Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber Block, Geoffrey (large ebook reader .txt) 📖

The first of these was Cats in 1981, an unusual show that abandoned a traditional book and instead added a loose revue-like story line to T. S. Eliot’s poetic collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). Unlike a traditional revue, Cats was told entirely through dance and song. The song “Memory,” Trevor Nunn’s reworking of another Eliot poem not part of Practical Cats called “Rhapsody on a Windy Night,” surpassed in popularity even the big song hits of Jesus Christ Superstar (“I Don’t Know How to Love Him”) and Evita (“Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”). In his next show, Starlight Express (1984), with lyrics by Richard Stilgoe (who would contribute about 20 percent of the lyrics to Phantom), toy trains come to life, perform on roller skates, and sing a rock based score with a smattering of other popular vernacular styles (blues, spirituals, gospel, and country).

One year after Starlight, Lloyd Webber produced yet another album that would eventually lead to a staged show, this time a hit single and promotional music video of the title song of The Phantom of the Opera performed by his new bride Sarah Brightman and lead rock singer Steve Harley. That same year, July 1985, a rough rock-oriented version of act I was performed at Lloyd Webber’s annual summer Sydmonton Festival, a performance that introduced his new and previously untested lyricist Charles Hart then only twenty-four. Not wanting to be influenced by a performance, however unpolished, Prince stayed away from Sydmonton but would soon join Lloyd Webber and Hart to shape the work into its present form.

Popularity …

It took some time for Sondheim to gain a wide following and critical respect as a composer-lyricist. I have duly noted allegations of coldness, a lack of melody, and, when discussing Sunday in the Park with George, even the absence of a second act. Despite enormous critical praise and scholarly attention, not one Sondheim show lasted as many as one thousand performances during its first Broadway run. Most lasted fewer, and some considerably fewer, than five hundred performances.

By contrast, from the early 1970s to the present, Lloyd Webber has enjoyed record-breaking success on both sides of the Atlantic. The facts are indisputable. Via immense popular and commercial success (with a few exceptions in New York), the British composer of Jesus Christ Superstar (New York, 1971; London, 1972), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (London 1972; New York, 1981), Evita (London, 1978; New York, 1979), Cats (London, 1981; New York, 1982), Starlight Express (London, 1984; New York, 1987), The Phantom of the Opera (London, 1986; New York, 1988), Aspects of Love (London, 1989; New York, 1990), and Sunset Boulevard (London and Los Angeles, 1993; New York, 1994) has achieved unprecedented popular acclaim on Broadway and still greater popularity in London’s West End.2 With the two longest all-time Broadway runs (Phantom, Cats) and three of the top five West End runs (Phantom, Cats, Starlight), Lloyd Webber is simply the most popular Broadway composer of the post–Rodgers and Hammerstein era and probably of all time. Paul Prece and William Everett summarize the economic and geographic reach of the Phantom: “In January 2006, it was reported that Phantom alone had grossed more money than any other production on stage and screen (£1.7 billion/approximately $3.2 billion), surpassing huge money-making films such as Star Wars, E.T., and Titanic. The show has been seen by over eighty million people.”3

One unmistakable sign of success and critical acclaim is the number of major awards a show and its creators earn in a given year and over time. Comparing the awards to Lloyd Webber and Sondheim, the two dominant Broadway composers of the past several decades, and to the number of Tonys awarded to each for Best Score, Sondheim owns a distinct advantage. Between 1971 and 1994 Sondheim received six awards for Best Score (Company, Follies, Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Passion). Lloyd Webber received three between 1980 and 1995 (Evita, Cats, and Sunset Boulevard).4 From this elite group all but Follies and Into the Woods also won the Tony Award for Best Show.

Since Phantom was nominated the same year as Woods, it would have been necessary for the shows to share the award for both to win. In some sense they did share the award in that Phantom received the award for Best Musical, Director (Prince), the three major design awards (Maria Björnson for both scenic and costume design and Andrew Bridge for lighting), principal actor (Michael Crawford as the Phantom), and actress in a featured role (Judy Kaye as the Prima Donna Carlotta Guidicelli), while Into the Woods took home the awards for Book (James Lapine), Score (Sondheim), and principal actress (Joanna Gleason as the Baker’s Wife). Staging awards to Phantom, the writing awards to Into the Woods, and a split in acting awards (with the edge to Phantom).

In the years since Into the Woods (November 5, 1987) and shortly thereafter Phantom (January 26, 1988) first arrived on Broadway, the former show, with a solid but unremarkable 765 performances, has already experienced a seven-month revival in 2002 (18 previews and 279 performances). Meanwhile, The Phantom of the Opera, like Carlotta in Follies, is still here. Four years after the Into the Woods revival closed, on January 9, 2006, Phantom surpassed another Lloyd Webber musical, Cats, as Broadway’s longest running show. At the time this is written Phantom has reached 8,771 performances, giving it the distinction of being the first to cross 8,000. Cats remains in second place at 7,485.

Among currently running shows only the revival of Chicago (5,088) or The Lion King (4,720) are in any position to overtake these two Lloyd Webber megamusical megahits, and these still have long way to go.5 From the New York arrival of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971 to the present, the sun has yet to set on the Lloyd Webber era either on Broadway or in the West End. As