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| Wednesday, 5 May 2004 |
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Midas of the musicians by Derrick Schokman In the last two decades Andrew Lloyd Webber has dominated the musical theatre. His musicals have been performed on stage, seen on films and television and heard on records all over the world. His fame and wealth have exceeded anything achieved by other great British musical theatre figures eg. Ivor Novello and Noel Coward, Julian Slade, Sonny Wilson and Lionel Bart. Since the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream as a pop oratorio for schools in the 1870s, Webber has defined contemporary musical theatre with his original rock lyrical brand of musical electism. He has given us a series of highly popular hits in addition to Joseph, like, Jesus Christ Superstar Evita, Cats and the Phantom of the Opera. Joseph Joseph became a West End hit in the UK in 1991. The cast album went straight to the top of the hit parade. The most popular song was "Any Dream will do" sung by Joseph. In fact, "dream" would be the best way to describe webber's musical work. He never set any of his musicals to a contemporary theme. He found new ways of making people dream, thereby forging a direct relationship with middle England and Middle American theatre audiences. Superstar Jesus Christ Superstar was one of the biggest smash hits in musical theatre. First issued as a record, Superstar, in 1970, the musical premiered in New York in 1971 and in London the following year. The single "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, who are you what have you sacrificed?" asks the question: listeners are expected to come up with the answer. The Superstar album was ecstatically received in America. Time magazine hailed it as a modern passion play. While it could enrage the devout the magazine thought it might intrigue and inspire the agnostic young. Evita The record "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" also became a classic topping single in the UK in 1977, before the musical Evita finally hit the stage in 1978 when it opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. It was the musical Cats however that was the most successful. It was a huge hit in New York, London and Sydney, and productions ran in Tokyo, Vienna, Budapest, Oslo, Los Angeles and Toronto. Cats was a fantasy that grew out of some cat poems by T. S. Eliot - a ritual performed in a limbo district where the street cats had access to their other eight lives to have a Ball and elect one of their kind as being worthy of that night. The Ball is filled with sprightly rhythms, anthems, key changes and irresistible high spirits as the moggies and kitties dance in their sprayed body stockings with knitted bibs and leg warmers. The musical ends on an emotional climax when an old and lame moggie named Grizabella sings "Memory" in a haunting voice. Record When Cats opened on Broadway in 1982, it joined Evita and Joseph playing simultaneously. It created a record hatrick, which had only been performed once before in 1950 by Rogers and Hammerstein with Carousel, South Pacific and The King and I. Time magazine acknowledged that achievement by making Andrew Lloyd Webber the fifth British artist to meet its cover story. He followed Charlie Chaplin, Gertrude Lawrence, Julie Andrews and Paul Mc Cartney. Phantom The Phantom of the Opera was staged in London in 1986. "All I Ask of You", probably the best song in the show, became an instant classic. Since then Webber has not had a blockbuster musical. Whistle Down the Wind, produced in 1986 received several good reports and full houses both in Aldwych and Washington, but it was not anywhere near the success of the others. Once again Whistle was a fantasy based on a story of the same name by Mary Hayley Bell. It was about three children who found a man in a barn and believed him to be Jesus. A song in this musical, "No Matter what" in which the children declare their loyalty and faith in the man in the barn against the dictates of adults, became a hit single when released by the group Boyzone in 1998. Will Whislte Down the Wind Webber's last major work, turn out to be another whistle-stop in his illustrious musical career ... or does it signify the end? Your guess is as good as mine. As for Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron of Sydmonton Court in the County of Hampshire, does it really matter. He has made his mark and his millions: his reputation like that of his great musical Cats is surely "now and forever". **** Back **** |
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