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Michael Crawford originated the title role alongside Lloyd Webber’s then wife Sarah Brightman. Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel, it centres on a disfigured composer who terrorises the Paris Opera and falls in love with a beautiful young ingénue. Perhaps Lloyd Webber’s most popular musical, The Phantom of the Opera played continuously at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London until its closure due to the pandemic – it reopened in July.

Many leading film magazines and newspapers gave it one-star ratings. The musical was adapted into a film in 2019, but was considered to be a flop, predominantly due to issues with CGI effects. In a very 'meta' turn of events, the song is performed by the character of Summer (see video: 6:58) in the 2003 film School of Rock, which was subsequently adapted into a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber himself. You'll probably recognise the song 'Memory', sung by Grizabella.

Because of the nature of Eliot's verse, there is no linear narrative structure: the musical instead relies on music and dance to carry the show. Lloyd Webber first presented Cats as a song cycle, before bringing producer Cameron Mackintosh on board, who decided to turn the songs into a complete musical. Based on TS Eliot's 1939 poetry collection, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, this musical remains the fourth-longest-running Broadway show (following The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago and The Lion King) and sixth-longest-running West End Show (following The Mousetrap, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, The Woman in Black and Blood Brothers).