How ‘naff' Andrew Lloyd Webber staged an astonishing comeback

Telegraph

2 days ago

Who would have thought that the coolest composer of 2025, on both sides of the Atlantic, would turn out to be Andrew Lloyd Webber? On Sunday night Tony Awards voters handed the audacious new production of Sunset Boulevard three gongs: best revival of a musical, best lighting, and, ending the night's most fiercely competitive race, lead actress Nicole Scherzinger won over six-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald.
The show was in modish company, with other victors ranging from queer revisionist historical romp Oh, Mary! to futuristic robot musical Maybe Happy Ending and another West End-originating production, sci-fi adventure Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
Sunset's triumph caps an astonishing renaissance for the man who dominated musical theatre in the 1980s, but gradually became tagged with the 'naff' label. He was too big, too commercial, too lordly. The haters revelled in flops such as 2010's Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies (infamously rebranded as Paint Never Dries).
Several musicals did maintain worldwide success – Phantom primarily – but they were regarded as heritage properties. No one would have described the 77-year-old composer as current or fashionable. But just when it looked like Lloyd Webber might exit stage left, he has instead begun his surprising third act. Even his most zealous critics must admit that he is the man of the moment.
It's a particularly remarkable turnaround stateside, where this foreign intruder became a handy punching bag for commentators who rued the direction of Broadway. Lloyd Webber's work led the British Invasion in the 1980s: his mega-musicals became as renowned for their jaw-dropping spectacle, whether the hurtling chandelier in Phantom or or the roller-skaters' runway of Starlight Express, as their content.
He was held personally responsible for an encroaching commercialisation – an unfair charge, since Broadway has always been a business, and there were plenty of other contributors, not least the all-American Disney corporation.
When Lloyd Webber's most recent show, the pandemic lockdown-hobbled Cinderella, finally reached Broadway in 2023, critics savaged it with undisguised glee. (It didn't help that the title was changed to Bad Cinderella.) The New York Times called it 'sexed-up and dumbed-down', and the New York Post, in a one-star review, 'a wacko storybook dumpster fire'. It seemed to be the nail in Lloyd Webber's coffin.
Enter hotshot director Jamie Lloyd, who has a talent for bold reinterpretation and glittering star casting. He took Hollywood fable Sunset Boulevard, which Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton adapted from Billy Wilder's movie, and reinvented it as a lean, film noir-esque monochromatic thriller. Suddenly a dusty musical was the hottest, and most powerfully resonant, show in town: a psychological horror for the 21 st century.
The casting of 45-year-old former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger as faded starlet Norma Desmond was a masterstroke, refocusing the story as a critique of toxic celebrity culture and an absurdly ageist industry. Lloyd's use of cameras and screens reflected the subject matter while also chiming with a generation wedded to phone cameras and TikTok. No wonder Sunset racked up seven Olivier Awards, in 2024, and has now added three Tonys.
But that's far from the only Lloyd Webber victory. Roller-skating train musical Starlight Express came thundering back down the track and is a London sensation once again. Even his most sneered-at musical (especially after the nightmarish film version) has been reborn: last year saw Cats get a fabulous queer makeover Off Broadway as The Jellicle Ball.
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has also played a key role in this Lloyd Webber resurgence, staging slick, rock-fuelled versions of Jesus Christ Superstar (in 2016) and Evita (2019). Now the latter, again directed by Lloyd, is making an explosive West End transfer with a buzzy leading lady who is almost as divisive as Eva Perón herself.
That star is Rachel Zegler, who shot to fame in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story in 2021, and has since come under fire for vigorously voicing her Pro-Palestinian views while promoting the appalling Snow White movie.
Zegler, 24, will certainly attract a younger crowd to arguably Lloyd Webber's boldest, most creatively satisfying and most sharply satirical work. Lloyd located both its dark heart and its protagonist's gutsy, youthful, raw ambition in a contemporary production that knocked me sideways when I saw it in the park.
It may feel even more pertinent in this summer's London Palladium run given its echoes of influencer culture and celebrity merging with populist politics (notably, it's Donald Trump's favourite musical).
With Zegler on board, a Broadway transfer seems likely, meaning next year's Tonys could be another encore for the irrepressible Lloyd Webber. He's also collaborating with Lloyd on a new musical version of 2006 movie The Illusionist, and reuniting with lyricist Tim Rice for Sherlock Holmes and The 12 Days of Christmas, premiering at Birmingham Rep in November.
The sun hasn't set on his empire just yet.