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ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: "I fell in love
with Perseus instantly." | 0:00:00 | 0:00:02 | |
"When I was around seven, | 0:00:08 | 0:00:10 | |
"I asked if I could take him
on a lead to Thurloe Square." | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
"Both Mum and Granny said yes." | 0:00:18 | 0:00:19 | |
"How trusting parents were
in those days!" | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
"So I became a regular spectacle, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
"walking Perseus like a dog | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
"across the old zebra crossing... | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
"..that led to the train station... | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
"..and the only bit of greenery
Julian and I knew." | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
MUSIC: Memory from Cats | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
Cats have always had a special place
in the life of Andrew Lloyd Webber. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
It was the family cat, Perseus,
and the poems of TS Eliot | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
that inspired the hit musical | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
loved by audiences
round the world. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
What's going on here?
What is happening here? | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
He's a big thug, this cat. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
And like all thugs, he becomes a
pussycat when anybody is near him. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:19 | |
Andrew has turned 70. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
And to mark the occasion,
he's written a memoir. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
# Memory | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
# All alone in the moonlight | 0:01:30 | 0:01:34 | |
# I can smile at the old days | 0:01:34 | 0:01:39 | |
# I was beautiful then | 0:01:39 | 0:01:44 | |
# I remember the time
I knew what happiness was | 0:01:44 | 0:01:54 | |
# Let the memory | 0:01:54 | 0:01:59 | |
# Live again. # | 0:01:59 | 0:02:07 | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber's autobiography
is a candid account of his childhood | 0:02:09 | 0:02:14 | |
and the early influences that led to
a string of hit musicals. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:18 | |
From make-believe shows he created
with brother Julian... | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
"Ten glorious hit musicals."
"Ten glorious hit musicals." | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
..to the legendary hits
he wrote with Tim Rice. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
And that was when Argentina
happened. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
And I remember saying to Tim,
"I think I've got a way in." | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
# All through my wild days | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
# My mad existence | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
# I kept my promise | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
# Don't keep your distance... # | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
MUSIC: Phantom of the Opera Overture | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
Phantom of the Opera
is celebrating a birthday too. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
It's been running for 30 years, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
making it the longest-running
Broadway musical of all time. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
With two big birthdays to mark, this
is a perfect moment to look back. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
So, what prompted you
to write this book? | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
I have to say, I'm terribly boring. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
I mean, I really... | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
I wrote, in truth, in my preface,
that Andrew Lloyd Webber | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
is the most boring person
that I've ever written about. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
So were you unmask... | 0:03:49 | 0:03:50 | |
Was it a kind of confessional,
then, as well? | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
Yes, it's a sort of confessional. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:54 | |
I mean, because I think
one of the things is | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
that one's career is not always up. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
I mean, there are many bumps
along the way. But I... | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
Explain yourself.
I'm explaining myself | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
by saying that I know
quite a few things that | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
probably I shouldn't really
ever print. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
But, luckily, I've been able to be,
I think, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
as truthful as I can remember. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
The problem is memory, isn't it,
you know? | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
Not the song, my brain. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
I hope I've got things right. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:20 | |
70 years ago, bomb-damaged
and down-at-heel, | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
London was slowly recovering
from the Blitz. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
Andrew's mother, Jean,
taught the piano | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
at the Royal College of Music
in South Kensington, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
and it was here that she met
a young composer called William. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
They married in 1942. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
Lloyd Webber sounds like some posh
derivation of some sort. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
There is no posh derivation at all. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
It was that my father became known
as a composer as "Lloyd Webber" | 0:04:50 | 0:04:56 | |
and it just stuck
as the family name. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
Well, the story of your childhood,
the first sentence in your book is, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:04 | |
"Before me there was Mimi." | 0:05:04 | 0:05:05 | |
Yes, Mimi, a monkey. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:07 | |
Mimi didn't like me, apparently. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
Apparently attacked
my mother's tummy. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
Therefore, I'm able to say
that she was the first person | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
to take a huge dislike to me.
