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    ‘Chimp Crazy,’ ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ and the Fault Lines of Family Life

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    The charged cultural conversation about pets and children — see “Chimp Crazy,” “childless cat ladies” and more — reveals the hidden contradictions of family life.“Monkey love is totally different than the way that you have love for your child,” Tonia Haddix, an exotic animal broker, says at the beginning of “Chimp Crazy,” the documentary HBO series investigating the world of chimpanzee ownership. “If it’s your natural born child, it’s just natural because you actually gave birth to that kid. But when you adopt a monkey, the bond is much, much deeper.”“Chimp Crazy” arrives in a summer of cultural and political obsession about the place of animals in our family lives. When JD Vance became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, his 2021 comment about “childless cat ladies” resurfaced, positioning them as adversaries of the traditional family. New York magazine published a special issue questioning the ethics of pet ownership, featuring a polarizing essay from an anonymous mother who neglected her cat once her human baby arrived. In the background of these stories, you can hear the echoes of an internet-wide argument that pits companion animals against human children, pet and tot forced into a psychic battle for adult recognition.These dynamics feel supercharged since 2020, the year when American family life — that insular institution that is expected to provide for all human care needs — became positively airtight. The coronavirus pandemic exaggerated a wider trend toward domestic isolation: pet owners spending more time with their animals, parents more time with their children, everyone less time with one another — except perhaps online, where our domestic scenes collide in a theater of grievance and stress.When a cat, a dog or certainly a chimp scampers through a family story, it knocks it off-kilter, revealing its hypocrisies and its harms. In “Chimp Crazy,” Haddix emerges as the avatar for all the contradictions of the domestic ideal of private home care: She loves her chimp “babies” with such obsession that she traps them (and herself) in a miserable diorama of family life.Haddix, a 50-something woman who describes herself as the “Dolly Parton of Chimps,” believes that God chose her to be a caretaker. She was a registered nurse before she became a live-in volunteer at a ramshackle chimp breeding facility in Missouri, where she speaks of a male chimp named Tonka as if she is his mother. Haddix also has two human children; she just loves them less, and says so on television.As she appoints herself the parent to an imprisoned wild animal, she asserts an idealized form of mothering — one she describes as selfless, unending and pure. “Chimp Crazy” is the story of just how ruinous this idea of love can be, for the woman and the ape.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At NY Dog and Cat Film Festivals, Love, Licks and Looniness

