Lloyd Webber, Andrew

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER

Born: London, England, 22 March 1948

Genre: Musical Theater

Best-selling album since 1990: Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Greatest Songs (1995)

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber epitomized the type of lavish, heavily produced musical theater works—often called "mega musicals"—popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Lloyd Webber's most successful creations—Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera —found a popularity that went far beyond the main theater arteries of Broadway in New York and London's West End. Setting records for longevity among musicals, they became worldwide phenomena, translated and performed in many languages. Lloyd Webber borrowed melodic ideas from great classical composers such as Giacamo Puccini, pairing tuneful hooks with the blaring electrics of modern rock music. At the same time he spent millions of dollars on breathtaking stage effects that combined modern technology with an old-fashioned sense of razzle-dazzle. By the mid-1990s, with the mega-musical being supplanted by cheaper, more restrained productions, Lloyd Webber's predominance began to erode. Even in his less successful productions, however, he displayed an acute understanding of the power of stagecraft.

Beginnings and 1970s Hits

Born in England to musician parents, Lloyd Webber began writing plays for school as a boy. Attending college at prestigious Oxford University he met lyricist Tim Rice, with whom he wrote his first musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), based on a story in the Bible. Turning to the same source, Lloyd Webber and Rice next composed Jesus Christ Superstar (1971), which became a pop hit when released as an album prior to its stage production. One of the first "rock operas"—musicals that captured a young audience through the use of electric guitars and other rock elements—Superstar invigorated Broadway and the West End with a bold, fresh spirit. Evita (1978) was the duo's next triumph, a bio-musical based on the life of Argentine ruler Eva Peron. Graced with tuneful, romantic songs such as "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," Evita was Lloyd Webber's biggest success to date, making a star out of actress Patti LuPone when it opened on Broadway in 1979.

Greatest Successes

Parting ways from Rice, Lloyd Webber paired with English producer Cameron Mackintosh for Cats (1982), based on the work of great twentieth-century poet T. S. Eliot. Cats made up for its lack of plot with an abundance of style. With actors dressed in whiskers, tails, and full body costumes, a hit song, "Memory," based on the dramatic style of Puccini, and a striking visual gimmick—the entire theater was transformed into a massive junkyard—Cats virtually defined musical theater in the 1980s, becoming the longest-running show in Broadway history. Lloyd Webber's next musical, The Phantom of the Opera (1986), adapted from French author Gaston Leroux's novel about a disfigured man haunting the Paris Opera House, rivaled Cats in popularity. By this point, fans had learned to expect high-tech production effects from Lloyd Webber's musicals. Phantom, featuring a giant glass chandelier designed to give the illusion of crashing down upon the audience, did not disappoint. While critics expressed disdain for Lloyd Webber's lowbrow style—in 2001 the U.K. Guardian described his musicals as "unspeakable attempts to send the audience out whistling the scenery"—he displayed his talent as a serious classical composer with Requiem (1985). Written after the death of his father, Requiem was an attempt to unify rock and classical styles through the theme of mortality.

Sunset Boulevard

With Phantom and Cats drawing record crowds, Lloyd Webber was at his commercial peak in the early 1990s. However, rocky times lay ahead. The 1989 show Aspects of Love had been a rare misfire, closing on Broadway after only two years—a short run by Lloyd Webber's standards. A dissertation on love from various perspectives, the show's theme was perhaps too abstract for mainstream audiences. Lloyd Webber returned to well-known source material for his next musical, Sunset Boulevard (1993), based on the classic 1950 film by legendary director and writer Billy Wilder. The story of Norma Desmond, a lonely, aging movie queen who latches onto a struggling young writer, Sunset Boulevard was full of the rich dramatic potential that Lloyd Webber had so often used to his advantage. But despite its promise, the musical was plagued by trouble from the beginning. After New York critics panned the original West End production, Lloyd Webber fired its star LuPone, who had already been contracted to transfer her role to the forthcoming Broadway run. The ensuing bad press only intensified after Lloyd Webber gave the Broadway role to film star Glenn Close, who had received good reviews in the U.S. premiere of the show in Los Angeles. Actress Faye Dunaway was hired as the Los Angeles replacement, but dismissed just days before her scheduled opening. Lloyd Webber went on to engage in heated, much-publicized battles with LuPone and Dunaway, eventually settling with them after a lengthy series of lawsuits.

Despite its tumultuous beginnings, Sunset Boulevard had some memorable elements. This time the visual gimmick was Desmond's ornate mansion, which descended slowly onto the stage as Norma herself walked down a grand staircase. The score, however, is unmemorable save for two songs, "With One Look" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye." The latter ranks as one of Lloyd Webber's finest moments. The once-famous Desmond, under the false impression that she has been called back to work, visits the studio lot where thirty years prior she made her greatest films. After Desmond walks onto the set, blinking her eyes against the bright lights, she looks around, trying to discern something familiar in the updated equipment that surrounds her. This woman, who has seemed so impervious throughout the evening, suddenly appears small and vulnerable. Lloyd Webber and stage director Trevor Nunn allow the silence to linger as the poignant irony of the scene sets in. The music then swells gently as Desmond sings the first lines: "I don't know why I'm frightened / I know my way around here." The song and its placement within the show demonstrate Lloyd Webber's talent for finding the human within the grandiose. On one level, "As If We Never Said Goodbye" works as a tuneful, emotive ballad, but it is also an aching portrayal of memory, association, and the enduring power of fame.

Unfortunately, Sunset Boulevard fell victim to changing trends in musical theater. By 1994, when it opened on Broadway, the popularity of the mega-musical was declining. Due to increasingly prohibitive costs, theater producers began mounting smaller-scale productions with less elaborate sets. Concurrently, the rise in ticket prices to ninety dollars or more made Broadway audiences less willing to try new and untested shows. As a result, producers largely devoted their energies in the late 1990s and early 2000s to "revivals"—updated versions of familiar musicals of the past such as Oklahoma! and Annie Get Your Gun. After Sunset Boulevard none of Lloyd Webber's shows, including Bombay Dreams (2002), a musical about the Indian film industry, moved to Broadway following their initial West End premieres. Always resourceful, Lloyd Webber responded to the changing climate by cutting back on expenses and reducing staff at his company, Really Useful Productions.

Andrew Lloyd Webber changed the face of musical theater through elaborate productions that combined rock music, classical melodies, and technological wizardry. Beneath the high gloss of his work was a human core that appealed to a broad range of audiences. While Lloyd Webber had difficulty sustaining his popularity past the mid-1990s, his innovations left a lasting imprint on the theatrical world.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Jesus Christ Superstar (Decca, 1971); Evita: Original Broadway Cast Recording (MCA, 1979); Cats: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Polygram, 1982); The Phantom of the Opera: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Polygram, 1986); Sunset Boulevard: 1994 Los Angeles Cast Recording (Polygram, 1994); Requiem (Polygram, 1995).

WEBSITE:

www.reallyuseful.com.

david freeland