Hotshot contemporary directors put their stamp on classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals
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Spanish actor Antonio Banderas (left) and British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber at a photocall for Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera, in Madrid on Oct 3.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
NEW YORK – The closing of The Phantom Of The Opera
But now comes an unexpected new chapter in the career of one of musical theatre’s most successful, if not always appreciated, composers: Several adventurous contemporary directors are declaring they love his work and want to put their stamp on it.
Ivo van Hove, a Belgian director known for his profuse use of video and viscous fluids, is tackling Jesus Christ Superstar in Amsterdam, while Jamie Lloyd, the British auteur with a penchant for Pinter and an aversion to scenery, is sharpening Sunset Boulevard in London.
In the United States, Sammi Cannold is putting a feminist spin on Evita, while Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston are humanising Cats.
The shows, and Lloyd Webber himself, occupy a paradoxical place in the theatrical canon.
Critics have sometimes dismissed his work as overwrought.
But Evita, Cats and Sunset Boulevard won best musical Tony Awards, and all four shows are widely staged and enormously popular. These new productions, reflecting contemporary trends, are emphasising psychology and politics over spectacle and sentiment.
Lloyd Webber, 75, said in an interview that there is no grand strategy at work here – that the directors individually sought permission to stage the shows.
But he added that he believes it is healthy to allow others to explore older material in new ways.
“When I was approached, I just thought, ‘Well, great. Why not?’” said the English impresario. “You can’t just sit on these things.”
Even Starlight Express, one of his zanier musicals which involves actors on roller skates pretending to be trains, is getting a reboot: Luke Sheppard, the & Juliet director, is reimagining it for a run scheduled to begin in London in 2024.
The productions come after a rough patch for Lloyd Webber.
His latest musical, Bad Cinderella, bombed on Broadway,
But he is undeterred. In August, he signed with Creative Artists Agency, the powerhouse talent representatives. A month later, he named a new chief executive for Really Useful Group, the company he owns that licenses and manages his shows.
“I really must concentrate, in the latter days of my composing life, on creating and writing,” Lloyd Webber said. “It’s exciting that there are so many directors now coming forward, who are the directors everybody is going to at the moment. And it’s very interesting to me to hear new minds and see new ideas.”
Here is a look at four upcoming reinventions.
Jesus Christ Superstar, Sunset Boulevard, Evita and Cats are the four Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals that will be getting a fresh spin by contemporary directors.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
London: Sunset Boulevard
Forget the staircase and the turban. Jamie Lloyd is bringing an intense interest in psychological exploration to Sunset Boulevard – putting the emphasis, he says, “on people and their emotional journey”.
With that aim, he asked Lloyd Webber to rework some aspects of the score “to lean into the darkness and peculiarity of certain moments that are dream-like or nightmarish”. And, to his surprise, Lloyd Webber agreed. “He’s been so open,” Lloyd said, “which is kind of crazy”.
The production, which is running at London’s Savoy Theatre, ends with a rush of blood and integrates live camera work in a nod to the Hollywood milieu of Sunset Boulevard. Lloyd called it “a hybrid between theatre and cinema”.
Lloyd, 42, did not grow up seeing theatre. But his father, a truck driver, liked listening to show tunes, and that was how Lloyd first encountered Lloyd Webber’s songs.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2019. Lloyd, by then an acclaimed experimental director, had moved on from his Lloyd Webber fixation, or so he thought.
But when he was invited to stage a musical outdoors, in Regent’s Park, one show came to mind: Evita.
Then, idled at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, he found himself imagining what he could do with Sunset Boulevard.
“The characters he chooses to write about are weird and otherworldly, often with tormented minds, and the scores take these big leaps which are good to explore,” Lloyd said. “They are like fever dreams, and they respond well to a more experimental, less traditional approach.”
Washington: Evita
Sammi Cannold has long been obsessed with Evita.
At 29, she is 16 years younger than the musical, but still remembers hearing the songs as a kid in New York and seeing the revival that starred Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. As an aspiring director, she proclaimed it her “dream project”.
She has been nothing if not determined. She directed a production of Evita while an undergrad at Stanford University, she visited Argentina thrice to do research, and then she pitched an Evita revival to New York City Center.
So in 2019, there was Cannold, directing a 12-day gala run of the Lloyd Webber classic. In 2023, she was able to develop it fully, staging it first at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and now – through Oct 15 – at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington.
Her take is informed by feminism, but also by the Argentinian regime’s authoritarianism. “When I started working on it, I was head over heels in love with political leader Eva Peron. I was so obsessed with her and her history, and I couldn’t really hear any of the criticism,” she said.
Amsterdam: Jesus Christ Superstar
Even in Belgium, where Ivo van Hove grew up, Jesus Christ Superstar was a big deal. The concept album was released in 1970 and the music has lived in his head ever since.
The 64-year-old, whose production of Dead Man Walking is this season’s Metropolitan Opera opener, is finally getting the chance to direct an English-language production of Jesus Christ Superstar set to begin performances in January at DeLaMar in Amsterdam.
He said: “First, it’s a story of a group of friends who became friends because they believed in one mission: to take care of the poor. Second, these friends become a threat to political and religious leaders. And third are the geopolitical tensions, in this case with Rome.
“These things feel like very contemporary themes.”
New York: Cats
The production of Cats
Whereas the original concerned a group of cats and was set in a junkyard, the characters in this production will be human beings, and it will be set in the Ballroom scene, a dance subculture closely associated with Black and Latino drag queens.
The idea was the brainchild of the Perelman Center’s artistic director Bill Rauch, 61, who saw the original Broadway production of Cats late in its long run. Co-director Zhailon Levingston, 29, had a different point of entry: a direct-to-video film from 1998.
“I’d be at the daycare centre, watching Barney, and they kept showing the trailer for Cats, and I didn’t know what they were doing. And one day, my mum and I were at (video rental store chain) Blockbuster, and I saw the black box with the yellow eyes, and said, ‘We have to get that,’” he recalled. “For two years of my life, I would just watch Cats.”
Now, Rauch and Levingston have hired choreographers with a connection to the Ballroom scene, and a gender consultant to help them navigate the complexities of a gender-non-conforming cast.
“The more time we spend with the material,” Rauch said, “the deeper my respect grows for it.” NYTIMES
