Lloyd Webber next musical?

[musicalmarge]

Reading today ALW says that he wants a serious next musical? Maybe on a subject like refugees? Any suggestions fellow board members? I’m still intrigued what he would do with Master and Margarita or the idea of him writing a musical on the true-life romance between Seretse Khama, heir to the throne of Bechuanaland (later Botswana) and his white british wife Ruth Williams Khama.



A serious Lloyd Webber musical with a controversial political figure would be good. Maybe with tragic ending. (Thinking Evita vibes)..... Harvey Milk? JFK? Martin Luther King?

Thoughts?

[johartuk]

Brian Epstein? We've seen glimpses of his life in the biopics and musicals about people like the Beatles and Cilla, but his life surely merits its own biopic or musical.

Joe Meek is another - there is a biopic on him, but a musical could be interesting.

[Jon]

Didn't ALW once flirt with the idea of doing Brief Encounter as a musical? After what happened with Stephen Ward, I'm not sure if he should be doing musicals based on real life events although I do like the idea of the Khama and Williams story as a musical.

I would like to see ALW team up with directors and lyricists who he hasn't worked with before, someone like Kwame Kwei-Armah would be good or perhaps Roy Williams.

[mrbarnaby]

I think maybe he should stop. And nurture upcoming musical writers instead. His last 4/5 shows have been… rubbish.

[Jon]

Jun 19, 2021 17:58:26 GMT mrbarnaby said:

I think maybe he should stop. And nurture upcoming musical writers instead. His last 4/5 shows have been… rubbish.

I suspect ALW  and probably Cameron will continue to work until there are physically unable to do it anymore.

I enjoyed School of Rock but it's no surprise it was the first ALW show in a very long time to run successfully both on Broadway and the West End, it was more laid back and fun compared to things like The Woman in White or Stephen Ward.

[BurlyBeaR]

His ego is too big to stop.

[westendboy]

I wouldn't mind seeing Lloyd-Webber teaming up with Trevor Nunn again, if that is possible. Unlike his relationship with Cameron Mackintosh, I think Nunn and ALW are still on good terms?

[mrbarnaby]

Trevor Nunn hasn’t done anything good in living memory either!

Both haven’t moved with the times and the idea of them teaming up isn’t an exciting one IMO

[cjamess]

Jun 19, 2021 21:36:01 GMT mrbarnaby said:

Trevor Nunn hasn’t done anything good in living memory either!

Both haven’t moved with the times and the idea of them teaming up isn’t an exciting one IMO

Acorn Antiques?

[danb]

Can I throw ‘Sunset Boulevard’ into the mix as a good, bordering on brilliant thing that Trevor Nunn has done.

[singingbird]

I’m really hoping ALW has at least one more serious musical in him. I think he’s a much better composer than he’s often given credit for, but his dodgy reputation is largely because he does himself no favours. Often, the moment his work is starting to get interesting, he goes off and creates something really cheesy or crass. I think he is at his best with his more adult, serious works – JCS, Evita, Variations, Aspects, Sunset. I’d even rather hear a noble failure, like Stephen Ward, than some of his other material.

I know it will never happen, but I’d like him to write a major new show with Tim Rice. The recent release of Marry for love, from Cinderella, shows how badly he needs a lyricist with an acidity and spikiness to undercut his sweet touch. Marry for Love sounds like the sickliest greetings card sentiment and TR would never have set a lyric like that to the music. He would have found a more unusual angle, a little twist, something to give it ‘the butterfly sting’ (to quote one of his lyrics to an ALW tune that later appeared in Stephen Ward). It’s not that I want full out cynicism, just something that feels more nuanced and three-dimensional.

I’d also like him to get his skates on. Between Evita (1976) and Phantom (1986) he created four large musicals, a set of variations, a song cycle and his Requiem, along with a sprinkling of stand-alone songs. He combined the variations and song cycle into another musical, re-wrote the song cycle for the American market, and showed an adventurousness in tackling ideas outside the obvious (setting poems to music, writing non-theatre scores). I know he was young then, and hungry to cement his reputation, but wouldn’t it be amazing if he spent the next ten years (which he hopefully still has) working like that?

Personally, I’d like him to write something for a medium other than musical theatre. A ballet, perhaps, or another concert piece, or something for film, TV or the web. Alternatively, I’d like him to think outside the conventions of commercial West End theatre and make a musical that really challenges the form. Maybe something site-specific? Or perhaps – a random idea – two musicals launched simultaneously, set in different locations and time periods, but sharing themes and musical ideas. The musical ideas could be treated differently in each, based on where/when the stories are set, but echo each other. If you just saw one it would work fine as a stand-alone piece, but if you saw both then they’d paint a much bigger picture.

He’s the only theatre composer still working who has the money and name to really create something unique and actually get it in front of audiences. I hope he realises what an opportunity he has.

