Bored by Webber shows

Saw Cats years ago once and that was enough.

Phantom of the Opera was the most boring show I have seen.

Saw Evita last year when it played downtown. This is supposed to be his best show? Ewwwww.

Phantom was also directed and staged by Prince.

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I'm not a big Webber fan. I go back and forth on Phantom. IMO, it depends on the chemistry and talent on stage. I've never seen Evita or Cats, but I have absolutely no desire to see Cats. Joseph is unique and fun, and although the last touring version I saw of that was hideous. Starlight Express is one of the most painful nights of the theatre I've ever experienced.

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Is NO ONE going to comment on the obviousness of this as a response to the 'boring Sondheim' thread?

JCS rates as my favorite Andrew Lloyd show. Though that isn't saying much, really

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Also, I would like to add that many of the complaints of Webber is really should not be directed towards him. A lot of people complain about the actual shows itself, so should the blame be completely Webbers, or being split between the lyricist, director, actors, etc.

I would also like to add that Tim Rice and Webber need to get back together.

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I love 90% of the music from THE BEAUTIFUL GAME. "Our Kind of Love" is one of the prettiest/sad songs written for the theatre.

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I love how people are so scared to say what they want. Everyone is like "oh, I really like this show, but I agree it's not that great and blah blah." If you like a show, be proud of it. I like Jesus Christ Superstar and Sunset Blvd. I'm not sure how either show could put you to sleep unless you took a hit of Benedryl before entering the theater. Evita is pretty good, but when I saw it, I wasn't too familiar with the story, so I was confused through most of it, and I hate the ending. I have yet to see CATS, but I'll see the tour when it comes around this season.

"I wouldn't call them masterpieces, but I love Evita and JCS. Eva is one of my dream roles."

See, that's what I don't get. Why say you like something and then totally discredit it within the same sentence. Don't be ashamed that you like ALW. I don't think anyone would say that about Sondheim. I just don't get why people are afraid to admit it. Obviously people like him, he's making bajillions (yeah, I said it) off of his shows.

How does he deserve to be the most influential man in musical theater industry? He wrote two major hits, yes, for that I admire him because someone who can make a hit out of a show as shallow and pointless as Cats has to have some sort of ingenuity. However, he has done NOTHING to advance the kind of musical theater that songwriters like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Harts, Jerome Kern, and Frank Loesser so well introduced (shows with wit, cynicism, intelligent yet entertaining without underestimating the audience intellect), the kind of shows that Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Maury Yeston later deconstructed and perfectioned, and the musical theater that new songwriters like Adam Guettel, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, William Finn, and Michael John LaChiusa keep changing and perfectioning. Sorry if this post seems like a laundry list of songwriters, but I cannot stand it when someone calls Lloyd Webber a man who deserves to be influential or a "genius." If he were a genius then he'd have known Bombay Dreams needed A LOT of work before even getting a workshop let alone a Broadway staging, if he were such a great composer he'd have done justice to the mysterious and suspenseful Gothic novel Woman in White instead of making a 2-hour long bore, and he would also have cared about providing Norma Desmond with new layers of character and he'd have done a much better job at depicting her madness instead of turning one of the best American films into a rather bland show with twenty reprises and a big set to wow the audience.

"He wrote two major hits"

FOSCAS, you might want to re-phrase that one.
So to you a show is not a major hit unless it plays on Broadway for at least 10 years or so? In that case A LOT of shows are NOT major hits, though they're making a lot of money, playing to sold-out houses night after night etc simply because they have only been around, say, like 5 years.

In those terms, he's had "two major hits" - ON BROADWAY!

You should remember:

STARLIGHT EXPRESS played in London for about 15 years
EVITA ran in London for 8 years (and 4 on Broadway)
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR ran in London for 8 years
ASPECTS OF LOVE ran in London for 6 years.

So I would definitely say he's had more than just "two major hits".

Wait, you mean "football" as in what we Americans call "soccer"? There was actually a musical about soccer?

I totally need to see this.

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I am definitely not a big fan of Webber. His scores scream mediocrity. Hal Prince is truly why his shows have been successful. ALW couldn't write a smooth transition if it killed him. I was listening to Sunset Boulevard, which sounds like a combination of Cats, Phantom and a little Evita. Oh dear.

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