COMPOSER SELLS STOCK IN HIMSELF

First-day response was strong here Tuesday to a public offering of 5 million shares in “Cats” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group theatrical company.

While one British journalist called Really Useful Group essentially a “one-man band,” demand for the company’s prospectus, which includes an application for shares, was “tremendous,” according to Barry Dargan, an executive at Phillips & Drew stockbrokers.

The final price of shares should be “reasonably higher” than the 3.2-pound (about $4.59 at current exchange rates) minimum tender price, Dargan said. Prospective shareholders have until Tuesday to submit their offers.

The company is currently owned 70% by Webber and 30% by his business manager, Brian Brolly, a former MCA Records executive responsible for developing and recording Webber’s and former partner Tim Rice’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Brolly is selling 1.2 million shares, Webber, 2.8 million, and 1 million new shares are being issued to raise a minimum of 2 million pounds (about $2.87 million) after expenses, according to the prospectus. Webber’s ownership would drop to 38.2% after the sale, Brolly’s to 16.4%.

The composer of such other hit shows as “Evita” told a BBC-TV reporter that he wanted more time free for composing.

The prospectus also says the tender offer hopes to give Really Useful Group greater visibility as “a major force in the entertainment industry” and to help provide funds for possible acquisitions, particularly in music publishing. Proceeds also would be applied toward Really Useful Group’s completing purchase of the Palace Theatre in the thriving West End here and refurbishing it.

(The Really Useful offering is not available to Americans because the stock is not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.)

Other publicly traded entertainment companies exist here, but securities dealer Michael Campbell Bowling, managing director of Stage Payments Ltd., said he knows of no other such (company) that “depends solely on the income-generating activities of one man.” Bowling helped raise money for several Webber musicals, starting with “Evita.”

He noted that fund-raising for “Cats” was “appalling . . . absolutely dreadful.” The effort was so difficult, added the show’s producer, Cameron Mackintosh, that the last of the investor contracts was signed on opening night.

The Tony-winning musical based on T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” has played to audiences totaling 8 million worldwide. Mackintosh estimated that the London production alone has netted more than 6.7 million pounds (about $9.6 million) in profit since its May, 1981, opening.

Almost 90% of the Really Useful Group’s earnings in recent years have been pegged to “Cats” tickets sales, recordings, merchandising and other activities. “Cats” is currently playing in eight countries--including U.S. productions in Los Angeles, Chicago and on Broadway. According to the prospectus, U.S. productions alone grossed nearly $60 million in the year ended June 30, 1985.

Really Useful Group has produced other shows here, including a recent revival of Rodgers’ and Hart’s “On Your Toes.”

While not all of Webber’s shows have been critical hits, he has enjoyed incredible box-office success. As recently as 1982, he was the first composer to have three musicals running on Broadway and three in London at the same time. Really Useful Group will acquire copyrights to any new works that Webber completes during the next seven years “in return for fixed commercial rates of royalties.” Webber and Rice followed their hit “Jesus Christ Superstar” with “Evita.” Since 1978, Webber went on to compose “Variations” and “Tell Me on a Sunday” (teamed up on Broadway as “Song and Dance”), “Cats,” “Starlight Express” and “Requiem.” Rice is on the board of Really Useful Group; his latest musical, “Chess,” is due to open here this year.

“Starlight Express,” a musical whose principal action takes place on Roller Derby-style courses circling the theater, has been virtually sold out since it opened here in March, 1984. Plans call for the company to start launching new productions for export later this year. Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera,” directed by “Evita” director Harold Prince, is scheduled to open here later this year starring Webber’s wife, Sarah Brightman. The record of the title track of “The Phantom of the Opera,” sung by Brightman and Steve Harley, has already been released here with plans calling for an album to be produced within the next few months.

A spokesman for the Society of West End Theatres, which includes 47 theaters, called the Webber offering a sign of “general confidence” in London’s theater industry.

Webber could not be reached for comment.