Why Andrew Lloyd-Webber Does Not Need Fans
August 19th 2007 11:00
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber - the face that launched a thousand longer faces
There are a treasure trove of similar incidents. Enough to make the mild mannered (Lord) Andrew look somehow incomplete without horns and a pitchfork! Mention their time in a Lloyd Webber production to divas, directors and actors around the world and they'll tell you in clipped tones: "I don't want to talk about that!"
Or in the instance of Oscar winning 1980's camp-diva Faye Dunaway "I'm prohibited from talking about that incident by contractual agreement!"
It seems that the multi-millionaire musical theatre impressario and composer doesn't care who's toes he steps on - and admitedly when you're at the top of the largest, most powerful, musical theatre organisation in the world (The Really Useful Group) to quote from Lloyd Webber musical Evita: "the view is not exactly clear!"
The show won over critics and audiences alike but was eventually undone by controversy
The stage adaptation of the 1949 screen classic (starring Gloria Swanson) has been slated for a movie release since it's Broadway debut in the mid-90's. However the project was put on hold until 2005, when Lloyd Webber and Glenn Close (who won a Tony in the role of Norma Desmond on Broadway in 1994) reportedly met at the Golden Globe awards. Close has just won an award - Lloyd Webber had just lost three. The meeting resulted in an official announcement to the effect that Close would star once again in the musical Sunset Boulevard, this time on the screen.
Two years later if you consult the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Really Useful Group website you will find a statement implicitly denying that this announcement was ever made! Fans of Evita and Phantom of the Opera who charted the pre-production efforts of the movie adaptations of those musicals will remember similar shenanagins.
Oscar nominee Glenn Close played Norma Desmond on Broadway to great acclaim
A recent article in London newspaper The Sunday Telegraph, has given fans hope once again that the movie may be on the horizon, especially given the follow up articles and an interview with actress Glenn Close in which she stated (with obvious malaise) that she was "so ready!" to play Norma Desmond on screen.
However, while fans may be holding their breaths, it seems more than likely that this will prove to be little more than so much hot air and that a great deal more waiting will be required.
With a long and varied screen career behind her, Barbra Streisand is something of a Norma Desmond herself nowadays
Despite the enthusiasm with which this mere tid-bit of information has been greeted with online, it would seem Lord Webber is more impervious to the "mere musings" of his fans than ever. At present he is engrossed in writing a new musical: The Phantom of Manhattan. The screen sequel nobody wanted!
Despite the fact that his last four new shows all failed to attract a crowd, a hit or even overtly positive notices from critics, Lloyd-Webber has seemingly never been more disinterested in where the interests of his fan base lie. After all, he still has stock-hits playing in many venues around the world to great acclaim and a hit revival of The Sound of Music wowing crowds in the West End.
Unlike her two counterparts Meryl Streep has never gotten further than playing a washed up actress - naturally she was nominated for an Oscar!
The show closed as audiences rejected the very 1970's staging and the underwhelming vocal capacity of lead actress Elena Roger. Lloyd Webber responded by packing off to Broadway where The Phantom of the Opera had just broken the record, set by another of his musicals Cats, and become the longest running show in Broadway history.
It seems that over the years Lloyd Webber has learned that there's always another show running somewhere getting raves and always another theatre full of people willing to give a standing ovation when the composer walks on stage.
If he continues in his present vein, one day Mr Lloyd Webber will run out of theatres.
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