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      Collections of short films, both documentary and fiction, make their annual visit to Manhattan, followed by tours around the country and Canada.The cinematic events debuting at the Village East by Angelika this weekend won’t feature any of the acclaimed actors from the recently concluded New York Film Festival. Some of the major figures in these movies have been known to jump on their directors, fall asleep on the job, drool on camera and chew the scenery (in every sense).But that’s no surprise: They’re among the four-legged performers in the sixth annual NY Cat Film Festival and the eighth annual NY Dog Film Festival. Each offers short documentary and fictional works illustrating how people affect the lives of animals, and how animals affect the lives of people — usually in positive ways.“I try to keep them to films that are lighter and that simply uplift you,” Tracie Hotchner, the founder of both festivals, said in a video interview. And even though some of the featured dogs and cats are in difficult circumstances, the movies, she added, are “more of a celebration of the groups that rescue them.”These grass-roots film programs also benefit their subjects: Of the $18 all-inclusive ticket price for each festival, 10 percent goes to a pet-adoption nonprofit. (The Manhattan screenings will help support Muddy Paws Rescue and Meow Parlour Cats.) And fans who can’t see the programs this weekend may be able to catch them in the coming months when they tour to independent cinemas nationwide and in Canada.“BARC if You Need Help” examines a program that recruits juvenile offenders to train animals.Tula Asselanis/The Latham Foundation“These are not, you know, Hollywood-style movies,” said Hotchner, an author, radio host and podcaster based in Vermont. They’re “like the poetry of films.”Some are clearly light verse. The 102-minute feline festival, at noon on Saturday, includes “The Cat Duet,” by Lorelei De Armas and Julian Wood, 12-year-olds from Detroit who filmed themselves singing “Duetto buffo di due gatti,” a comic song often attributed to Rossini. (The only lyric is “Meow.”) The 110-minute dog festival, at noon on Sunday, features Nepal Arslan’s “47 Seconds,” his haiku-like response to discovering decades-old footage of a couple with a dog eerily resembling his own.“Silent Paws,” by the global initiative Mutual Rescue, even incorporates a real poem: a work of the same title by Gabriel Spera, which scrolls by during an elegy to lost feline companions.Neither festival, however, has a shortage of serious documentaries. Michelle Williams’s “Bear the Courthouse Canine” explores the pivotal role that a gentle Labrador retriever plays for the Contra Costa County, Calif., district attorney. Trained to lie under the witness stand during trials, Bear comforts traumatized victims who are testifying, especially children.The dogs in “BARC if You Need Help” work on the other side of the criminal justice system. Produced by the Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education, this film examines Building Adolescent Responsibility and Compassion, a program in Michigan that recruits juvenile offenders to train animals — frequently pit bulls that have troubled histories, too.“It’s like a mirror for them,” Tula Asselanis, the documentary’s director, said of the teenage participants. And the film suggests that “redemption is a powerful possibility, just through using the human-animal bond.”But what struck Hotchner most about the festivals’ submissions this year was how much they tried to capture the inner lives of animals.With cats, “it’s like, you know, ‘E.T.,’” she said. “So this alien comes into your life, and they’re so beautiful and so lovely. But what makes them tick?”The filmmakers’ speculations are often comic, as in “Insomnia,” by Kim Best, who provides subtitles detailing a cat’s ruminations on this most unlikely of feline problems: “Embarrassingly, I considered sleeping with a dog.”A scene from “Ranger: Canine Alpinist,” about dogs aiding climbers on Mount Hood.Joe DanielOther films that venture inside the minds of their subjects include Ned Thanhouser’s docudrama “Ranger: Canine Alpinist,” which relies on voice-over to relate the perspective of a dog who assisted human climbers on Mount Hood in Oregon almost a century ago. In the fictional “Set Adrift,” the British director Jennifer Sheridan uses only her furry actor’s expressiveness to convey a dog’s grief. Peta Hitchens’s Australian documentary “Filming Dogs” investigates a psychological question: Do pets like her own really enjoy performing for movies and television?Intriguingly, Juhi Sharma’s comedy “Purrrfect Intervention” features no animals — until the credits. Kisha Peart, who produced and wrote it, stars as a New Yorker so cat-obsessed that her friends arrange treatment for her.“Obviously, I’m a cat lady,” Peart said, adding that she turned her own pet’s camera shyness into a visual joke. Her character, she said, is “this crazy cat lady, but where are her cats?”Live animals won’t attend the screenings, either, but they will be at parties on the eve of each festival. These celebrations, which require separate tickets, will feature mingling with the filmmakers and authors of books about pets. One of Hotchner’s contacts even arranged for a visiting celebrity at the pooch festivities: Bastian the Talking Terrier, whose YouTube channel has almost two million subscribers.“I don’t know any famous dogs,” said Hotchner, who owns two Weimaraners. “But he said yes.”NY Cat Film FestivalSaturday at the Village East by Angelika, Manhattan; catfilmfestival.com.NY Dog Film FestivalSunday at the Village East by Angelika, Manhattan; dogfilmfestival.com. More

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      Animal Lovers, Rejoice: The NY Cat and Dog Film Festivals Return