And she had to be got rid of. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
When was she got rid of? | 0:05:18 | 0:05:19 | |
Well, presumably before I was born. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
My mother used to go around
South Kensington, where we lived, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
round the back of
South Kensington station, | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
with this monkey on her shoulder. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
And goodness knows
what everybody thought. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
After Mimi came Andrew,
who was born in 1948. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
The family lived in a mansion flat
in Harrington Court, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
which they shared with
Jean's mother, Granny Molly. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
Here she is on the roof with Mimi. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
Granny basically kept the family.
I mean, she paid for everything | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
out of the little bit of money
that she had, | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
because my dad didn't earn any money
from anything much. I mean, | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
he was professor of composition at
the Royal College of Music, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
but he wasn't earning
a lot of money. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
So I think she really, more or less,
kept everything afloat. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
So this is home? | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
This, on the top floor,
somewhere in the middle up there, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
just towards the end, there,
was our flat. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
On the top floor, what it then was, | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
because they've put these
rather smart-looking penthouse, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
I suppose they probably call them,
on the top of it. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
But it was... It's very different to
what it was then. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
So it looks like that's it. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:31 | |
Yes, it would be.
And it had a balcony. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
Outside of the place looks exactly
the same, apart from the top of it. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
I'm quite pleased to see,
now that bus has moved, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
that the greengrocer that used to be
there is still there. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
Oh, that's funny. So that's the one, | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
that must be the one family business
that's survived. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
And it was pretty much
all of this bit, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:50 | |
South Kensington station itself... | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
There used to be an Italian
restaurant there. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
That's pretty much as it was
when I was a kid. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
In fact, it's almost exactly
the same. | 0:06:56 | 0:06:58 | |
A few years later, the family at
Harrington Court expanded to six, | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
with the arrival of a Siamese cat
called Perseus, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
and a second son called Julian. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
The words Harrington Court
suggest quite a posh environment. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
No. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
There was a lift there
that never worked. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
A completely broken-down old lift,
which stank of pee most of the time. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
You see, in those days,
there were no entry phones, | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
so you could just walk
straight in the place. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
And people did. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:33 | |
We're in already. Right. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
OK, so which floor? | 0:07:41 | 0:07:43 | |
Well, we were on the fourth floor, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:44 | |
but I think they've got
an extra floor now on it. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
Five. It wasn't like this. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
It was one of those big, open lifts
that, you know, | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
you put your hand out,
you'd get your hand chopped off. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
Well, Julian told me what this lift
was like. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
He said it had a smell. | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
Well, I... Yes, you say... | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
that he said that. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
I don't remember it, really,
particularly smelling, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
but maybe Julian has a better nose
than I. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
Shall we get out? Shall we get out? | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
I don't think this level existed. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
So where do we go from here?
Do you recognise any of this? | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
Well, no, I mean,
it's not as I remember at all. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
I don't believe... | 0:08:23 | 0:08:24 | |
After you. This didn't exist. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
I mean, it couldn't be
more different. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
The roomy mansion flats
have long gone, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
and have been converted into
luxury serviced apartments. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
But in the Lloyd Webbers' day,
it was a place filled with music, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
and under the influence of their
parents both brothers started young. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
Is that the first instrument your
mother placed in your hands, really? | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
Well, that... We're not
looking at that, actually. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
Why not? No, we don't really approve
of that. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
Why don't we approve of it? That's
me on the front of Nursery World, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
when my mum insisted on
my playing the violin. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
So she tried to get you
to play the violin? | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
Yeah, yeah, she tried to turn me
into a protege, you see? | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
And then, thank God,
Julian turned up. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
Thank heavens Julian turned up, yes. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
Now, look, here you are...
That's Julian and me. ..with Julian. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
You see, that was the only
really outside space we had. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
So Julian's taken with, I suppose
it would be a quarter-sized cello. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
I mean, God help us if we'd got
Britain's Got Talent in those days | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
with my mother around. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:30 | |
CELLO SCALES | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
I was four when I got a cello. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
He says three in the book. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
That's a little exaggeration,
you know. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
Because you can't do much with
a cello at three, to be honest. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
I saw this cello in a concert
I was taken to at Festival Hall, | 0:09:49 | 0:09:54 | |
and I asked if I could play that, | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
thinking that I'd be allowed
to give up the piano | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
if I took up a different instrument. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
So, yeah, I was four
when I saw the cello. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
And I really loved playing it.
