Generally speaking, when a horde of animals takes over a major public building, there is a bit of an outcry. But when a mob of musical moggies took over the Beijing Exhibition Theatre in January, nobody really seemed to mind.
通常来说，一个重要的公共建筑物要是成为了一群流浪猫的聚集地，人们肯定都会有所抱怨。但是1月，当一群会唱歌的猫占领了北京展览馆剧场时却没有一个人有意见。 o8 e! I; h6

The hit musical Cats, back in Beijing for its second run after the original was cut short due to SARS, opened on January 19th to vast acclaim. Playing to packed houses, the 36-strong cast wowed audiences with their acrobatic dancing, spectacular stage effects and magnificent vocals.
1月19日，音乐剧《猫》在北京隆重上演，受到了观众的热烈欢迎。这是《猫》第二次在北京上演，第一次因为SARS来袭而被迫取消。北展剧场人满为患，观众为36名杰出演员精彩绝伦的舞蹈和美幻美伦的舞台特效以及莺舌百啭的歌声而倾倒。

Cats, based on Old Possums Book of Practical Cats by American poet T.S Eliot, is the brainchild of British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. In a career spanning forty years, Lloyd Webber has almost single-handedly reinvented musical theatre as an entertainment form, and his plays always open to packed houses in London’s West End, New York’s Broadway, and in theatres and playhouses all over the world.
《猫》源于美国诗人T.S艾略特的诗集《实际的猫》，由英国作曲家安德鲁?洛伊?韦伯改编成音乐剧。在音乐界打拼了40年的韦伯几乎是一个人就把音乐剧彻底改变成大众的娱乐产品，他的作品在世界各地上演，包括伦敦西区和纽约百老汇，看他作品的观众总是挤爆各个剧场和剧院。

Born in London on March 22nd, 1948, Lloyd Webber seemed destined for a life of musical genius from an early age – his mother was a famous violinist and pianist, and his father was a composer. At the age of 3, when he first went to school and heard other children playing musical instruments, he thought they were so bad he covered his ears.
韦伯于1948年3月22日在伦敦出生，他小时候就似乎注定要成为音乐家——她母亲是著名的小提琴家和钢琴家，父亲是作曲家。3岁时第一次踏入校门听到其他孩子在演奏乐器，他就捂上耳朵，因为他觉得他们的演奏糟透了。 waimaozu@com

By the time he was 9 he had published his first collection of music, and in 1971 he and long-term collaborator Tim Rice debuted their first Broadway production – Jesus Christ, Superstar. Telling the story of Jesus’ last few days, the "rock opera" is very different to Lloyd Webber’s later works and was condemned by some religious groups. Tim Rice was quoted as saying "The idea of the whole opera is to have Christ seen through the eyes of Judas, and Christ as a man, not as a God."
9岁时，他就出版了第一本音乐集，1971年，他和长期的合作伙伴蒂姆?赖斯一起在百老汇发布了他们的处女作——《万世巨星》。该歌剧讲述的是耶稣升天的故事，而其中采用的“摇滚”形式和韦伯后来的作品大相径庭，也因此遭到了宗教组织的谴责。蒂姆?赖斯曾说：“整个歌剧的核心概念是通过犹大来看耶稣，在这里，他只是一个人而不是一个神。”