ALW has completed his next musical

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 10:12am

https://www.facebook.com/share/1HbHo4rNUJTF2Z9q/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Starlight Express may be hurtling its way back to London, but that doesn’t mean that Andrew Lloyd Webber isn’t already on track to premiere a new musical.

Speaking to The Telegraph this weekend, composer Lloyd Webber revealed that he had completed his next “big” show – “though its subject and title remain under wraps”.

Rumblings earlier this year on tabloids suggested that Lloyd Webber would be teaming up again with Tim Rice to produce tunes for a Sherlock Holmes-themed show, though that may be a separate project. Last year, Lloyd Webber also discussed doing an immersive theatre production, believing “the next thing I do may go a different way.”

In the meantime, he has Starlight Express to grapple with. Lloyd Webber revealed to The Telegraph that the show is in some ways dedicated to his late son Nicholas Lloyd Webber, who died last spring. One of the prompts for the musical in the 1980s was a trip to the US, where Nicholas Lloyd Webber saw a steam train for the first time and was awed: “I’ll never forget Nick’s face when he saw a steam train coming.”

[JBM84]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 10:19am

The immersive show is rumored to be Phantom made with the folks at Punchdrunk in LA. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 10:25am

What a threatening title for a thread.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 11:10am

He’ll be announcing it at the New Year’s masquerade ball. 

[QueenTwinnied]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 11:14am

Spare us

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 11:21am

Well, I’m excited for a new ALW musical!  Sure his last show left a lot to be desired and was a tabloid mess, but he’s one of the last true old school musical theater writers we have and he’s written some brilliant things. After “Bad Cinderella”, maybe he has something to prove?

Updated On: 6/9/24 at 11:21 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 12:01pm

Jordan Catalano said: "Well, I’m excited for anew ALW musical!Sure his last show left a lot to be desired and was a tabloid mess, but he’s one of the last true old school musical theater writers we have and he’s written some brilliant things. After “Bad Cinderella”, maybe he has something to prove?"

I think he still has good tunes in him. The big problem is his micro-management style, where he is the main auteur of his shows and he hasn't worked with great directors on his past few new musicals. I've made this comp before, but it greatly resembles the post-Hammerstein era of Richard Rodgers' output.

There's no question that BAD CINDERELLA would have been a much better show if he let Emerald Fennell do her thing with the book and if it had a stronger musical comedy director/choreographer with an authorial hand like Jerry Mitchell or Casey Nicholaw or Sam Pinkleton or Luke Sheppard. (plus solving the leading lady problem.)

I hope the recent trend of letting people like Ivo and Jamie Lloyd and the CATS guys revive his shows could lead to some bigger swings with his next new musicals.

Or write an actual opera. I'd like to hear it. Any opera house would commission him, and in opera the composer is king.

 

[MysteriousLady]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 12:46pm

Wait I thought everyone was too woke for him to write a new musical?

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 1:37pm

I agree a lot with both Ermengarde and Jordan, and I didn't completely hate Bad Cinderella (I actually liked a lot of the music, though not the ones that were promoted as singles).  What he really needs is just to work with a real director (or at this point anyone that's not Lawrence Connor) for a new work and I'd be excited to see it.  I know he's complained about costs in the past (particularly for Broadway), but I'd also love to see a big lavish musical reminiscent of the megamusical period from him.

[DrewJoseph]

Posted: 6/9/24 at 3:36pm

Hope he didnt try to be modern again this time around

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 8:46am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "...write an actual opera. I'd like to hear it. Any opera house would commission him, and in opera the composer is king."

I'd love this.

 

[Sharpie3]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 11:22am

Worse Cinderella

[Owen22]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 11:39am

Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius. Unfortunately since Tim Rice he refuses to work with other geniuses. And it really, really drags him down.

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 11:56am

Owen22 said: "Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius. Unfortunately since Tim Rice he refuses to work with other geniuses. And it really, really drags him down."

He did pretty well with Charles Hart. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 11:58am

Sharpie3 said: "Worse Cinderella"

 

You beat me to the punch.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 12:03pm

Owen22 said: "Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius. Unfortunately since Tim Rice he refuses to work with other geniuses. And it really, really drags him down."

The story was he and Rice were doing “Sherlock Holmes” together - if that’s what this new show is it would be VERY exciting. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 1:07pm

If it's Sherlock Holmes, he fills a century-old gap in "definitive stage Sherlock Holmes show..." as long as the show is at least mediocre if not good or great. 

I have a feeling we're about to see a definitive stage Dracula shortly, because the still-popular Balderston/Deane version is public domain, and next year their revised script for the film version is public domain as well. The one knock against the stage show has always been that the film's Act 1 in Dracula's Castle is SO MUCH BETTER than the rest of the film (and the entirety of the stage play), so finally inserting that as a canonical portion of the stage show will make that basically unbeatable.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 1:31pm

I wonder if ALW would ever try again at adapting "The Master and Margarita". It was either that or Phantom.

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 2:08pm

I'd love to see ALW do any gothic tale. His music suits such pieces perfectly.

Updated On: 6/10/24 at 02:08 PM

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/10/24 at 2:22pm

fashionguru_23 said: "I wonder if ALW would ever try again at adapting "The Master and Margarita". It was either that or Phantom."

I wasn't familiar with that work, so had to do a quick Wikipedia scan. Sounds bizarre and very interesting!

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 6/11/24 at 10:48am

Not a fan of his public persona, but I hope that it is a big hit and makes everybody a lot of money.  

[bway1430]

Posted: 6/12/24 at 2:07am

Re "Master & Margarita" I was thinking the same. There were elements that he couldn't figure out how to translate so he gave up but maybe he gave it another try.

I wonder why he has never been commissioned to write a ballet score. Seems "Master and Margarita" would be an interesting choice as a dance piece.