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      The programs feature many surprises, including a cat that plays Wordle and a lone man’s odyssey to feed Turkish strays.Tracie Hotchner still doesn’t offer tissues.During her early years as the director and founder of two animal film festivals, audience members would occasionally confront her and say, “‘Why don’t you give Kleenex?’” Hotchner recalled. While her programs have never included “Old Yeller”-style tear-jerkers, she acknowledges that her first festivals were too long and emotional. Even a steady string of uplifting tales could cause sentimental overload.But when Hotchner’s seventh annual NY Dog Film Festival and fifth annual NY Cat Film Festival arrive on Sunday at the Village East by Angelika Theater in Manhattan — before a monthslong tour of the United States and Canada — they will be as sleek and compact as a prizewinning Abyssinian or a champion greyhound. Featuring international short films, each festival now runs under two hours and intersperses serious works with the purely comic. (The 16-film cat festival screens at 11 a.m., the 17-film dog festival at 2 p.m.)This year, moviegoers can witness the challenging lives of feral cats in Malta and abandoned dogs in Mexico. Yet they can also see a feline parody of “America’s Got Talent,” fancifully animated dog and cat crime capers and a documentary about golden retrievers that served as the legitimately elected mayors of Idyllwild, Calif.With each festival, “I’ve tried to make it more balanced and something that is a magic carpet ride,” said Hotchner, an author and radio host in Bennington, Vt., whose Radio Pet Lady Network features online talk shows. During a telephone interview, she added, “There’s lots of short films, but you don’t have several in a row that slam you emotionally.”The programs have transformed in other ways, too. The 2022 editions are the most global, including films from Chile, France, Ireland, China, India, Israel and Sweden. Hotchner is also extending the projects’ reach: A film distributor is booking both festivals in other cities well into 2023. And for the first time, she is hosting a 20-minute question-and-answer session with a few filmmakers after each festival’s Manhattan screening.“I’ve never had a theater that would let me do that before,” Hotchner said. “It costs them money.” She explained that the Village East was donating the time, a gesture that is very much in the spirit of her feel-good, do-good mission: Ten percent of the $20 ticket price for each festival goes to a local animal charity in every city hosting the programs. On Sunday, the beneficiary is NYC Second Chance Rescue, whose co-founder, Lisa Blanco, will help greet audiences.But what may distinguish this year’s festivals most is the element of surprise. “Many of the films were not like anything I’d seen before,” Hotchner said.Consider “Kopecki” (“The Dog God”), Hayrettin Alan’s 11-minute documentary about a lone man feeding homeless dogs near Van, Turkey. Lacking narration or dialogue, the film simply follows this self-appointed savior, as packs of startlingly beautiful dogs greet him with unanticipated affection.Clockwise from top left: Scenes from “Jade & Trubs,” “Kopecki,” “Duet” and “Please Rescue Me.”Clockwise from top left: Mutual Rescue; Hayrettin Alan; Yadid Hirschtritt Licht; Kim BestHotchner also found a live-action fictional work among her entries — these are rare, as they tend to have high budgets. This selection, “Adam,” by Hope Elizabeth Martinez, focuses on a teenage girl whose sole companion is an ailing 14-year-old dog.Among the animated submissions, Hotchner discovered an unusual variety of styles and unexpectedly serious themes. In Yadid Hirschtritt Licht’s lyrical “Duet,” for example, a cat’s loving legacy continues after its original owner dies.But the humorous films offer surprises, too. Ever see a cat play Wordle? Kim Best, a filmmaker in Durham, N.C., created “Cat of Letters” with her own pet, Nube. (Pronounced NOO-bay, the word is Spanish for “cloud.”) Although a cat lover, Best admits that her stars don’t take direction.“They’re very insubordinate and churlish,” she said in a phone interview.Nube was churlish enough to reject the fingerlike extensions Best tried to attach to his claws, so she used a stuffed animal’s paw affixed to a stylus to portray the cat tapping letters on an iPad. (It’s convincing.) But she also gave herself a challenge: Nube, whose thoughts are conveyed via subtitles, chooses only cat- or dog-related words for his opening Wordle efforts, so Best had to use those to solve the puzzles in real time. There was “no cheating,” she said.A director who has contributed to every NY Cat Film Festival so far, Best also has a documentary spotlighting a more typical feline talent: getting stuck in trees. “Please Rescue Me” follows Patrick Brandt, a kindly North Carolina biochemist and arborist who has volunteered his skills and equipment to extract some 250 trapped cats — and one pet coatimundi.As he says in the film, “I’m not so much rescuing the cat as I’m rescuing the person.”Animals, of course, frequently save the people who save them. Mutual Rescue, a global nonprofit initiative that creates documentaries about these relationships to encourage pet adoption, delivered “Kimo & Jazz.” This film concerns a young gay man from a conservative religious background who finally felt able to come out to his parents after adopting a shelter dog. The pet, Jazz, then helped sustain him as his father was dying.Another Mutual Rescue documentary, “Jade & Trubs,” chronicles how Double Trouble — a toothless, sickly and thoroughly unsociable feline shelter resident — uncharacteristically responded to Jade, a little girl with autism visiting the organization. Jade had sensitivities that turned every bedtime into long bouts of tears and screams. But once the family adopted the animal, nicknamed Trubs, both child and cat blossomed in unexpected ways.Perhaps the most surprising interplay of rescuer and rescued, however, takes place in “Underdogs,” an independent project by Alex Astrella. His documentary unfolds at the California Men’s Colony, a prison in San Luis Obispo where the inmates train service dogs for veterans and emergency workers with post-traumatic stress disorder. The prisoners’ dark histories — several on camera are convicted murderers — contrast starkly with their tender devotion to the dogs and their purpose.“I took a life,” one says. “Now I want to save a life.”Astrella said in a phone interview that he intended to illustrate the program’s effects on the men and “the change it’ll hopefully enact on their lives going forward.” The film, he added, is a testament to the “spiritual power that dogs have on humans.”Such connections are the thread that runs through the festivals. As Hotchner said, their mission is “to celebrate that human-animal bond, however and wherever it occurs.”So prepare to celebrate. And maybe pack a few tissues.NY Cat Film Festival and NY Dog Film FestivalOct. 23; the Village East by Angelika Theater, Manhattan; catfilmfestival.com, dogfilmfestival.com. More

