Between all of the Kardashians, there are multiple shoe lines, socks, make-up, adult and kid fashion, emoji’s, hair care and now, a musical based on America’s most famous family.
Katdashians! Break the Musical! is a legitimate off Broadway musical in New York City playing at the Elektra Theater, written by Bob and Tobly McSmith. The musical incorporates themes from Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical Cats into a parody of the reality stars’ success. The musical stars Carmen Mendoza as Kim, Elliott Brooks as Khloe, and Bridget Kennedy as Kourtney. NY Times writer Neil Genzlinger describes the musical as “enjoyable” and says “there’s even a theme, sort of.” He writes in his review, “The show is about empty fame and how addictive it is. At one point the family panics because no Google alerts have gone out about any of them for a whole hour.”
Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber doesn’t seem too fond of the idea of his musical being used as an incorporated theme of the Katdashians musical. According to the New York Post, Webber has threatened legal action toward the Katdashian creators, claiming they stole songs from his show. “We were pretty shocked,” said Tobly McSmith, “We are fans of Webber and his work. We thought he’d enjoy the parodies we did of his songs, but apparently he did not.”
“…Legal reps for the seven-time Tony winner alleged in legal letters that Katdashians contains ‘no less than six songs from Cats,” and “continued willful infringement on our client’s rights’ would result in a claim for damages,” the New York Post reports.
“I just couldn’t believe it. Andrew Lloyd Webber is very much known for his parodying of songs, so we thought that he would get what we were doing by parodying his songs,” Tobly said. The Huffington Post concludes, “Webber is indeed known for his parodying of songs.” They revealed a post from the 1983 New York Times article that blatantly exposes Webber as “having a flair for parody.”
Like Mr. Lloyd Webber’s previous scores, Cats shows off the composer’s special flair for parody. Stolid English airs coincide with banjo-laced folk tunes, boogie-woogie, and a festive Latin American-style dance music modeled after Leonard Bernstein‘s America. The glamorous and sinister master criminal Macavity boasts a stealthy leitmotif borrowed from Henry Mancini‘s music for the Pink Panther movies. The most ambitious and giddiest burlesque, Growltiger’s Last Stand, is an 11-minute spoof of Turandot, featuring Stephen Hanan‘s wicked takeoff of an impassioned Italian tenor. Another theme, played on synthesizers, is an eerie descending motif that recalls the mystical elements of John Williams‘s score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Stephen Holden. Lloyd Webber: Hits But No Hit Songs. New York Times. July 3, 1983.
The musical is set to run in New York through July 16, 2016.