I enjoyed it. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
I never went near the piano
unless I was forced to, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
but I just used to like
sitting with a cello | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
and trying to get a decent sound
out of it, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
which took a few years,
I must say. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
Andrew did take up the piano,
somewhat reluctantly. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
His piano teacher, mother Jean,
was a strict disciplinarian | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
when it came to her children's
music lessons. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
But Andrew had other ideas. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
She had to give up on me
pretty early because... | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
I did learn the piano with her, but, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
anyway, she soon realised that I had
another interest in my life, | 0:10:34 | 0:10:39 | |
which was... Well, it was,
in those days, ruined buildings. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
I remember I took a trip
up to Doncaster, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
and then from there I made my way
across to Hull, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
and up to Beverley
where the marvellous minster is. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
And then I made my way up
through Whitby | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
and up then to Newcastle, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
and then back to London again, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
over a school half-term. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
And, you know, there was me
with my little suitcase, | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
and I was only, like, 14. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
I mean, staying in, you know, B&Bs,
and nobody batted an eyelid. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:16 | |
I mean, I don't think
you'd let a kid go round today. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:21 | |
As well as trips alone, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
Andrew dragged his family
into his burgeoning interest | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
in England's national heritage. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
And we... Every holiday,
I used to take him | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
to see these places.
We got stuck in lanes and fields, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
and I think I got to know every
ancient ruin in the country. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:41 | |
If you open this Pandora-like box
here, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
you'll discover my early
literary efforts. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
He wasn't just a seasoned
traveller at the age of 14, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
but the writer of a travel journal. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
The descriptions of the old
buildings are neatly typed up | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
and the photographs pasted in. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
And, yes, he's kept them
to this day. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
Can I hold it? You can, yes, yes. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
"A survey of the ruined castles
open to the public in Glamorgan." | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
You see, this...
"The author of". | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
I love the way
you're good at promotion. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
The author of Ancient Monuments
in England and Wales, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:17 | |
Ancient Monuments
in the Home Counties, | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
and Roman Remains
in England and Wales. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
People would like to know that! | 0:12:21 | 0:12:22 | |
I'm sure. Then, you've got
Welsh border castles. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
This is a pretty thick tome. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
A hefty one. Look at this - | 0:12:28 | 0:12:30 | |
this is big stuff here. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
But that's not all he was up to. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
A love for another kind of
architecture was blossoming - | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
the theatre. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
I mean, I remember going around
the bombsites and, you know, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
going to school and seeing
bombed buildings and things, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
even in the late '50s. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
I mean, I remember getting into
the Bedford in Camden Town | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
and there was a hole in the roof.
I've got the pictures I took of it. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
And it made a really profound
impression on me. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
EXPLOSION, AIR-RAID SIREN | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
Dozens of theatres were damaged
or lost during the Blitz. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
But unlike the Bedford, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:05 | |
London's most popular theatre
escaped unscathed. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
Come up and see me sometime. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
I'm Dame Clod. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
Like any kid, I think I was taken
to the Palladium pantomime | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
and thought it was wonderful. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
And I think, again, sort of, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
the feeling of that sort of
Victorian building... | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
The whole thing just captivated me. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
MUSIC: Wouldn't it Be Loverly?
from My Fair Lady | 0:13:26 | 0:13:31 | |
# All I want is a room somewhere | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
# Far away from the cold night air | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
# With one enormous chair | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
# Now, wouldn't it be loverly? # | 0:13:50 | 0:13:54 | |
My Fair Lady came to London, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
and of course everybody had
to go and see My Fair Lady, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
so I was taken to a matinee. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
I loved it and I said to...
It was my granny who took me to it, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:07 | |
I said, "I'd very much like
to hear something else." | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
And it was the same time
that Gigi was coming out, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
so I was slunk in, because I think
Gigi was an A certificate. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
And that wonderful overture,
which is just extraordinary. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
# That since the world began | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
# No woman or a man | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
# Has ever been as happy as we are | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
# Tonight! # | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
But also, almost exactly
at the same time, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
West Side Story came to London,
and I was taken to that too. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:40 | |
I thought, "Well, this is
the most fantastic world." | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
# Immigrant goes to America | 0:14:43 | 0:14:44 | |
# Many hellos in America | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
# Nobody knows in America | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
# Puerto Rico's in America! # | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
Trips to see these new
American musicals | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
cemented a passion for melody
in Andrew Lloyd Webber - | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
something he shared with his father. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
William was a professor at
the Royal College of Music, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
but his secret love
was writing melodies - | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
like this one. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:14 | |
Dad always remembers | 0:15:27 | 0:15:28 | |
being played Some Enchanted Evening
for the first time. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
And Dad played it to me
because he saw me | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
getting so obsessed with musicals
and everything. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
Go on, sing Some Enchanted Evening.
