Cry Wolf
by Joy Chettle

Have you heard the story of the boy who cried WOLF!! ?

Settle down now and I'll tell you the modern version.

Are you sitting comfortably?,,,,,,, then I'll begin.

Once upon a time, there was a young man who wrote the music to a musical. Now this young man.... we'll call him Andy......had written things before, and most people liked what he wrote. But this one was exceptional and millions of people fell in love with it. When asked about it, he told everyone that he was very pleased with it and would never change it.

Then, one day, someone suggested he make a film of this musical as every one loved it so much.
"A good idea" said Andy," and we must have the original stage Phantom, Michael Crawford, in the film."

Everyone waited..... and waited......waited, but they weren't too worried as they knew these things take a long time to organise.

Then, one day they heard... "The movies on again and John Travolta will be playing the Phantom."
WHAT!! said the loyal Phantom phans, "But what about Michael?"

After a while, this idea came to nothing and the phans thought Michael's part in the film was safe again.
Later though, Andy started naming other people to star as Erik in the movie, and each time the phans believed him and started to campaign even harder for Michael.

Then, Andy had a birthday party, and this strange man named Antonio sang songs from his musical for him. Most people didn't think much to his rendition, but it was only the once they thought, so it doesn't matter.
But for some reason, Andy thought he was very good and started saying that this man was now going to play the Phantom in his movie. The phans were very angry about this, and campaigned even harder, but Andy had changed his mind so many times, that nobody took him seriously any more.

One day a newspaper reported that the casting was not finalized and that "Michael had not been ruled out." But every one's joy was short lived, as there was once again talk of Antonio playing the part.
Then..... one day ... in the later months of 2001, Andy suddenly started telling every one that he was after all going to offer the part to Michael, who by this time was starring in another show on Broadway.
But after all this time, and after so many different stories, no one believed him any more and he wondered why they just carried on with the campaign as usual.

The moral of this story is............in modern language..........

"GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER ANDY, OR NO ONE WILL BELIEVE A WORD YOU SAY"