Posted: 11/17/15 at 7:48pm
"Just as there is no debate about who were the first anthropomorphized felines on Broadway, there should be no debate about which show was the first to use 360 degree technology. Big cats shouldn't be copycats!" hahah I love ALW.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 7:52pm
Disney Theatrical Productions President Thomas Schumacher purred back,
Dear Andrew ,
Thank you for your note. In response to your claim that “This isn’t Cricket!,” although I’m not familiar with all 12,000 rules of Cricket, I am incredibly proud of our Lion King VR video and stand by our description of it…School Of Rock staged your number for the camera, in a classroom and captured a delightful commercial. We congratulate you on well over a million hits but these are two videos are fundamentally divergent. Thanks for keeping up with The Lion King and best of luck with SOR. I hear great things.
Yours in 3rd position after Phantom of the Opera,
Tom Schumacher
Posted: 11/17/15 at 8:23pm
Cats & Lion King have one thing in common - both have one good song in the score. Cats has Memories & Lion has Circle of Life.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 10:14pm
Who, in their right mind, would want to copy anything from that horrific ridiculous, poorly choreographed and BORING show called Cats? Haven't seen SOR- no appeal to me at all despite the good reviews during previews. ALW wanted to ride the tailcoats of Billy Eliot and Matilda....using very talented kids in a show....so who is copying who? Coming from a man whose music is stolen from famous operas!
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:05pm
Lion King isn't copying Cats, it is copying School of Rock by having a 360 video. And I don't think Andrew is copying Matilda or Billy Elliot, I just think this was a movie that he felt passionate about, and wanted to musicalize it. And you can always see/hear artists' influences in their writing. Andrew wasn't the first person accused of "stealing," and he definitely won't be the last.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:09pm
First they pass Cats and now they are stealing my video idea?!? -ALW's thoughts
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:14pm
It's no mystery why Andrew felt passionate about School of Rock. It's basically the plot of The Sound of Music.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:19pm
Sushi,
Let's call it what it is. There's a major difference between being influenced by another composers work, or another playwright's play to help you with your own, then there is flat out stealing it and calling it your own.
Webber is not one to be influenced by others. He quite literally steals other people's works and calls it his own. His most recent example of that is in School of Rock. The song Sierra Boggess sings in School of Rock sounded way to similar to Someone Else's Story from Chess. Watch the video that does a good job in not only giving you a good laugh, but how he did in fact steal others songs.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:34pm
I have seen a few video's before and they don't convince me. The things that he has "stolen" have been a lick or a melody and thats it. Out of all of the song's he has written I would hardly call him a stealer. We all get idea's from other people and steal them. Actors do it just as much, if not more. Send me the links you are talking about.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:38pm
Unless they changed it the kids sing "If Only You Would Listen." Not Sierra Boggess. And it does sound a bit like "Someone Else's Story" but only about 7 notes. It's not like he stole the song note for note.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:41pm
Yea "Where Did The Rock Go" is Sierra's big number which sounds nothing like "Someone Else's Story" from Chess.
Updated On: 11/17/15 at 11:41 PM
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:49pm
"If Only You Would Listen" is the song you are talking about, and it's barely the same. CATSNYrevival is right, it sounds the same for about 2 seconds of music, and that could literally be an influence. Webber has said before he is a fan of Chess. I can't even tell you how many times I though I had a brilliant idea for a story, and then realized that I was unconsciously thinking about some other show.
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:53pm
When I saw the show, I did so because I won the lottery. There were a group of young theatre nerds who, just like me and the friend I was with, talked about how Where did the Rock Go? reminded them of Someone Else's Story. If you're hearing an original song and the first thought that you have as a listener of said original song is how it makes you think of a song written by another composer, then you know something ain't right at that point.
Sushi, my apologizes. There was a video on youtube that, although comical, played clips of Webber's songs juxtaposed to more well known works. I tried to embed the video to my post and clearly that didn't work out so good. So, here's the link instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVccXgAy6U
Posted: 11/17/15 at 11:55pm
If Only You Would Listen sounds like a reject from Whistle Down the Wind to Me (in fact it has one of the same melody lines,) but....
Posted: 11/18/15 at 12:01am
That video isn't funny, and like I said, influenced not stolen.
Posted: 11/18/15 at 12:11am
Here's the biggest "influence" Webber has ever had. Pink Floyd.
This one plays Pink Floyd's Echos side by side with the main theme from Phantom. If this isn't stealing I don't know what is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S3fpgrZ9ys
And, here's another more elaborate version of more Webber songs played side by side by their original counterparts. I can understand the whole influence thing I can, honest. But, when it comes down things like Webber's songs sounding way too close to comfort to me that's flat out stealing. Hell many of the songs he writes are in the same keys as their original counterparts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S3fpgrZ9ys
Posted: 11/18/15 at 12:39am
I think having your song have the same melody running through the main refrain as another song is fairly significant.
Posted: 11/18/15 at 1:21am
360 degree videos are becoming a fun way of advertisement for other forms of media outside of Broadway. (That recent Star Wars 360 trailer comes to mind.) ALW certainly isn't the first one to have done it, nor will he be the last, so I don't see why he's complaining about Lion King "copying" his idea.
Updated On: 11/18/15 at 01:21 AM
Posted: 11/18/15 at 1:40am
" ALW wanted to ride the tailcoats of Billy Eliot and Matilda....using very talented kids in a show....so who is copying who? "
ALW showcased very talented kids in "Whistle Down the Wind" in 1996, ages before either "Billy" or "Matilda." If anything, those shows are riding his tailcoats ( although I think you mean coat tails).
Posted: 11/18/15 at 1:42am
^ And before that, Annie employed very talented kids back in the 70's. Kids have been used in Broadway musicals for a long time; no one's copying anyone there.
Posted: 11/18/15 at 2:32am
Well, I thought the Honest Obituary video was funny. And I agree with Mr. Nowack. If I cue into the main part of each of those songs hearing the parts that are "stolen/borrowed" then that's significant. Those melodies are what make the songs being referenced. And it's different from Schwartz putting a bit of The Wizard of Oz into Wicked as an homage. I'm not saying all of his shows have no value (at least he's stealing from good sources). I still love Evita.
As for The Lion King... they're right. They said they were the first 360 video filmed in a Broadway theatre.
Posted: 11/18/15 at 2:37am
They are both copycats. ALW copied from TS Eliot. Disney copied from Shakespeare.
Posted: 11/18/15 at 3:14am
Getting the rights to a property isn't really copying it. And Shakespeare never copied anyone
Posted: 11/18/15 at 3:33am
I still think if Andrew heard a piece of music that he liked, and knew exactly how to use it, I can't blame him for that. Stealing is when you actually know how to work with something, and make it your own. Copying is when there's something on the surface, but nothing inside. There's literally no difference between Andrew stealing a lick here or there, and a book writer stealing lines from the source material, or from other works.
