Elaine Paige was disappointed Tom Hooper's Cats didn't have the same "wonderful choreography" as the stage version.
The British singer/actress, who originally starred as Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical hit when it premiered in 1981, has shared that while she enjoyed the 2019 movie adaptation, she felt it lacked the impressive dance routines that made the stage version so spectacular.
"It's interesting, despite its formidable cast, I think somehow it lost... for me, what's interesting was what made the show unusual was that wonderful choreography from Gillian Lynne," Elaine told presenter Lorraine Kelly on U.K. TV show Good Morning Britain. "I think that was passed over a bit. I mean there was dancing in it obviously.
"But in the show, in the theatre version, it very much is a dance show. All that wonderful mix of ballet and modern, all the different styles coming together and I missed that in the film."
The movie boasted an impressive cast including Taylor Swift, James Corden, Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, and Idris Elba. However, it was savaged by critics for its strange and inconsistent computer-generated graphics, and Elaine admitted she certainly wasn't a fan of the digital effects.
"I did think there was some great performances but there was a lot of talk of it being digital technology and all of this kind of thing and then you see somewhere through the movie human hairless fingers pop up into the screen, it kind of threw it for me," she said. "To see these people with lots of hair and fur flying about the place, all the proportions were slightly off. It didn't quite work for me in the same way as the theatre version, but obviously I'm biased!"
