Latest news with #LloydWebber
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Sunset Boulevard': Will Andrew Lloyd Webber break a 30-year Tony drought?
In 1995, the original Broadway staging of Sunset Boulevard won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. That marked the last time an Andrew Lloyd Webber show won a Best Production accolade from the American Theatre Wing. Exactly 30 years later, the current remounting is the frontrunner to win Best Musical Revival. If it prevails, it'd be quite a full-circle moment for the legendary composer. In the years since Sunset Boulevard originally contended, four more Lloyd Webber titles were nominated for a Best Show award, but didn't prevail: More from GoldDerby 'The Last of Us' director Kate Herron on bringing the Ellie and Dina relationship to the show: 'It was a privilege' How Zoe Saldaña helped shape Pixar's upcoming film 'Elio' 'The Pitt' star Supriya Ganesh on Mohan 'reworking' her trauma and when she'll realize Abbot is flirting with her Jesus Christ Superstar for Best Musical Revival in 2000; lost to Kiss Me, Kate Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar for Best Musical Revival in 2012; both lost to Porgy & Bess School of Rock for Best Musical in 2016; lost to Hamilton The Broadway legend also had three other shows eligible for Best Musical noms, but each of them were nearly shut out: By Jeeves in 2002, The Woman in White in 2006 (even though it showed up for Best Score), and Bad Cinderella in 2023. In 2017, two of his shows were eligible for Best Musical Revival, but both of them were completely ignored: Cats and the previous remounting of Sunset Boulevard. This year, the current Sunset Boulevard has seven nominations overall. Many are expecting it to do well on Tony night in terms of wins. In addition to Best Musical Revival, it's also expected to take home Best Direction of a Musical (Jamie Lloyd) and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Jack Knowles). See Gold Derby's Tony odds. Nicole Scherzinger, who's in second place for Best Actress in a Musical, is competitive for the win up against current frontrunner, Audra McDonald in Gypsy. The former has already won an Olivier (for the production's West End run) and Drama League Awards for her performance as Norma Desmond. This is a role that previously won Glenn Close a Tony for the original production. The rest of this year's Best Musical Revival lineup includes Gypsy (second place), Floyd Collins (third place), and Pirates! The Penzance Musical (fourth place). SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' Click here to read the full article.
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Andrew Lloyd Webber dreams of buying this famous theater: ‘The best stage on Broadway'
In America, Andrew Lloyd Webber is best known as the composer of 'The Phantom of the Opera,' 'Evita,' 'Cats' and 'Sunset Boulevard,' among many other popular musicals. But in London, the Brit also has a reputation as a major West End theater owner. His LW Theatres counts six houses in its stable, including His Majesty's Theatre, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the London Palladium. Nada in New York, though. Advertisement But there's one building on Broadway he's had his eye on for years — the Mark Hellinger Theatre on West 51st Street. 5 Andrew Lloyd Webber once tried with Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman to buy the Times Square Church. Emmy Park for NY Post Never heard of it? That's because today the 1600-seat house where 'My Fair Lady' and Lloyd Webber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar' long ago premiered is the Times Square Church, an interdenominational place of 'Wicked'-adjacent worship. And it's one of the neighborhood's most desirable pieces of real estate. Advertisement 'It has the best stage on Broadway,' Lloyd Webber exclusively told The Post during a sit-down. 'It was the premier house, really, for musicals,' he added. 'Everybody's tried [to buy it].' 5 The Times Square Church has occupied the Hellinger since 1989. Jeff Day Including, through a deep-pocketed partner, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Advertisement 'Funnily enough, a few years ago I had dinner with Steve Schwarzman, and I said, 'If anybody could buy it, it would be Steve Schwarzman,'' Lloyd Webber said of the chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group who Forbes estimates is worth $43 billion. 'I said 'I bet you you can't buy the Mark Hellinger, the old Times Square theater,'' the composer prodded. ''Of course we can! Of course we can!,'' he recalls the confident Schwarzman insisting. 5 The Mark Hellinger Theatre seats 1,600. Advertisement 'I said, 'Look, OK, you buy it. I'm in as a partner with you. Go and buy it.'' Six months went by, and Lloyd Webber checked in with Schwarzman, whose wife Christine produced the Brit's 'Bad Cinderella' in 2023. 'I said to him, 'How's it going?'' 'Oh, we're negotiating',' he remembers Schwarzman saying. Persistent Lloyd Webber asked again this April. 5 'It's the best stage on Broadway,' Lloyd Webber said. 