I was slowly getting the feeling it was time to leave Cats. Two assistants had come and gone and I was always required to jump in and do their job until a new appointment was made. One day, I asked why I was permanently passed over for this promotion and the reply steeled my resolve: "Because you're more useful to us where you are. You play the show, you play rehearsals, you conduct, you coach German and you play for the ballet classes. You wouldn't have to do even half of that if you were permanent assistant conductor". "So, being multi-faceted counts against me. If I were more limited, I'd have a better chance of moving up?" "Basically, yes."
So, I served them an ultimatum: If they were not able to guarantee me promotion the next time the job came up, I would leave. I'd see if I could move over to The Phantom of the Opera, which was just opening a mile or so down the road. Failing that, I'd move back to England. One thing was certain: I was not going to be used as a multi-talented doormat; I had too much self-respect for that.
The upshot was that they didn't want to guarantee me the position. I spoke to the Artistic Director of the company and told her I wanted to move to Phantom if there were something free. The new music director of that show came to watch me conduct a show and the job was mine. Within two years I became chief conductor and music director of that production, the biggest Lloyd Webber show in the world at the time, but that's by-the-by. Cats hired three people on full-time contracts to replace me.
Moving to Phantom changed a lot of things in my life. I was to meet my first wife and start playing with the big boys: Cats was a great show to start off on, but Phantom was the one that garnered international attention in those days. Moving from the Reeperbahn to the Stresemannstrasse turned out to be a longer journey than originally thought...
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