I did not. I didn't honestly think Doug would have so little taste as to be enamored of Sir Andrew.

Heretic! Blasphemer! Get out the torches and pitchforks!

Actually, truth be told, I never cared much for Phantom of the Opera, and am not a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan.

But I am extremely enamored of the video production of CATS -- the one done in London with Sir John Mills, Elaine Paige, John Partridge, Ken Page, Phyllida Crowley-Smith, et. al.

People refer to this musical as Webber's "one-hit wonder" (the hit being the song "Memories") but I think they're missing the point. Just because many of the songs are not "tunes you can hum" doesn't mean they are not exquisite pieces of music. There's a lot of J.S. Bach that isn't particularly "hummable" as well, you know!

If you haven't seen this production (you can obtain it quite reasonably priced here ) then you owe it to yourself to do so. The choreography, the staging and production, and yes, the music, is extraordinary. While I don't have a large video collection, if on a scale of one to ten this production of CATS were a 10, the next best thing I own could be no better than a six or a seven.

tanstaafl.