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      The NY Cat and Dog Film Festivals Return After Pandemic Hiatus

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      After a pandemic-induced hiatus, these celebrations of human-animal bonds are screening in Manhattan and beyond.Two annual cinematic celebrations invariably attract impassioned ticket buyers, even though they lack car chases, explosions, alien invasions or Daniel Craig as a pouty James Bond.What they do have: whiskers, wildness and no small amount of wit.They’re the NY Cat Film Festival and the NY Dog Film Festival, which are returning to Manhattan after a pandemic-induced hiatus. The cat festival, screening at noon on Saturday — Global Cat Day — at the Village East by Angelika theater, comprises 21 short works that run for a total of around 90 minutes. The nearly two-hour dog festival, which arrives at the same theater on Oct. 24, features 20 short films. (Animal lovers outside New York can see the festivals, too: They will tour for several months, both nationwide and in Canada.)“I think it’s the highest-quality year, possibly, for both,” said Tracie Hotchner, an author and radio host in Vermont who founded the dog festival in 2015 and the cat edition two years later. In a telephone interview, she explained that in the early days of lockdown in 2020, “people couldn’t find toilet paper, but they were making beautiful movies.”Not surprisingly, the pandemic is featured in both festivals. In “Will You Be My Quarantine?,” a feline comedy, the actress and director Susku Ekim Kaya shows herself and her pet, Lady Leia, in split screen, engaged in typically obsessive lockdown activities like grooming, TV watching, cellphone scrolling and FaceTime calling. They lead harmonious parallel lives, whereas the feline protagonists of Jasmin Scuteri-Young’s “Quarantine Diary” and Asali Echols’s “House Cats” complain of their owners’ constant presence in human-supplied voice-overs.The dog festival’s subjects, on the other hand, never seem to long for social distancing. “You don’t believe in personal space,” Kyle Scoble says tenderly to Darla, his Labrador retriever-pointer mix, in “The Second Time I Got to Know My Dog,” a documentary that acts as a tribute to how Darla got him through 2020.But cats may have a reason for their apparently aloof attitudes. “If it’s an indoor cat, it’s enduring a perpetual state of lockdown,” Kim Best, a director from Durham, N.C., said in a phone conversation.That observation fuels Best’s “The Great Escape,” in which a cat named Monkey makes concerted attempts to exit the household, even consulting the digital assistant Alexa, which he bats around and meows at. In Best’s other festival entry, “Cat Capitalization,” her pet, Nube, turns to the internet to market his artistic talent, pretentiously thanking — in thought bubbles — mentors like the artists Mark Rothko and Vincent van Gogh. (Nube is missing a bit of one ear.)Best said she aimed for “a satire of not only capitalism but also of academia.”Such humor is very much a theme of the cat festival, in which films like Nevada Caldwell’s “Feline Noir” and Priscilla Dean’s “Catfight at the O’Kay Corral” parody old Hollywood clichés.But while the canine film slate is not without laughs — David Coole’s animated “Go Fetch” is a pointed two-minute revenge comedy — it has far more of the in-depth examinations of the human-animal bond that characterized both festivals previously.“Affection in the Streets,” for instance, a Brazilian documentary by Thiago Köche, captures the lives of Pôrto Alegre’s homeless, who often take better care of their dogs than themselves. The loyal pets also attract concern from passers-by, who frequently ignore the suffering of the animals’ owners.“People who love dogs just look right past the humans,” Hotchner said. “I would love more movies about that, because I think it’s the thing we don’t want to look at.”“The Comfort Dogs” also shows the power of pet ownership. Made by Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker, an Australian couple who live and work together in Brooklyn, the film is an excerpt from their feature documentary “We Don’t Deserve Dogs.” The segment focuses on the Comfort Dog Project, which provides pets to young people who were forced to become child soldiers in Uganda’s civil war.With the dogs at their side, the former soldiers can share “quite harrowing” experiences, Salleh said in a joint phone call. “The dogs almost become part of the storytelling method itself.”Another documentary, Zach Putnam’s “Nicola,” illustrates how its subject, a yellow Lab from Canine Companions, a service program for people with disabilities, transformed not only the life of the college student who received her. She also delivered a strong lesson in trust and sacrifice to the student who devotedly trained her but ultimately, tearfully, had to give her up.Both festivals, however, remind viewers that these animals need people as much as people need them. Hotchner, who organizes the programs as a labor of love — tickets to each are $20 — always contributes part of each screening’s sales to a related local charity. The cat festival in New York will help support Bideawee’s Feral Cat Initiative, while this year, all dog festival showings will benefit the nonprofits associated with Saving Senior Dogs Week (Oct. 25-31).“There is a growing awareness,” Covid aside, “that senior dogs are delightful to adopt and the most quick to be put to sleep in a shelter,” Hotchner said. In Gary Tellalian’s “Legends of Comedy Share Love for Old Dogs,” you’ll hear this message in a public service announcement from celebrities who are seniors themselves: Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart and Lily Tomlin, along with Carl Reiner, who died last June at 98.The plight of dogs that aren’t cuddly puppies also surfaces in documentaries like “Not Broken: Freedom Ride,” by Krista Dillane, Emma Lao and Dylan Abad, about a long journey to transport 53 rescued dogs from Louisiana to a pet adoption fair in Rhode Island. In “Chino,” another excerpt from “We Don’t Deserve Dogs,” its aging subject, a street mutt in Santiago, Chile, survives simply because concerned residents provide care.“The street dog culture there is completely different,” Tucker said, adding that the animals are a way to “just bring an entire community together” — a goal for these festivals, too.NY Cat Film FestivalOct. 16 at the Village East by Angelika, Manhattan; catfilmfestival.com.NY Dog Film FestivalOct. 24 at the Village East by Angelika, Manhattan; dogfilmfestival.com. More