I don't think we really want that. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
Yes, we do. Well, we can play it... | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
# La da da da-da dum... # | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
CRACKLY VINYL RECORDING:
# Some enchanted evening | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
# You may meet a stranger | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
# You'll meet a stranger
across a crowded room... # | 0:15:54 | 0:16:02 | |
It's that... | 0:16:03 | 0:16:04 | |
PLAYS "SOME ENCHANTED EVENING"
MELODY | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
Rogers loved the tritone. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
And he does it in a... | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
Doesn't he? But, Rogers, I mean,
that outpouring of melody. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:19 | |
I'm sorry, what anybody may say,
that to me... | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
Melody is, I think, the thing
that really, really gets me. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
And I'm afraid that I was
as taken by my father | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
with Some Enchanted Evening.
Which I think, I still think, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
is the greatest song ever written
for a musical. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
MUSIC: Some Enchanted Evening | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
While American musicals dominated
London's West End, | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
it was television that brought them
into the sitting-room | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
at Harrington Court. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
Ironically for me, television is
how I saw these theatres. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
Sunday Night at
the London Palladium, yes. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
I mean, you saw
shots of the audience | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
and then the famous
London Palladium revolve, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
which used to go
at the end of the programme | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
with everybody waving goodbye. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
I mean, of course, that made
a huge impression. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
Andrew brought the magic and glamour
of the Palladium | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
into the living room
of the Harrington Road flat. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
With the help of Julian,
he built a miniature theatre, | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
for which he wrote
no less than ten hit musicals. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:46 | |
"Ten GLORIOUS hit musicals."
Ten glorious hit musicals. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
I don't think anybody ever has come
up with that kind of collection. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
I mean, really, following The Land
of Twart with The Queen of Sheba, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
I mean... It hasn't been done. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
He called it
the Pavilion Empire Variety, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
and even typed up theatre programmes | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
to accompany the - ahem -
productions. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
I mean, it was a sort of Victorian
variety house, basically. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
With the most massive stage
you've ever seen, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
compared to the actual auditorium. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
And it was put together with...? | 0:18:16 | 0:18:17 | |
It was sort of toy bricks, and it
had a kind of tea tray of a roof. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
And it was then all painted...
It was very gold, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
and there were lots of wallpaper
samples I got from Sanderson's. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:27 | |
Mostly wallpaper that looked as if | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
it should be
in an Indian restaurant. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:30 | |
How much space did it take up?
Oh... From about here to the end... | 0:18:30 | 0:18:35 | |
It was the whole nursery. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:37 | |
I mean, it wasn't half measures. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
Nobody else could get in there. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
Lovely make-believe soldiers filled
up the audience so that, you know, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
box office never, never,
ever wavered. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
My career has absolutely
taken a dump since those days. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:52 | |
Oh! Let's have a look. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:01 | |
Yeah, this is definitely
a level up from where we were. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
We would have been a floor
below this, as it used to be. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:10 | |
Because I remember
one could look straight into | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
the windows of the hotel over there. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
Do you know, I'd never
been in the hotel in my life, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
until we went for
this programme today. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
Never been in it.
There's a rather nice view | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
of the Natural History Museum
from up here, isn't there? Yes. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
And the old Imperial Institute. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:27 | |
Incredible view, because actually
you can see St Paul's Cathedral. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
Yeah. Now that's something
I never knew before. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
If we'd got up on our roof,
we could have done that. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
But it's... It'd have been
rather nice if we'd had this view. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
That's been pedestrianised,
but I would imagine... | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
That's all been pedestrianised, | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
that was where the cat
used to walk with me. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
There used to be a pedestrian
crossing down there... | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
Ah, that's it there, yeah.
