![]() ![]() Credit: Louie DouvisĪt the heart of all these productions lies a succession of killer melodies. The main cast members for The Phantom of the Opera: Callum Francis (Raoul), Georgina Hopson (Christine) and Joshua Robson (Phantom). He has had a show on Broadway continuously since 1979 and Phantom, which opened there in 1988, is its longest-ever running production. He dropped out of Oxford after meeting Tim Rice who was to become his frequent lyricist collaborator, and the pair were on their way to their first Broadway show, the rock-infused, revolutionary Jesus Christ Superstar. With a head full of theatre he was a less than diligent scholar, however, when the possibility arose to switch to study music instead, his father wisely counselled against it, saying formal instruction would only “educate the music out of him”. Despite having been in Sydney only a couple of days, he had already found time to take in the Gothic Revival charms of St Mary’s Cathedral.ĭue in large part to this passion he ended up at Magdalen College, Oxford, to study history. The origins of his fascination with architecture, which resulted in many family holidays driven by his precocious desire to tick off this church or that grand house, remain equally opaque. Much of his childhood was spent mounting his own musical productions in an intricately detailed toy theatre dubbed the Harrington Pavilion after the family home at 10 Harrington Court, South Kensington. You don’t find young people are as passionate about melody. ![]() The majority of records have no melody at all now. The theatricality of things and performance go back as far as I can remember.” “I can’t explain where the theatre came from,” he says. Exactly where these twin obsessions sprang from, he finds hard to pin down. Lloyd Webber was an unusual child whose earliest memories are dominated by his fascination with architecture – particularly unfashionable Victorian architecture – and equally unfashionable musical theatre. What better than a little birthday Rigatoni alla Genovese? And don’t forget the green salad. In his 2018 autobiography Unmasked (“autobiographies are by definition self-serving and mine is no exception”), he describes a bohemian upbringing populated by an endless parade of eccentric relatives and family friends. His father William was a composer and organist, his mother Jean a pianist, and younger brother Julian a celebrated solo cellist. Lloyd Webber was born in London on Ma– which makes our lunch date his birthday, a fact he skips over, saying at his age it’s scarcely cause for celebration. At my old age, I actually think that productions I don’t have anything to do with seem to be rather better than the ones I do. “I have absolutely nothing to do with it. “It’s completely out of my control,” he says. ![]() Credit: Steven SiewertĪs we settle down to a light meal (rigatoni alla Genovese and salad), I wonder whether watching a fresh production of Phantom causes the slightest butterflies. Across the bay and just hidden from view, Opera Australia workers, with fingers crossed for clear skies on Friday’s opening night, are putting the finishing touches to the over-water stage on which Phantom will play.Īndrew Lloyd Webber celebrating his birthday in Sydney. Lunch is at Il Pontile, on the wharf at Woolloomooloo, and Sydney has turned on one of those classic glittering days we have almost forgotten about this summer. He’s visiting Sydney to cast an eye over Opera Australia’s new Simon Phillips-directed production of Phantom. It seems perfectly fitting then that the composer arrives for lunch – bang on time – dressed down in jeans and polo shirt, looking more suburban grandad than a peer of the realm with a net worth, if the Sunday Times Rich List is to be believed, that hovers around $1 billion. For more than half a century Andrew Lloyd Webber has built his worldwide musical theatre empire on being fashionably unfashionable, pursuing his vision and cheerfully ignoring whatever the trend of the day might be.ĭespite inevitable misses along the way, he has amassed with this idiosyncratic single-mindedness a string of hit shows including Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera.
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