Don’t get me wrong, I think the Lord has done some pretty stupid things in his time, (*cough* Woman in White *bleurgh*) but for some reason a few blunders in the naughties have made a lot of people forget the wonder of ALW in the eighties.
Can we have a moment for Evita? Phantom of the Opera? Jesus Christ Superstar? Joseph? (apparently the most popular of his shows even though I hate it) CATS?!?
Okay okay, so he went a bit mental and produced Bombay Dreams… and we shan’t mention Woman in White any more than we have to… and he’s taken to parading his questionable mug on reality TV of late, but you can’t deny the man is a genius. Really Useful own some of the best theatres in the West End; the Palladium, the Palace, Drury Lane etc, and he’s ROLLING in it, Phantom in Coney Island stylee.
I may not like to look at his face, but I have a heck of a lot of respect for Andrew Lloyd Webber. If it wasn’t for him (and Cats, so let’s give TS Elliot a tiny bit of credit) I wouldn’t be where I am today.
So anyway, this is why I get a little bit agitated when people slag him off (not me, I do it with love) considering that they probably wouldn’t be in their jobs either without ALW. It’s an unwritten rule that pretty much anyone who’s anyone in this business has worn a RUG waistcoat and torn a few tickets at some point in their lives. This evening I caught up with NYE for a quick bite. I walked down to Covent Garden after work to meet him after his hairdressers appointment.
Foolishly, I forgot that NYE is the biggest Metro in the world and so I was waiting for ages while his stylist cut his hair follicle at a time, I swear.
We nipped into the nearest place, which happened to be a steakhouse – joy for the vegetarian – and got onto the subject of the industry. Obviously. I mean, what else do me and NYE talk about? If we didn’t we might have to cover the whole underlying sexual tension thing and nobody wants to do that! Anyway, talking about my new job and whatnot, I mentioned that in my career so far I’d encountered just about every producer worth their salt and if I stay with my current company (which I intend to do) I’ll probably get to work with all of them at some point in the next ten years, paving the way for my glorious takeover of the West End in the 20′s. Then I said the only one I hadn’t really worked with at all was Andrew Lloyd Webber. NYE responded; ‘Ugh, would you want to?’ in an incredulous tone, and then proceeded to go off on an anti Lloyd Webber rant.
Um… yes?
NYE, I love him dearly, but he runs a tiny little production company barely breaking even and works for an agent with practically no one on their books. I have no doubt that the future holds great things for him, but if he continues to diss the bigwigs he’s going to end up pissing the wrong person off.
NUMBER ONE RULE IN THE WEST END: Everyone knows EVERYONE. You have to beso careful what you say and who you say it to!
These are words of wisdom NYE. Sort it out man.
Anyhow, I’m actually in my bed now so I’m going to close my eyes and let my laptop fall to the floor. Just cleaned the house MANICALLY as Sneezey Kate (insert better name later roomie) is coming to visit this weekend and we’re going to go see hippies get naked in Hair tomorrow night.
Sweet dreams!
RitziCx