'He came to have lunch with me,' the Tony winner recalled. 'I said, 'What's it doing?' He said, 'It's the one negotiation we've not been able to pull off.'' To quote Mrs. Potts: Tale as old as time. Advertisement The Nederlander Organization first leased the building to the Times Square Church in 1989 — when the neighborhood was dirty and dangerous and the theater business was wobbly — for five years at $1 million a year. In 1991, the church bought the Hellinger for $17 million. With a congregation of more than 8,000 who regularly fill the collection plate, it's now worth several times that. The theater's last show was Peter Allen's musical 'Legs Diamond,' which closed 37 years ago. 5 Lloyd Webber's revival of 'Sunset Boulevard' starring Nicole Scherzinger is up for seven Tony Awards. Emmy Park for NY Post 'It is the theater to have,' Philip J. Smith, the late former chairman of the Shubert Organization told The Post's Michael Riedel in 2010. 'We chased it twice, but the church wouldn't sell. If they ever do, you can put us at the head of the list.' Advertisement Other power players who've tried to snap up the old Hellinger include British producer Cameron Mackintosh and crooked Canadian showman Garth Drabinsky. But everybody who's gone up against God has given up. 'That pastor there,' Lloyd Webber said of senior pastor Tim Dilena. 'He's just got one organ, a little stage, him and a microphone, and he probably outgrosses everybody on Broadway!'
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Andrew Lloyd Webber cut this big song from ‘Sunset Boulevard': 'Quite radical'
Much is unrecognizable about the Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Sunset Boulevard' at the St. James Theatre. The Norma Desmond is a former pop star, Nicole Scherzinger, the scenery has been swapped for a crisp giant screen and the costumes are a glossy black. But 'Sunset' aficionados will also hear a difference: An entire song has been scrapped: 'The Lady's Paying.' 5 The makeover song 'The Lady's Paying' (here seen performed by Alan Campbell in the Los Angeles production) has been cut from the Broadway revival of 'Sunset Boulevard.' Craig Schwartz Photography 5 Emmy Park for NY Post 'I get on really well with Jamie [Lloyd, the director], and he wanted to make some quite radical changes to the score,' Lloyd Webber told The Post during a sit-down. 'And the main thing he wanted was to cut 'The Lady's Paying,' which is the song, and the beautician scene.' The number that's been in the show for more than 30 years is a fast-moving, upbeat ditty in which fading Hollywood actress Norma buys struggling young screenwriter Joe Gillis (Tom Francis in the revival) fancy new suits for his birthday. It has bouncy and not-so-subtle lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton such as 'Happy birthday, welcome to your shop-a-thon!' and 'You're a very lucky writer, come along now, get undressed / Unless I'm much mistaken, that's a 42-inch chest!' 5 Glenn Close played Norma Desmond in the very different Los Angeles staging in 1993 before coming to Broadway. Joan Marcus A chipper makeover didn't jive with Lloyd's especially dark take on the material, which premiered in 2023 at the Savoy Theatre in London. At times, his jolting revival borders on horror. A culling was in order. 'He was less sure about the beautician scene,' added Lloyd Webber, 77. 'But I said, 'If you want to get rid of 'The Lady's Paying,' you've got to get rid of both, because they're basically the same melody, and one is a reworking of the other, so it wouldn't work, you know? And so both went.' 'His grounds were — which are really interesting — is that they don't further the story; that we don't need to know that they're going clothes shopping.' 5 Nicole Scherzinger of 'Sunset Boulevard' is in a tight race for Best Actress with Audra McDonald of 'Gypsy.' Marc Brrenner Lloyd Webber also came to the conclusion that it's difficult to include such a diversionary detour in 2025. 'I think in a musical, particularly today, with people's attention span being what it is, I think you've got to do the things that are essential to have, but consider carefully about the things which are nice to have,' he said. Far from agonizing over one of his compositions being cut, Lloyd Webber enjoyed tinkering with his 32-year-old show. 'Once we decided on that, we said, 'Right, there are various areas of the show, particularly in the second act, or the transition of 'The Lady's Paying,' where I wrote a completely new section of music, where we've got to make it darker,' he said. 'And I started playing around with harmonies and things that I don't normally get the opportunity to do.' 5 Tom Francis plays Joe Gillis in the Broadway revival of 'Sunset Boulevard.' Marc Brenner The result is a revival that, its creator said is 'darker and, I think, it's also deeper.' And it confirms Lloyd Webber's belief as to the secret sauce of a thrilling production: a talented group of artists that really click. 'I find [Jamie] a fascinating collaborator,' he said. 'When musicals really work, you've got to have a real collaboration with the director and the creative team.'
