Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born 22 March 1948, he is an English composer of musical theatre. Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and is called as "the most commercially successful composer in history."

Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours and prestigious awards. Several of his songs, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals.

Among his most famous musicals there is Cats.

The musical displays the the Jellicle tribe, their habitat, their way of life and their troubles. It’s a cat community which includes a lot of characters. After the overture, the Cats gather on stage and explain the Jellicle tribe and their purpose. The Cats spot (пятнать) the human audience and explain how the different Cats of the tribe are named. This is followed by a dance from Victoria the White Cat that signals the beginning of the Jellicle Ball and Munkustrap tells us that tonight is the night when Old Deuteronomy will choose a cat to be reborn into a new life on the Heaviside Layer. The whole action is devoted to the introduction of the main characters, their lives and affairs. The climax is considered to be Grizabella’s appearance at the Ball. The dénouement ([dei`nu:moŋ]) is Grizabella’s getting ready to be reborn. This is the most touching place in the whole musical.

Some words about the main characters:

• Asparagus / Gus - The theatre cat. One of the oldest tribe members. He was once an actor.
• Bombalurina - A saucy red female. A Principal vocalist and dancer.
• Bustopher Jones - A fat cat, a "twenty-five pounder." Respected by all, as the upper class "St James' Street Cat".
• Demeter - A very skittish female cat, principal vocalist.
• Grizabella - The former Glamour Cat who has lost her sparkle and now only wants to be accepted. Grizabella left the tribe when she was younger to see the world for herself; she has experienced the harshness of the world and is a pariah in the cats' society.
• Griddlebone - A fluffy white Persian cat.
• Growltiger - A theatrical character Gus recalls playing in his youth, and who appears in Gus' memory of the production of "Growltiger's Last Stand". In some productions he is portrayed as a vicious pirate; in others he is more of a parody of a pirate. Does not appear in productions which omit "Growltiger's Last Stand".
• Jellylorum - A female who watches out for the kittens, along with Jennyanydots. She has a close relationship with Gus. Named after T. S. Eliot's own cat.
• Jemima - the kitten who sings the "Memory" refrain in "The Moments of Happiness" for Old Deuteronomy.
• Jennyanydots - The old Gumbie cat. She sits all day and rules the mice and cockroaches at night, forcing them to undertake helpful functions and creative projects, to curb their naturally destructive habits.
• Macavity - the show's only real villain. The character is a literary allusion to the Sherlock Holmes character Professor Moriarty.
• Mr. Mistoffelees - A young black tom with magical powers, which he doesn't fully control. In the UK production, Mistoffelees has an alter-ego named Quaxo, who appears as a general chorus cat throughout the show, and is dressed slightly differently. Occasionally Quaxo is a separate character.
• Mungojerrie - Half of a pair of notorious cat-burglars, with Rumpleteazer. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are most commonly remembered for their featured dance number where at the end, they do a "double windmill" across the stage.
• Munkustrap - The show's de facto narrator. A black and silver tom who is storyteller and protector of the Jellicle tribe. He is thought to be second in command after Old Deuteronomy.
• Old Deuteronomy - The lovable patriarch of the Jellicle Tribe. He is very old and dignified.
• Rumpleteazer - Female half of a pair of notorious cat-burglars, with Mungojerrie.
• The Rum Tum Tugger - The ladies' tom. His temperament ranges from clownish to serious, and often sexual depending on the production; however, he is always flirtatious, and usually portrayed as a feline equivalent of Mick Jagger or Elvis Presley, and recognisable by his wild mane.
• Skimbleshanks - The railway cat. An active orange tabby cat, who lives on the trains and acts as an unofficial chaperone to such an extent he is considered rather indispensable to the train and station employees.
• Victoria - A pure white kitten gifted in dancing. The "official" Jellicle Ball begins with her solo dance. She is also the first cat/kitten to touch and accept Grizabella.

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Дата добавления: 2015-11-13