Move over, Jellicles—some big cats are ready to hit the stage.
Andrew Lippa spent the early days of the coronavirus quarantine as many others did: binge watching Netflix's salacious Tiger King. Naturally, the composer's reaction was to musicalize it, prompting a Twitter spiral and now, a demo performed by Kristin Chenoweth. Listen as the Tony and Emmy winner channels queen of the cool cats and kittens Carole Baskin in the song below.
"Little Pieces" would be the Act I finale of this proposed parody musical, according to Lippa. The James Bond-esque song draws on the suggestion outlined in the docuseries that the animal rights activist had some say in the fate of her missing husband and his remains (think The Lion King meets Sweeney Todd).
This isn't the first time Chenoweth has belted out about the intersection of felines and scorned lovers: as Princess Barbára in The Apple Tree, she was torn between letting her imprisoned man go free with another woman—or letting a tiger "slice him into ruby ribbons."
In The Apple Tree, we don't know which option she picked. And with Baskin, we don't truly know what happened to Don Lewis. But Lippa sure has some ideas.
Lippa and Chenoweth's previous collaborations include You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (Lippa wrote new songs for the 1999 revival, which earned Chenoweth her Tony) and multiple engagements of the composer's oratorio I Am Harvey Milk.