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      James Corden Insists He Had a Blast Filming 'Cats' Despite Reluctance to Watch the Movie

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      Universal Pictures

      The ‘Late Late Night Show’ host claims he had the ‘best time’ filming the star-studded musical fantasy film although he hasn’t seen the critically-panned movie yet.

      Dec 29, 2020
      AceShowbiz – James Corden had “the best time” working on the “Cats” movie.
      The 42-year-old actor loved working on the much-maligned film – which was based on the award-winning musical of the same name – although he hasn’t actually seen it himself.
      James shared, “I haven’t seen it. Here’s what I’ll say about Cats… I had such a great time. I went to London, shot the song with a brilliant group of actors – Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, all these people – and I had a blast.”
      “So I think you have to be really careful not to judge whether something was valuable to you as to whether it was successful at the box office.”
      The film was widely panned by fans and critics, but James doesn’t have any regrets about his role.

        See also…

      The actor – who played the part of Bustopher Jones – told the “Smartless” podcast, “I’ve had really miserable times on things that are really successful. So I should never look upon that as a success.”
      “I had the best time (on Cats).”
      Meanwhile, James previously insisted he tries to take criticism with a “bag of salt,” explaining, “You’ve got to try to take the criticism with a pinch, no, a bag of salt.”
      “And that’s easier or hard depending on factors that are outside of your control, particularly the thinness of your skin, your frailties, at any one time.”
      Directed by Tom Hooper, “Cats” also starred Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, and Jennifer Hudson. While it got a Golden Globe nomination for one of the theme songs, it was deemed one of the worst movies of the year.

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      Interview: Linus Karp tells us “How to live a jellicle life”.

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      It’s an hour of jellicle ridiculousness and silliness – which I think we all need more of in these times!

