webber adopted a therapy dog because of trauma from the movie "Cats"

OPINION: This is an interesting story with, in my view, some undertones. You may remember the movie version of Cats the Musical directed by Tim Hooper. It was made in 2019 and was a disaster with a lot of people criticising it. Personally, I don't think it was as disastrous as people say it was but people started talking about it as a disaster and therefore it was one. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy at the end of the day.

Cats the film. Image: Wikipedia and small in size making it acceptable under fair use.

Glenn Close is a friend of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and she recommended that he adopted a therapy dog. The idea was to give him a boost after the upset over the film.

From the perspective of Andrew Lloyd Webber, it was more than that. He wanted to take a dog into the cabin when travelling with airlines in America. And you can do that with a therapy dog, no questions asked. He found that he didn't even have to produce a medical certificate. He just said that he had a dog to get over the trauma of Cats the Film and they let him in!

Personally, I don't think he was that traumatised. I think he used the argument that he was traumatised to get a therapy dog so he could take that dog into the cabin of aircraft. It kind of works backwards.

The Mirror newspaper claims that Lloyd Webber said that the film was terrible and that the stars of the film were very unhappy about it too. But I don't think that is accurate reporting because in the same article the Mirror journalist says that Sir Ian McKellen, who was in the film, alongside Dame Judi Dench, said that he enjoyed working in the film with Judi Dench. He said in fact that he had a "lovely time" making the movie although he has never watched it.

He does say that he is a dog person but the movie changed his mind about cats. He said that people who watched the film would be enchanted by it.

So I'm confused by this story. I think it's been hyped up. The film wasn't successful because of bad publicity. I think Tim Hooper the director, was unfairly criticised. I think he is a good director but this went wrong.

And I also don't think that Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber was traumatised by it! He must have been unhappy because the musical version of Cats was highly successful (it ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances before closing in London). One of the world's most successful musicals ever. So no doubt wanted the same result with the film which was quite an ambitious project.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.