Andrew Lloyd Webber: 60 Years of MusicalsBy Lex Green
Andrew Lloyd Webber was born on March 22, 1948, to a very musical family - both of his parents, William Lloyd Webber and Jean Hermione Johnstone, were musicians, and this had a heavy influence on Lloyd Webber’s early life and passion for music. Since 1965, he has been a well-known musical theatre composer, working with a variety of other theatre-makers, such as lyricist Tim Rice, and has written a wide range of stage musicals in various genres and styles.
In 1965, Lloyd Webber wrote his first musical (aged just 17), The Likes of Us, although the show was not produced professionally until 2005. The Likes of Us is based on the true story of Doctor Thomas John Barnardo, who founded institutions for destitute children in the 1800s. Lyrics for the show were written by Tim Rice, who also worked with Lloyd Webber on many other shows, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and Evita (1976). These have all been highly successful, with productions across the world, including on the West End and Broadway. However, not all of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals have been great successes. For example, his musical By Jeeves (initially titled Jeeves) received a lot of criticism and closed very soon after opening in its original production in London, in 1975. It did later open on Broadway for a short time, but was not nearly as well-received as many of his other works. Similarly, his 2013 show Stephen Ward also failed to bring in the paying audiences Lloyd Webber needed to produce the show for an extended period, and as a result, is not a well-known piece. On the other hand, Lloyd Webber is also the composer behind Broadway’s longest-running musical to date, The Phantom of the Opera. This show opened in 1988 and only recently announced its closing, with the run set to end in April 2023. The sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, also performed reasonably well when produced, and still has a place among Lloyd Webber’s most well-known titles. Other musicals Lloyd Webber created that have been fairly successful include Tell Me On A Sunday, Starlight Express, Aspects Of Love, Sunset Boulevard and Whistle Down The Wind. Andrew Lloyd Webber has even seen several of his musicals adapted, most recently with the movie adaptation of Cats, the stage production of which premiered in 1981. Cats is based on a series of poems written by TS Eliot, which Lloyd Webber set to music, and the movie starred celebrities such as Judi Dench, Idris Elba and Taylor Swift - unfortunately, though, the film was not well-received, and the uniqueness of the production was not viewed in the positive light the creators had intended. On the other hand, Lloyd Webber has also adapted films into stage musicals, most notably, with his production of School Of Rock, which was also one of his only musicals to premiere on Broadway instead of in London. Most recently, Andrew Lloyd Webber produced his adaptation of Cinderella in the West End, helping to lead the way in theatre returning from the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this production only ran for just over a year, before closing in a suitably dramatic fashion. It caused outrage on social media, when the closing was announced to the public less than an hour after the cast and crew of the show were informed they would soon be out of a job. The show was then reviewed by its creators, including Lloyd Webber, before a Broadway production was confirmed, under the new title Bad Cinderella, which recently opened to mixed reviews. Whether the new iteration will be more successful than its predecessor, or if Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long reign over the theatre industry will soon be coming to its finale, remains to be seen. |