[stagebyte]

Jun 19, 2021 17:57:15 GMT Jon said:

Didn't ALW once flirt with the idea of doing Brief Encounter as a musical? After what happened with Stephen Ward, I'm not sure if he should be doing musicals based on real life events although I do like the idea of the Khama and Williams story as a musical.

I would like to see ALW team up with directors and lyricists who he hasn't worked with before, someone like Kwame Kwei-Armah would be good or perhaps Roy Williams.

I’d love a musical version of Brief Encounter but as the Rachmaninov music is so beautiful and synonymous with the film version I’m not sure it would work

[Nicholas]

Cats 2: This Time It's Purr-sonal.

[musicalmarge]

Jun 19, 2021 17:58:26 GMT mrbarnaby said:

I think maybe he should stop. And nurture upcoming musical writers instead. His last 4/5 shows have been… rubbish.

School of Rock though musically bland and stonky was a super show. Love Never Dies Oz version though the story was questionable sounded gorgeous

I think he has 2 more shows left in him. A luscious romantic score with hard hitting book and story.

[stagebyte]

Jun 20, 2021 14:20:22 GMT musicalmarge said:

Jun 19, 2021 17:58:26 GMT mrbarnaby said:

I think maybe he should stop. And nurture upcoming musical writers instead. His last 4/5 shows have been… rubbish.

School of Rock though musically bland and stonky was a super show.

Yes lots of fun. Those saying he ‘hasn’t had a hit in years’ it was actually a 4 and 5 star hit according to the critics. They loved it and so did audiences. Myself included! Lots of fun.

[barrowside]

I'd love him to do Moonstruck perhaps keeping some of the La Boheme motifs from the film. Another one would be Cinema Paradiso with a score inspired by the Morricone soundtrack if they were allowed. I think Harvey Weinstein had the musical rights for Cinema Paradiso so not sure where they are now.

[crabtree]

We've had Meryl as Florence Foster Jenkins, and i know there was a play, but if ever a life was right for a musical it's hers. Also Joe carstairs (Queen of whale cay) would be brilliant - a life so bizarre as to almost be unbelievable.

[inthenose]

Jun 21, 2021 12:44:24 GMT crabtree said:

We've had Meryl as Florence Foster Jenkins, and i know there was a play, but if ever a life was right for a musical it's hers. Also Joe carstairs (Queen of whale cay) would be brilliant - a life so bizarre as to almost be unbelievable.

This would be interesting, but hard to imagine how it would work? The only way I can think of is the audience hearing her as the "voice in her head", as she thinks she sounds.

[viserys]

Jun 21, 2021 12:50:01 GMT inthenose said:

Jun 21, 2021 12:44:24 GMT crabtree said:

We've had Meryl as Florence Foster Jenkins, and i know there was a play, but if ever a life was right for a musical it's hers. Also Joe carstairs (Queen of whale cay) would be brilliant - a life so bizarre as to almost be unbelievable.

This would be interesting, but hard to imagine how it would work? The only way I can think of is the audience hearing her as the "voice in her head", as she thinks she sounds.

Yea, I've involuntarily paid for bad screeching on stage, but I wouldn't consciously pay for it. 

[Jon]

In regards to future collaborators, it would be interesting to see ALW team up with a lyricist who can also compose like Pasek and Paul or Tim Minchin, I think the only lyricist he's ever teamed up with who was also a composer was Jim Steinman on Whistle Down the Wind.

[newyorkcityboy]

There have been failed attempts before, but I'd like him to musicalise Rebecca. There's scope there for a sweeping romantic score and (though it may be too similar to Woman In White) a thumping good plot.

[steve10086]

Jun 21, 2021 19:13:32 GMT Jon said:

In regards to future collaborators, it would be interesting to see ALW team up with a lyricist who can also compose like Pasek and Paul or Tim Minchin, I think the only lyricist he's ever teamed up with who was also a composer was Jim Steinman on Whistle Down the Wind.

Please not “Pasek & Paul” with their ultra generic “everyone is special” songs.

[Peter]

It was rumoured (quite a while ago - possibly before/after The Women in White?) that he was doing something around The Master and Margarita - it would be fascinating to see what he (or indeed anyone!) would make of that…

[mrbarnaby]

Can he just NOT a write a new /recycled musical
Please?

He should just support and nurture new writing now. And buy some paintings for his living room.

[musicalmarge]

I think after watching the horror of Cinderella we can safely say his best composing is sweeping stringed melodies and romantic tragedies.

My vote is for a musical on Alan Turing:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

Amazing story and legacy, early tragic death, ticks the woke/gay/pc modern box ticking (I say that in a positive way) and is complex, fascinating and changed the world.

I might even write to ALW and suggest it! I’m feeling Evita meets London vibes and chorus.