Andrew Lloyd Webber

Simon Holt wrote:
>
> Why? I want to know why Andrew Lloyd Webber is considered the
> devil incarnate of musical theatre despite the fact that it
> was basically him and Cameron Mackintosh that actually
> brought musical theatre back from the dead and into the
> publics favour once again at the end of the 1970's / 1980's?

The main reason that Lloyd Webber is considered the devil incarnate, is that he is basically the inventor of that most pernicious of all musical theatre styles, the high concept musical.

His earlier works, especially Superstar and Evita, are some of the best musicals ever written. However, he does reach a certain point (roughly around Cats) where the quality of his music starts to drop off a bit, and is replaced by absolutely brilliant production values. LetÂ’s be honest hereÂ… do you really come out of a Lloyd Webber humming the tunes? Or do you come out humming the scenery? I know thatÂ’s what I did with Phantom.

Since Phantom his quality has really waned, and he has started writing that even more pernicious style: the Power-Ballad Musical (eighty percent of the score is tripe but those three songs are brilliant!)

In many ways the success of the High Concept Lloyd Webber ushered in a dark age for the musical. The musical was NOT dead or dying before Lloyd Webber and co. It was actually quite vibrant and very popular. But during the eighties and nineties people stopped seeing musicals unless they were bigger and brighter with more effects and stunning costumes and who really cares about the music anyway!

Let us have a quick look at the Tony winning musicals BC (Before Cats):
Nine; 42nd Street; Evita; Sweeney Todd; AinÂ’t MisbehavinÂ’; Annie; A Chorus Line.
We have two of the greatest musicals EVER written (Sweeney Todd and A Chorus Line) as well as some of the most popular (Annie and 42nd Street).
Does this really look like a dying art form to you?!

The sad thing is that there were really only two composers successfully resisting this trend: Stephen Sondheim and Alan Menken, unlikely allies, but allies nonetheless.

Sondheim took the high art end of the battlefield, producing musically and artistically challenging works that maintained the genre right to be called an art form (and not just entertainment). Sunday in the Park with George, for example, is VERY esoteric musical, and yet I know of no one who has seen it who hasnÂ’t loved it! Into the Woods, while being quite tuneful does ask some very important literary questions, about the nature of fairy tale, and how important is it to us in our daily lives. And do I even need to mention Assassins?

Menken, on the other hand, wrote mainly for the screen, but still managed to produce some of the most memorable and truly entertaining scores of the period. Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas (nice score shame about the film) etc. To the point where the stage version of Beauty and the Beast is now the second longest-running musical on Broadway, celebrating its tenth anniversary only a couple of months ago. While the effects from B&B can be considered impressive, it is actually the brilliant score that people remember.
With the Menken camp comes his Disney cohort Elton John.
There are only two composers with more than one show running on Broadway at the moment: Menken (B&B and Little Shop of Horrors) and Elton John (The Lion King and Aida).

Funnily enough both Menken and John have worked with Lloyd WebberÂ’s original and best lyricist Tim Rice.
Food for thought, maybe it is actually the lyricist that makes the show great and not the composer? IÂ’ve always said I thought Sondheim was a lyricist who writes his own music not a composer who writes his own wordsÂ…

I hope in my rambling way I have managed to demonstrate some of the reasons why Lloyd Webber is considered so lowly by many. As I said, even many ALW haters will agree about the brilliance of the AL-W/Time Rice collaborations, but from there onÂ…

HereÂ’s to hoping that the man still has a couple of GREAT musicals in him. His Variations and his Requiem will always be two of my favourite pieces of late twentieth century music, but a lot of his musicals do leave a lot to be desired.