And then we'd walk down past | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
where the underground sign is, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
down Thurloe Place,
and Thurloe Square is just beyond. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
So that's where Perseus... | 0:19:55 | 0:19:56 | |
So that is the route
that Perseus would take. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
Taking Perseus for walks
round Kensington Gardens, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
trips to the theatre,
and building one of your own, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:11 | |
sounds like an idyllic childhood. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
And in some ways, it was. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
But life at Harrington Court
was about to change | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
when eight-year-old Julian
brought home a fellow pupil | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
from the Royal College of Music,
where he was studying. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
I got to know John Lill. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:31 | |
We were playing in
the junior department orchestra | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
and I got talking to him
and mentioned him to my mother. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
And he was the big star student.
He was seven years older than me. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
And we invited...
I invited him back. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
He said, "My mother wants
to invite you for lunch." | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
And I was a bit shy,
a bit reluctant. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
But, in the end, I said,
"OK, that would be very nice indeed, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
"thank you." And that's when
I met the family. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
Julian's mother, Jean,
took a special interest in John. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:07 | |
She'd dedicated her life to teaching
music and helping young talent, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:15 | |
a passion born out of
a childhood tragedy. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
She was a very serious-minded
classical musician. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
And all her training was that,
and all her interest was that. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
And she had, really,
it has to be said, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
a kind of obsession
about young male talent. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
And I think it came because of
the very premature death | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
of her elder brother,
who was drowned at sea. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
PIANO MUSIC PLAYS | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
The brother was called Alistair,
and he died aged 18. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:53 | |
And I think that when John Lill
came along, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
this was like a godsend to her, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
because here was someone, you know, | 0:21:57 | 0:21:58 | |
who was a fabulous pianist and from
a very, very poor background, | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
and absolutely in the mould of the
kind of person she wanted to help. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
ORCHESTRA PLAYS | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
Jean's help even extended to
moving John into the family home. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:30 | |
She lavished a huge amount of
attention and care and concern | 0:22:30 | 0:22:35 | |
about my playing.
And she'd move the earth to help me. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
It was extremely...generous of her
and, well, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:43 | |
I was often embarrassed by
the degree of kindness | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
she and her husband showed. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:48 | |
And my mother really sort of took
him in and he became like her son. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:54 | |
I mean, she really, really, really
just lived for John Lill. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
Did you feel slightly sort of
left out of things? | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
Well, I did, I did feel that we had
an older brother now | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
who was not really ours.
I mean, I liked John a lot, but... | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
No, I sort of felt that,
certainly in my mother's eyes, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
that he was the one
and he was the favourite. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
"Towards the close of the Easter
holidays, I was deeply depressed. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
"Mum's John Lill obsession | 0:23:24 | 0:23:25 | |
"was making her increasingly moody
and erratic." | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
"Home was a cauldron of overwrought
emotion and jealousy. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
"My adolescent hormones
told me I'd had enough." | 0:23:38 | 0:23:40 | |
"One morning, I headed for
the underground station. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
"I bought a one-way ticket." | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
I'd taken the old underground out
to as far as it went to in Essex | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
and, I think it was Ongar station,
I saw a bus going to Lavenham. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:58 | |
And I thought, this is the end, | 0:23:58 | 0:23:59 | |
I'm really going
to go into a hedge somewhere | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
and just take all these pills
I'd collected up. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
"The ancient bus trundled through
the Essex countryside, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
"and as we hit Suffolk,
the sun came out." | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
"By the time we arrived at Lavenham, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:21 | |
"an overcast morning had turned into
a glorious spring day." | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
"Lavenham. I'd never seen such an
unspoiled English village before." | 0:24:29 | 0:24:34 | |
"But it was the church that did it.
All I remember now | 0:24:36 | 0:24:40 | |
"is sitting inside
for what must have been two hours | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
"and saying,
'Thank God for Lavenham.' " | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
So I changed my mind very, very
quickly, and all was well. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
And you wrote about... Yes. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:53 | |
..what was, could have been
a suicide attempt? | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
Well, it was.