New York Post
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Andrew Lloyd Webber is amazed he got Nicole Scherzinger to Broadway: 'The happiest person in history'
Andrew Lloyd Webber never thought he'd get Nicole Scherzinger to Broadway. 'I always remember when she did 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' on a TV show some years ago,' Lloyd Webber told me during an hour-long sit-down. After her performance on that 2013 ITV special, 'Cats' director Trevor Nunn excitedly rang him up and said, 'That's the best it's ever been.' Advertisement 'He was right,' Lloyd Webber said. 'And that was the moment where I thought we've got to get her into the theater.' 5 Andrew Lloyd Webber told director Jamie Lloyd, if he could get Nicole Scherzinger to play Norma Desmond, he'd be 'the happiest man in the world.' Emmy Park for NY Post A year later, the former Pussycat Doll was belting out 'Memory' at the London Palladium as Grizabella in 'Cats.' But her Broadway contract didn't work out. She was always being booked as a judge on TV singing contests. Advertisement Nine lives, er, years, went by, and then the outre director Jamie Lloyd (known for Ibsen — not singin' or dancin') approached the composer with a strange idea — Scherzinger should play Norma Desmond, the has-been Hollywood star, in 'Sunset Boulevard.' 'And I said, 'Well, good luck!',' Lloyd Webber, 77, remembered. ''If you get her to the altar, I'm going to be the happiest person in history.' And he did.' She's unforgettable in the show at the St. James — bold, beautiful, petrifying and revelatory. A week ago, the starkly reimagined production deservedly scored seven Tony Award nominations, including for Best Revival, the indomitable Scherzinger, her exciting leading man Tom Francis and director Lloyd. Advertisement 'It is darker and, I think, it's also deeper,' Lloyd Webber said of his totally different 1994 musical. 5 Lloyd Webber's revival of 'Sunset Boulevard,' starring Nicole Scherzinger (right) and Tom Francis (left) scored seven Tony nominations. Emmy Park for NY Post The composer of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'The Phantom of the Opera' is collaborating with Lloyd again this summer on a production of 'Evita' in London at the Palladium starring Rachel Zegler. The director, who successfully uses live cameras and screens in 'Sunset,' wants to pull a similar trick with 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina.' But so far, he's faced backlash from local politicians. Advertisement 'Do you know what Jamie wants to do with 'Evita'? And the council won't let us,' Lloyd Webber tantalizingly dangled. 'With 'Evita' in London, when he does it this time — the Palladium has a balcony outside,' he went on, suggesting Zegler could sing on it. 'It might mean crowds will gather on the street.' Uh oh — the Brits can't have that. 5 Jamie Lloyd's starkly reimagined 'Sunset Boulevard' uses live cameras and screens. Marc Brrenner Here in carefree New York, his delightful 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball,' which I adored last summer downtown, has not yet secured a Broadway house for a planned transfer. However, Lloyd Webber is confident it will find a home soon. 'I think it will come in next season,' he said. 'Everybody seems to want it. The Nederlanders have got nothing for it, but, you know, the other two, [the Shuberts and ATG].' And then there's 'Masquerade,' the immersive (and shorter) version of 'Phantom of the Opera' coming to West 57th Street. Several small groups of about 60, a source said, will be taken into the bespoke venue per day — a la 'Sleep No More.' There have been construction delays, but don't be surprised if you see one of the longest-running Phantoms back in the mask. Advertisement 5 Another new vision of 'Cats' is still searching for a Broadway theater for a transfer. Evan Zimmerman However, Lloyd Webber's not content with simply carting out the old hits. He recently created a new company with producer Michael Harrison called Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals to free himself up from the business side and make more music of the night. 