I am not an Andrew Lloyd Webber hater though I understand what people hate about him. He wears the disguise of a serious opera composer when he is really a pop writer hack at his best on overblown MOR ballads.
So what do I care if that's what he is, when he is on he is unbeatble: "Memories" "Don't Cry For Me, ARgentina" "I Don't Know How To Love Him"., "Like Me Never Said Goodbye"… and that's just off the top of my head.
The most recent was the last, and that dates from 1993. So when ALW explains the disastrous West End Production of "Phantom Of The Opera: Love Never Dies" on his being distracted by his battle with prostrate cancer, the reply is: yes, but, what about the decades in between.
This is what ALW told the London Evening Standard. "I had a unique issue because I got cancer in the middle of all of it. With hindsight, we should have said, 'Let's put the whole thing on hold until I'm 100 per cent again'. Frankly, I wasn't feeling very well."
The revamped P2 is playing to raves in Australia and heading to the Great White Way next. Webber again: "There is no question that this (new) production cannot be improved upon. It's fabulous to look at and they completely understand what I'm trying to get at with the score. It has a momentum that is wonderful."
I will absolutely be checking out (and would recommend Bono and the edge go to Sydney to figure out how to make Spidey work) the show when it hits Broadway.
In the meantime, quick grading of the ALW shows I've actually seen:
Joseph And the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968) Grade: B+
Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) Grade: A
Jeeves (1975) Grade: A
Evita (1976) Grade: A
Cats (1981) Grade: D+
The Phantom Of The Opera (1976) Grade: A+
Sunset Boulevard (1993). Grade: C+
The Woman In White (2004) Grade: D+