How to personalize the music of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber

LLOYD WEBER MUSIC. Manila music aficionados will be treated to a 13-day run of the Australian production “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” starting June 24 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. AFP Photo

“My father was the director of the London College of Music. But he was very, very eclectic in his tastes. He allowed any kind of music into the house if he thought it was any good. So we had a very, very varied background and, of course, I absorbed everything. One of the things that had tremendous influence on me was a weekly television pop program filmed very theatrically. The theater of rock ’n’ roll hit me completely through that program. My ambition was hugely to write for musical theater. My father was very, very insistent that I was not formally, musically trained too much. He thought in my case that there would be a danger that the music would be educated out of me.”

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FROM two out of four large LED screens onstage, the irrefutable star of the show, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber—creator of about 30 original musical theater songs (not counting a medley) on this production’s playlist, songs that had crossed over to pop hit charts—thus speaks at every performance to an enrapt audience. Interestingly, the scene is something like a cult leader addressing followers via closed–circuit television.

“The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” is a stage presentation in concert format, with a visual twist. Those LED screens don’t just take up space onstage that would otherwise be empty. Over lunch in Sydney, producer James Cundall explained to several Manila journalists who had watched the show at the Lyric Star City Theater the night before: “Those screens flash relevant images, so that when you are listening to songs from ‘Evita’ you’re taken to Argentina, when they’re songs from ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ you go to Paris Opera House; for ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ you’re in Texas, and so on …”

The titles are a dream musical theater buffet: “Aspects of Love,” “Tell Me on a Sunday,” “Evita,” “Starlight Express,” “Song & Dance,” “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and its sequel, “Love Never Dies,” “Cats,” “The Woman in White,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Requiem,” “Whistle Down the Wind.” And the show is Manila-bound.

Lloyd Webber music had been showcased in concert-style presentations before, Cundall clarified, but he found “static” sets “boring.” Early in this one’s planning stage, therefore, he broached the idea of the screens to the creative team, and what came back to him was an improved version of that idea, which is now an integral part of the show.

‘Unbearably talented’

Given that the songs on the bill are “tasters,” as lead singer Michael Cormick puts it, from 14 shows that span 43 years of British musical theater, the screens do help situate the numbers, familiar or un. Not that the Lyric Theater audience seemed to need help in that aspect. Turns out, “out of costume” doesn’t necessarily mean out of context for the eight “gorgeous and almost unbearably talented stars”—Director Stuart Maunder’s words—in the cast. (All eight were first choices, Cundall noted; each one had been “invited” to audition.)

Cormick, who does, among others, “High Flying, Adored” from “Evita,” “The Music of the Night” from “Phantom,” and “Sunset Boulevard,” explained to the journalists later that same day: “The costume does give you a character. I did ‘Beauty and the Beast’ for a long time … wearing all [those garments] helps you become a beast. Here, you jump into ‘Phantom’ cold from nowhere… but that’s what keeps you on your toes.”

More deliberate about his approach is young classical singer Blake Bowden, who delivers a riveting version of “Till I Hear You Sing,” from the “Phantom” sequel “Love Never Dies”—definitely a show stopper: “Not being in costume doesn’t affect me all that much. For me, every song is a whole performance; I do not think of it as being part of a larger story.” Indeed, Bowden’s “Till I Hear You Sing” is proof that one need not have previously seen a certain Lloyd-Webber show, or even heard the song, to enjoy this production.

What appeals to Andrew Conaghan, who has as many solo numbers as Cormick—plus, curiously, all the kissing scenes—is taking every one of his characters “on a different journey” than their back stories. He said he has imbued each with “a little Andy.” Asked about cornering the smooch spots, Conaghan cracked up but did not offer an explanation.

Kirsten Hobbs, by her own admission, is the “least experienced” of the cast members. But of her three solos, two are among the most wildly applauded. All she set out to do, she said, was, “make the song, instead of myself, shine. I want the audience to take something, savor the lyrics and personalize every song for themselves.”

Half-Singaporean Alinta Chidzey was thrilled to learn that one of the songs assigned to her, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” is a certified Pinoy pleaser. Does this make it, for her then, an instance of the song, not the singer? “For sure, the songs are stars in themselves and anyone can try to sing any of them,” Chidzey replied. “Still, as an artist, it is my obligation to perform them better, better than most [people].”

Meeting the cast

Prior to pocket interviews, the Manila journalists’ group met the cast backstage after the Lyric Theater performance. A familiar face was Shaun Rennie, who had been in Lunchbox Theatrical Productions’ (founded by Cundall) “Cats,” staged last year at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Another was Australasian theater superstar Delia Hannah, whom the group had caught as Grizabella in the same production in Brisbane, also last year. Lea Salonga replaced Hannah for the Manila run. Based on the number of solo spots, and if one had to be named, Hannah is the female star (to Cormick’s lead male), of “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.”

Producer Cundall does not encourage the labeling, however. “Delia and Michael are supposedly the two stars of the show but we make them do ensemble work as well. So you sometimes see them in the chorus,” he pointed out.

Based on individual performances, the spectator would be hard–pressed to make a choice; it’s easier to pick by song titles. This writer singled out four numbers: Bowden’s “Till I Hear You Sing”; Hannah’s “Memory” from “Cats”; “Pie Jesu” from “Requiem,” rendered flawlessly and movingly by Hobbs and the unbelievable Trisha Crowe; “The Music of the Night” from “Phantom,” by Cormick.

Asian stops

As Cundall meets the local press on Monday in Makati City, the production heads for Hong Kong, and then Manila for a 13–day run at the CCP starting June 24. Cast, crew and the famous screens arrive on June 20.

Cundall, a former banker, is pretty confident that the Australian reception to “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” is about to be replicated here, and also in Singapore, and then South Africa, Europe and the United Kingdom, where the show proceeds to from Manila.

“We don’t produce high art,” Cundall explained at the Sydney lunch. “We produce shows that make people happy. With this one, we made sure that, first and foremost, Sir Andew Lloyd Webber was happy.”

He hasn’t met the man, Cundall said. “The artistic team spent time with him. Meeting the producer doesn’t achieve very much, you see. With the musical supervisor, he could talk about the third chord in ‘Love Never Dies,’ and the transition to this or that… such things. He wanted something of a love story structure, too, so you see the sequencing that we have. All in all, we can say he is happy with this, yes.”

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