      When Linus Karp got in touch to let us know about his new show, (playing at Lion and Unicorn Theatre from 20 October) we were shocked to realise it had been almost three years since we first came across the wonderful Awkward Conversations with Animals I’ve F*cked.  And having had our ego well and truly massaged with our review appearing on the show’s flyers for much of its life, we couldn’t turn down the chance to talk to him and find out just what attracted him to Cats – the film, not, well, you know…

      Did you ever imagine just how big the reaction would be for Awkward Conversations?
      Yes and no. I could never have predicted it having as long a life as it did, and I very much doubted my own ability to perform it beforehand – but I thought it was the most brilliant thing I’d ever read so really hoped that it would resonate with people as it had with me. I’m thrilled it had the life and impact it did, and it will always be the most special thing to me. 
      The show toured extensively: did that changed how you related to the show, and your character Bobby, come the final performance?
      Absolutely. One of my favourite things about Awkward was how clever Rob’s [Rob Hayes] writing was – how much was said without actually being said. Even though I’d read and performed the text so many times I kept finding new things. It felt like for every run I understood more and more of Bobby’s world and it kept getting better as a performance. Having been with a show and a character for so long, it was very much my own emotions mixed with Bobby’s as he bid farewell to the things he loved at the last few shows.
      Your new show, “how to live a jellicle life: life lessons from the 2019 hit movie musical ‘cats’” is quite a mouthful: can we just call it ‘jellicle’ for short please?
      As long as you write good things about it you can call it whatever you like! I do love a long title – but having spent the last few days typing out the title over and over in emails and on social media my fingers have started to bleed and I do question my choices…
      Had you always planned to write your own show, or is it something that developed during your time with Awkward Conversations?
      I’ve wanted to write something myself for quite some time, though I lacked confidence and never really felt passionate enough about any of the things I started writing about – then I went and saw Cats…
      So what attracted you to write a show about the Cats movie? Are you a fan, or are you with the majority who were just disturbed by it all?
      Funnily enough I didn’t really care for Cats at first – I’d never seen the stage show and I went along to the cinema only because my flatmates wanted to see it. I was so engrossed in the movie I had to go back to the cinema a few days later. I’ve barely been able to think about anything else since! I enjoy the film beyond words and listen to the soundtrack every day without fail. I can’t believe how cool I must sound right now! 
      Can we expect anything quite as controversial as Awkward Conversations?

      Well, seemingly the hit movie musical Cats is a more controversial subject than bestiality to some, judging by reactions on Twitter! Though I think the show is both accessible and enjoyable for most – some friends who hadn’t seen the film saw a preview and still loved it. Which is always a good start!
      I will present and discuss the various jellicle cats from Cats, talking about what makes them jellicle and how you can apply their jellicleness to your life in order to make it more jellicle. It’s an hour of jellicle ridiculousness and silliness – which I think we all need more of in these times!

      Without giving too much more away, do you give much attention to the genital debate that happened around the movie?
      The show is not suitable to anyone under 18. Does that answer your question?
      The show opens with a short run at Lion and Unicorn Theatre, the same venue where Awkward Conversations begun life; a good omen? Can you ever dream that the show will be as successful as Awkward?
      Haha, I’d love to think so – it does feel nice to start in the same space! The shows are so completely different, it’s hard to draw similarities or expect them to do the same thing. When I started creating this show I thought that maybe no one but myself would want to see it, but the reaction from venues and people in general have been overwhelmingly positive. Who knows how far the jellicle power of Cats will take it!?
      When we notified our team about the upcoming show, Emily, who reviewed Awkward Conversations, instantly replied to put her name in the hat: do you envisage that this show will appeal to the same audience?
      Firstly, can I just say that Emily’s review of Awkward Conversations is the best piece of literature ever written, with timeless classic quotes such as “exceptionally creative and hilariously funny“, “an absolutely pitch-perfect Linus Karp” and 5-stars. 
      The shows are really different and jellicle is a lot sillier, though I also think they appeal to a similar audience. It was wonderful seeing people coming back to Awkward multiple times during its many runs. I really hope they come back and enjoy this one as well.
      So after you tour jellicle for three years, what do you have planned next?
      Ha! I do already have another idea for a ridiculous show that I’m hoping to do at some point after this. I’d also love to do something where I’m not alone on stage and actually have other actors to talk to. Plus, I’m waiting for Tom Hooper (Cats director) to call me and offer me a part in Cats 2.

