Line #34 Creator/AndrewLloydWebber


1	[[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/andrewlw_8782.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:175:[[Theatre/ForbiddenBroadway Andrew Lloyd! Superstar! Bigger than God and Tim Rice so far!]]]]
3
4	->''Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber...''
5	-->--'''Music/CrowdedHouse''', "Chocolate Cake"
6
7	Andrew Lloyd Webber, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Baron Lloyd-Webber]] (b. 22 March 1948). You've probably heard one of his songs at some point or seen one of his musicals, especially if you were a child of TheEighties. His most famous shows, in order of production, are:
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9	* ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'' (1968; official stage debut in 1972)
10	* ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'' (1970; official stage debut in 1971)
11	* ''Music/{{Evita}}'' (1976; official stage debut in 1978)
12	* ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'' (1981)
13	* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' (1986)
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15	This wildly successful composer/producer's works altered the course of musical theater on Broadway, the West End, and the world for at least two decades. After a false start with ''Theatre/TheLikesOfUs'', he popularized the sub-genre of pop-opera musicals, with an emphasis on high drama, spectacle, and sometimes offbeat concepts: ''Cats'' is a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin glorified revue about cats]], based on [[Literature/OldPossumsBookOfPracticalCats a book of poetry]] by Creator/TSEliot; ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'' is about a train race with actors on roller skates playing the anthropomorphic engines and cars. Yes, the man has a show whose plot is "train meets train, train loses train, train gets train back" (reportedly because he couldn't obtain the rights for a musical version of ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries''). This is a man who should not be dismissed lightly.
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17	His biggest hit--in every sense of the term--was 1986's ''The Phantom of the Opera'', which has become the longest running Broadway show ever (it opened there in 1988 and inherited the crown from ''Cats''). Into the early 1990s, his were among the very few stage musicals to have songs released as singles--and even music videos--in the U.K.
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19	However, his success has made him ever ripe for mockery and parody. Critics feel he has a bad habit of shows where the audience leaves "whistling the sets and lights." In other words, as observed by critics and former performers in Lloyd Webber shows, the ''star'' of ''The Phantom of the Opera'' is actually the chandelier; for ''Cats'', the costumes; for ''Joseph'', the flying sequence; or the roller skates in ''Starlight Express''. (They don't know what to make of ''Theatre/AspectsOfLove'', which is basically a SoapOpera, but then no one's ever known what to make of it.) He's also prone to reprising tunes constantly within each show with different lyrics and context, and the effects of his biggest tunes ("Don't Cry for Me Argentina" [''Evita''], "Memory" [''Cats''], and several ''Phantom'' numbers) have driven many listeners batty. The fall of the pop opera, at least in the U.S., owed a lot to critical and audience fatigue with the omnipresence of these shows as well as similar efforts like ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' and ''Theatre/MissSaigon'', though his legacy of sheer theatrical spectacle lives on in shows like ''Wicked'' and the various Disney stage musicals. Additionally, Music/PinkFloyd's Music/RogerWaters has accused him of appropriating one of ''Phantom'''s most famous riffs from "Echoes", a song on PF's 1971 album ''Music/{{Meddle}}'' (he noted that they were in the same 12/8 time signature and had the same chord progression). He has also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz1IDmmcetQ been accused]] of 'borrowing' tunes from various classical composers.
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21	As it was, ''Phantom'' proved to be [[ToughActToFollow a hard show to top]], and while he's written several shows since then (most notably ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''), few have attracted much attention outside the U.K. (His adaptation of ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' appears to have broken the trend somewhat, having run for a respectable three years on Broadway and sparked a national tour.) He's kept busy in other ways, however. In 1996 he and Music/JimSteinman collaborated on an adaptation of the film ''Film/WhistleDownTheWind''. One song, "No Matter What", became [[CoveredUp a worldwide hit]] for the BoyBand Boyzone, who then performed it for his 50th birthday concert. It may come as a surprise that [[HeAlsoDid he of all people]] composed it.
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23	The most recent thing of note that Lord Lloyd-Webber did involved his current production of ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'', a British SoapOpera, Creator/BonnieLangford's niece, and a highly-successful publicity pull. It went something like this: Webber chose to cast Summer Strallen, the aforementioned niece of Bonnie Langford (who was in ''Series/DoctorWho'' as Mel, BTW and does {{Panto}} a bit) as the second person to play Maria, having cast his first, Connie Fisher, via a TV TalentShow. Bar one appearance in ''Series/HotelBabylon'', her [=IMDb=] profile was rather short. She'd done stuff on the London Stage, but wasn't too well known. So, Lord Lloyd-Webber called up the producers of ''Series/{{Hollyoaks}}'' (the British SoapOpera in question) and got her a part as Summer Shaw, an aspiring actress. Not telling the press that she would be Maria, the writers of said show had Summer Shaw, in character, head to London, find Lord Lloyd-Webber (played by himself) and convince him to cast ''her'' as Maria. Shaw then proceeded to leave the show and the whole thing was revealed. Cue national headlines. Lloyd Webber ended up casting Strallen again as Meg Giry in ''Love Never Dies''.
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25	He also did a TalentShow to cast a Joseph (''Any Dream Will Do'') and did another one (''I'd Do Anything'') for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Mackintosh his mate]], who is doing a production of ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}''. His latest, ''Your Country Needs You!'' was an attempt to find a good Series/EurovisionSongContest singer for the 2009 contest, with future Music/{{Sugababe\|s}} Music/JadeEwen performing the song. He wrote the song and played the piano--the song actually came fifth. Considering the previous and following years saw the UK entry come last, this was a major improvement.
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27	Considers the internet to be a problem in promoting his shows, as he finds it to be full of people who will [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch complain about the show without even having seen it]], especially with regards to ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'', the poorly-received 2010 sequel to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''.
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29	In addition to his pop/musical work, Lloyd Webber has written one piece of classical music, a requiem mass composed to honor his father, who died in 1982. ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_%28Lloyd_Webber%29 Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem]]'' premiered in February of 1985 and was eventually released as an album; it was during the production of the recording that Lloyd Webber first met future wife Music/SarahBrightman, who had been cast for a solo soprano part in it[[note]]though she had also played the role of Jemima in ''Cats'' in 1981[[/note]]. The "Pie Jesu" segment of the mass became a major hit, and the Requiem as a whole won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
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31	A new FracturedFairyTale adaptation of ''[[Theatre/CinderellaLloydWebber Cinderella]]'' premiered in 2021. Creator/EmeraldFennell wrote the book, and West End veteran Carrie Hope Fletcher opened as the title character.
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33	Shares a birthday (though 18 years apart) with Music/StephenSondheim, of all people. His son Nicholas "Nick" Lloyd Webber was also a composer; he died on 25 March 2023 at age 43 from gastric cancer.

Context Creator / AndrewLloydWebber