Just because some of the most established theatres in the world such as Dubai Opera, London’s National Theatre and New York’s Metropolitan Opera are closed right now, doesn’t mean the show can’t go on.
Now, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a veritable institution unto himself, is bringing his biggest musicals straight to your screens at home, thanks to YouTube’s The Shows Must Go On!.
The composer’s Really Useful Group, in partnership with Universal, is offering free live streams of the greatest Webber musicals, including such megahits as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.
A different Lloyd Webber musical streams each week on The Shows Must Go On!, a YouTube channel (right here) devoted to this project. Each show goes live on the channel on Friday at 7pm BST (10pm GST), and usually remains viewable for 48 hours afterward.
Now, Cats has arrived (the stage show version, not the much-debated movie).
Cats is a show about cats who sing light verse by T.S. Eliot in a junkyard. It’s about Andrew Lloyd Webber writing a lot more melodies than he usually does and pulling many keepers right out of his hat.
The 1998 film being streamed by The Shows Must Go On! was recorded at London’s Adelphi Theatre in 1998. It stars the West End’s original Grizabella, Elaine Paige, and Broadway’s original Old Deuteronomy, Ken Page; a 90-year-old Sir John Mills plays Gus (the Theatre Cat) and Michael Gruber is the unfortunately named Munkustrap.
The show’s opening number, ‘Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats’, will stick in your head for weeks whether you want it to or not – hint: you won’t – but the real gold comes when Paige delivers a soaring version of the show’s takeaway tune, ‘Memory’. There’s a reason this song was a crossover smash. It’s unforgettable.
In addition to full-length videos, the channel streams clips and behind-the-scenes footage. Lloyd Webber has already shared several individual songs, performed by himself at his piano, in sweet videos on his Instagram and Facebook accounts
Catch it on Friday May 15, kicking off on The Shows Must Go On! At 10pm and available up to 48 hours after it airs.
And, if you’re looking for more artsy things to do and watch in Dubai, click here, for Abu Dhabi, here, and for Sharjah, click here.
Fri May 15, 10pm onwards, www.youtube.com/theshowsmustgoon.
