Best ALW Shows?

[CorkySt.Clair]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 9:30am

Hi all,

I am always trying to broaden my theater horizons, and try not to write off any artists until I have experienced a full range of their talents. I only know Andrew Lloyd Webber from Phantom, which wasn't really my cup of tea. Which of his shows do you think shows the most cleverness and artistry? I would love to enjoy more of his shows (especially as I am a Sondheim nut and feel I have more to prove about not being totally biased). Thanks!

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 9:35am

I personally love Evita and Sunset Boulevard. 

[Lot666]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 9:43am

I've seen quite a few ALW shows (some of them many times) and own the cast recordings of many that I didn't have an opportunity to see when they were running. In my opinion, the best (in order) are:

Phantom of the Opera

The Woman in White

Sunset Boulevard

Love Never Dies

Evita

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Aspects of Love

Stephen Ward

Whistle Down the Wind

I've only ever seen one ALW show whose success confounded me: Cats. It includes worthwhile choreography and a few catchy numbers, and Memory is a gorgeous song, but there simply seems to be no point to it.

Updated On: 7/31/17 at 09:43 AM

[jtishere]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 10:18am

For me, his best scores are Sunset Boulevard, Evita and Phantom, with Sunset being his greatest achievement. 

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 10:27am

Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Sunset Boulevard are my favorites. 

[CorkySt.Clair]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 10:44am

Thank you all so much! I'll definitely try to check some of these out!

[asimplegal2]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 10:46am

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is my favorite because of it incorporates so many different styles of music and (for the most part) it knows how goofy and light-hearted it is!

[hork]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 11:31am

Jesus Christ Superstar is by far his best, in my opinion. I also like Evita and School of Rock. Pretty much everything else is awful.

[Willie4316]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 12:01pm

Love Never Dies, School of Rock and Sunset Boulevard are my favorites.

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 12:15pm

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is the only show I really enjoy. For me, ALW tends to be long-winded and repetitive. Even though it's definitely repetitive, I feel like SUPERSTAR moves at a faster clip than most of his other shows, and no one song feels overly long and tedious.

[TheThreadMaster]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 12:19pm

The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard are my favorites of his. Although a common  misconception with Webber shows is that people will sometimes assume that the whole show is his masterpiece when really all he did was the music. So from a music standpoint, I think all of them are rather fantastic. 

[JennH]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 12:36pm

Joseph is like of one those guilty pleasures for me, because it's such a fun, silly, and quirky take on a what usually seen as gritty, dramatic tale, and it's use of multiple types of music is 1000% the best thing about it, my favorites being Country for "One More Angel", the Benjamin Calypso, and using 50's rock and roll for Elvis Pharaoh!

I really have never known if I'm in the minority, but School of Rock is an absolute JAM and I love it. I had such a blast when I saw it a year ago, and those kids are RIDICULOUS talented. SoR is a funny one, because it's doesn't follow the normal pattern of how ALW tends to write, so I many times forget it's actually his. It's the most traditional in terms of having a "book" as it has the most "book" of any musical he's ever written, which the biggest reason I forget it's his. It's also straight up rock music in the vein of "Superstar" which is also his, which I certainly hope you know is his already, but JCS is more dramatic in nature, while SoR is more fun and upbeat.

 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 3:37pm

Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Aspects of  Love and Sunset Boulevard are my favorites.  I enjoy Phantom when I see it, but it's not a cast recording I revisit often.

[WestCoastActor/Director]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 3:59pm

I did not come from a theatergoing family. When I was a teen Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Siperstar was on my own personal find and I became obsessed with it.  I saw Joseph in Washington DC you back when it was still a shorter show with a male narrator.   

I saw the very first performance of the vita on Broadway. Turns out the joke was on me because it was a matinee and Miss LuPone did not perform but I saw the alternate- Terri Klausner.   

Then I discovered Sondheim and Sweeney Todd which left ALW is my new favorite Broadway composer. However at the Geffen Playhouse I saw his musical Jeeves or By Jeeves which was very charming and very atypical for his works. I would say definitely move to one of my favorite shows he's ever written.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 4:08pm

Delete -- double posted by accident

Updated On: 7/31/17 at 04:08 PM

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 4:10pm

I find that when an ALW show is designed and mounted in a good production, it's glorious theatre, but when his work is misdirected or misinterpreted, it's absolute hell to sit through. 

My favorites of his would be Phantom (at the very top, no question), Evita, Sunset Boulevard, and School of Rock.

Still waiting for that production of Jesus Christ Superstar to sell me on the show, because every version I've seen has made me want to rip my eyes out.  

[jtishere]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 4:59pm

As much as I adore the score, Hal Prince's masterful staging of POTO is one of the main drivers of its success as a piece of theatre and it's longevity. 

[jo]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 6:43pm

Aspects of Love/Sunset Boulevard/Phantom of the Opera/Jesus Christ Superstar/Evita/Woman in White...I don't think there is any ALW show/musical score that I really, really disliked. I wasn't a great fan of the show CATS itself but he did compose some exciting music to the poems of T.Eliott, including his best commercial hit MEMORY.

 

But certainly, one of the saddest and most poignant shows was the retitled A BEAUTIFUL GAME ( now Boys in the Photograph).  On the contrary, his Joseph /Coat is pure fun!

 

[Dave28282]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 6:48pm

The Phantom of the Opera is the best, followed by Sunset Boulevard and Evita.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 7:52pm

His collaborations with Tim Rice remain his best work - probably due to Rice's quirky lyrics and Webber's affinity for good rock opera. Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar are wonderful in the hands of the right directors and downright brilliant on record. After that, he stuck to his humorless, grand opera pastiche of lush poperetta and generally, with about 2 songs per score excepted, turned into predicatable, non-offensive mush. As is his wont, his better songs are reprised so much that you never know if they're really memeroble or just drilled into your brain.

That said, I absolute and without any irony adore the Broadway recording of Song and Dance - which suffers from what I write about above, but I don't care. "Unexpected Song" and "Tell Me On a Sunday" are gorgeous. I loved it so much I actually mounted and starred in a production for my high school senior project (it was a fundraiser for EC/BFA).

Updated On: 7/31/17 at 07:52 PM

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 8:26pm

Elvita, Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar.  Guilty pleasure = Sunset Boulevard 

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 8:31pm

Phantom, CATS, and Joseph are my favorites. 

[bwayfan4life]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 9:20pm

The arena modern version of Jesus Christ Superstar is available on CD. Filmed about two years ago. It is updated and uses current themes very well. It is an excellent version. I recommend you get it. I have seen all versions of the show and the music will stay with you long after seeing it. Also on Easter next year their will be a live version on NBC. Curious to see which version they choose. 

Updated On: 7/31/17 at 09:20 PM

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 9:24pm

Evita and Phantom of the Opera are probably his best works.  I'm not a huge ALW fan, but I still enjoy these two shows. Jesus Christ Superstar is good too, but I still find that it always leaves me cold.

[bwayfan4life]

Posted: 7/31/17 at 9:33pm

I have seen School of Rock twice. I totally agree. It does JAM for sure. I also love how they expanded on the kids lives and why they were so effected by Dewey. It makes the ending really have meaning for them that the movie didn't.