      As always, our heartfelt thanks to Linus for taking time out of his preparations to talk to us.
      Jellicle will be on at Lion and Unicorn Theatre and runs between 20 October and 24 October, including a Saturday matinee and two shows on Friday. More

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      'Cats' Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber Blames Director Tom Hooper for Movie's Flop

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      WENN

      Calling the feature film adaptation of his stage musical ‘ridiculous,’ the English composer reveals Hooper’s decision with the movie that he claims was the root of the problem.
      Aug 4, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Andrew Lloyd Webber has called out “Cats” movie adaptation. Despite being part of the feature film as the composer, the 72-year-old, who created the original stage musical which the film is based on, has described the James Corden-starring pic as “ridiculous” and blamed director Tom Hooper for it.
      “The problem with the film was that Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show,” Webber told The Sunday Times in a recent interview. “The whole thing was ridiculous.”
      Webber has previously made public his dislike of the 2019 film. Back in May of this year, he criticized Corden’s version of Bustopher Jones, saying, “I cannot tell you how absolutely un-Eliot it all was. This song is about wit, not coarse jokes.”
      Webber composed “Cats”, which is based on the 1939 poetry collection “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T. S. Eliot. It debuted in London in 1981 and became a global success. As of 2019, “Cats” remains the fourth-longest-running Broadway show and the sixth-longest-running West End show.
      The “Cats” movie was a big box office bomb despite boasting a star-studded that included the likes of Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift and Rebel Wilson in addition to Corden. Made on a $80-100 million budget, it only grossed a total of $74.6 million worldwide and is estimated to have lost Universal Pictures $71-114 million after factoring together all expenses and revenues.
      The film received an average rating of 3.7/10 on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with critics taking issue with its CGI effects, plot and tone. It went on to receive nine nominations at the 2020 Razzie Awards and won six, including Worst Picture, Worst Director, and Worst Supporting Actor and Actress for Corden and Wilson, respectively.

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      James Corden Dissed by Andrew Lloyd Webber Over His 'Cats' Performance

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      Universal Pictures

      The ‘Late Late Show’ host is criticized by the famed theater director over his onscreen performance in the 2019 musical film after the actor says he has no desire to watch the critically-panned movie.
      Jun 6, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed he wasn’t a fan of James Corden’s performance in the movie adaptation of his musical “Cats”.
      The British actor turned chat show host played Bustopher Jones in Tom Hooper’s film, which was critically-panned upon its release. And as he screened the filmed 1998 version of “Cats” in memory of his late cat Mika, who was killed last month, May 2020, Andrew also provided a live commentary for fans – during which he didn’t hold back as he slammed James’ portrayal of Bustopher.
      “Bustopher without interruption, as I wrote it,” he said of the character in the 1998 version. “Do not be beguiled by other versions. Other versions with unfunny interpolations which I begged to be cut out. I did manage to get the worst of them removed. I cannot tell you how absolutely un-Eliot it all was in this song.”
      T. S. Eliot penned “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” – a book of light poems which inspired Lloyd Webber to write “Cats”.
      Lloyd Webber’s comments come after Corden opened up about the film’s poor reception during an interview with the New Yorker, admitting that he hadn’t actually watched the movie himself.
      “I can’t imagine I’ll see it,” he said. “It’s important to say I had the best time making it. At some point you have to go, How am I going to judge my own experience? Am I only going to have enjoyed something if it was successful?”

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      'Cats' Is Dubbed Worst Film and Collects Five Other Trophies at 2020 Razzie Awards

      by

      Universal Pictures

      The Los Angeles ceremony of the 40th Golden Raspberry Awards was scheduled for March 14, but has to be scrapped after Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced crowd restrictions amid coronavirus pandemic.
      Mar 17, 2020
      AceShowbiz – “Cats” has dominated the 2020 Golden Raspberry Awards, picking up six trophies including Worst Film.
      Tom Hooper’s flop musical also landed him the Worst Director dishonour, while also picking up Worst Screenplay and Worst Supporting Actor and Actress awards (James Corden and Rebel Wilson).
      This year’s actual Golden Raspberry Awards, scheduled for Saturday (March 14), were scrapped as a result of the growing coronavirus pandemic.
      Organizers had planned to press ahead with the irreverent annual Los Angeles ceremony, commonly known as the Razzie Awards, but the weekend prizegiving had to be ditched after Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced restrictions on crowd sizes in public to curb the spread of COVID-19.
      The limitations led to the shut down of The Barnsdall Theatre, where the Razzies were due to be held.
      The full list of 2020 Razzie ‘winners’ is:

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