'I came to the conclusion at my age now that I've got to only do composing,' he said. Advertisement So, Lloyd Webber is hard at work on a new musical (his 22nd) of the 2006 film 'The Illusionist,' which starred Edward Norton as a Vienna magician. He's completed a draft of what he calls 'an opera.' '[We've] done a reading, sing-through as it were, with just us and a couple of singers around a piano of the whole thing. And now it's at the point where one, I think, starts to deconstruct it,' Lloyd Webber said of the show which will also be directed by — who else? — Jamie Lloyd. 5 Lloyd Webber is hard at work on a new musical of the 2006 film 'The Illusionist.' Emmy Park for NY Post 'If there was a theater available, and if Jamie wasn't doing anything else, and I haven't got the other bits and pieces, I mean we could go into rehearsal this coming September or October. But we won't.' Advertisement Lloyd Webber said one hold up is a big illusion in the show 'that we've got to get right,' so it will require six weeks of rehearsal instead of the usual four. 'I think we could be up and going by next September,' he said of a 2026 West End run before hopefully Broadway. Two years ago, when Lloyd Webber's 'Bad Cinderella' closed, it ended an unrivaled streak: For 43 years, he always had a show running on Broadway. Plenty of people counted him out. But now, to quote the most famous song from 'Sunset,' 'everything's as if we never said goodbye.'
Chicago Tribune
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: Craving Andrew Lloyd Webber power ballads? Try ‘Tell Me On a Sunday' at Theo
If you are a fan of the excellent Max 'dockumentary' called 'Yacht Rock,' a look without condescension at a genre of music mastered by the likes of Michael McDonald, Toto and Christopher Cross, let me draw your attention to Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Tell Me on a Sunday,' now at Evanston's Theo Theatre on Howard Street. Lloyd Webber is of course the composer of such mega-musicals as 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'Sunset Boulevard,' shows influenced more by Giacomo Puccini than the Doobie Brothers. But in 1980, he wrote this solo piece with lyricist Don Black and input from Tim Rice. It's really a one-act song cycle, about an eternally optimistic young English woman (not unlike Aimee Lou Wood's character in 'White Lotus') trying to find her way in the transactional New York City. This isn't a show anyone would likely write now; the male-created character, originally known only as 'The Girl,' mostly is defined through a series of failed relationships punctuated by letters home to her mum. But it's interesting because it came as Lloyd Webber was exploring a new genre of lite rock, to use the 1980s term. And 'Tell Me on a Sunday' contains three of his best power ballads: 'Take That Look Off Your Face,' which went to number three in the U.K. charts, 'Unexpected Song,' a killer earworm, and 'Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes,' a deliciously emotional song of longing and regret. Since 'Tell on a Sunday' is only about 70 minutes, it was combined on Broadway and in London with a second movement-oriented piece under the billing 'Song and Dance.' But 'Tell Me on a Sunday,' rarely is performed today. The show at Theo features Dani Pike in the one and only role, with a live band in the back of this intimate space. Notably, it's directed by Keely Vasquez, who worked for years with the great Barry Manilow all over the world and knows her way backward and forward around this particular genre. Pike is completely different from Marti Webb and Bernadette Peters, both of whom I saw play this role eons ago. Her voice is rich, gritty and unabashedly pop-forward, meaning that these particular Lloyd Webber numbers sit well within her performance. This archetype is a tough character to pull off, but Pike fleshes out her force of personality and vulnerability to circumstance very nicely indeed, even as she and Vasquez clearly understand that this show is about the songs and, well, about the 1980s and all it represented. Anathema for some. Retro pleasure for anyone with tastes like mine. Especially when sung and acted at this level. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'Tell Me on a Sunday' (3.5 stars) When: Through April 20 Where: Theo Theatre, 721 Howard St., Evanston Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes Tickets: $45-$60 at 773-939-4101 and
