Musical elements of play about reaching the top (4)
I believe the answer is:
cats
'musical' is the definition.
(Andrew Lloyd Webber musical)
'elements of play about reaching the top' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'elements' could be 'ats' (At is an example) and 'ats' is located in the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for 'circa') and 'c' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cats that I've seen before include "Musical; animals" , "Feline mammals" , "1981 Lloyd Webber musical" , "Domestic pets" , "Spectacular Llyod Webber feline musical" .)