It was a suicide attempt. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
I remember reading the letter
he wrote his mother, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
that he was going
to put an end to his life. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
And it wasn't very pleasant reading,
especially for her, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
as you can imagine. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
Andrew learned to live
with his adopted brother, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
and grew to like him. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
But mother Jean
was right about one thing - | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
John Lill was unquestionably
talented, and went on to win | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
the International Tchaikovsky Prize
for piano at just 26. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:23 | |
ENTHUSIASTIC APPLAUSE | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
During these trying teenage years,
Andrew needed an escape. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
And he found one. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
In Weymouth Street in Marylebone,
home to his mum's sister, Auntie Vi. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:53 | |
You could not invent Auntie Vi. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
Central Casting could not come up
with Auntie Vi. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
She was possibly,
without any question or doubt, | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
the funniest and also the rudest
person I've ever met in my life. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:16 | |
And I absolutely adored her. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
And you've even dedicated the book
to Auntie Vi. Yes, hard not to. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
Hard not to dedicate a book
to somebody who once said, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
"Too many cocks spoil the breath." | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
Auntie Vi gained minor notoriety
writing a series of cookbooks. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:32 | |
One was so risque she published it
under a male pen-name, Rodney Spoke. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:39 | |
It was inspired by
the comedy of the time. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
What can we do for you? Well,
actually, I'm looking for a pet. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
Oh... | 0:26:45 | 0:26:46 | |
There's Cyril, he's half and half,
you know. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
Half King Charles spaniel,
half fox terrier. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
We call him a Fox Cocker. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
She decided that she wanted to write
a gay cookbook. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
Now, I suppose...
You see, at that time, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
you had Kenneth Williams
and you had all that Polari | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
and all of that, Round The Horne,
and it was all really quite funny. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
Recipes on offer included coq-up, | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
ducky a l'orange, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
seedy queen cakes, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:20 | |
and poof pastry. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
It is screamingly funny, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
and she was very much the one
who kind of freed me, I guess. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
# Food, glorious food... # | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
Astonishingly, Andrew was just 17
when he went in search of an agent. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:38 | |
Such was his determination
to make it as a musical composer, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:44 | |
he soon found one. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:45 | |
Desmond Elliott not only took Andrew
on but had a musical project too. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
Called The Likes Of Us, it was about
the children's charity Barnardo's, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:58 | |
and was an attempt to cash in on
the current hit of the time, Oliver. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
MUSIC: Consider Yourself
from Oliver | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
Now all Andrew needed
was a lyricist. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
I'm going to read you your letter. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
"Dear Andrew, I have been given
your address | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
"by Desmond Elliott
of Arlington Books, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
"who I believe has told you of
my existence. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
"Mr Elliott told me that you were
looking for a with-it writer | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
"of lyrics for your songs. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
"I wondered if you'd consider it
worth your while meeting me. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
"I may fall far short
of your requirements, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
"but anyway it would be interesting
to meet up. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:35 | |
"Hoping to hear from you,
yours, Tim Rice." | 0:28:35 | 0:28:37 | |
Well, Andrew was already working on
this musical called The Likes Of Us, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
which was about the life of
Dr Barnardo, | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
and it had some great tunes in it,
but it was very derivative, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
not melodically, but style of... | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
a cross between Lionel Bart,
primarily, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
I would say, and Richard Rogers. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:53 | |
And it kind of went... | 0:28:53 | 0:28:55 | |
HE PLAYS JAUNTY TUNE | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
It was one of that sort of... | 0:28:59 | 0:29:01 | |
It was a real Broadway number,
but... | 0:29:01 | 0:29:03 | |
# Da da da-da... # | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
But I was rather pleased with that. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:07 | |
There was one which we used in
the Barnardo song, which went... | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
SIMPLE TUNE PLAYED SMOOTHLY | 0:29:10 | 0:29:12 | |
This was done
as a kind of a Russ Conway... | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
TUNE REPEATED WITH MORE COMPLEXITY | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
Like that, you know?
And so, I, we... | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 | |
There were quite a few in there. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
And I knew by then,
academic career was not for me. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
# In your life you can see
Just how sad you can be | 0:29:33 | 0:29:37 | |
# If you stay by yourself
all alone... # | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
In the autumn of 1965,
Andrew Lloyd Webber | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
started at Magdalen College,
Oxford, to study history. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
He was there just one term, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
spending most of it
agonising over the prospect | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
of three years away from Tim
and his music. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
In December, Andrew called his
father to say he was returning home. | 0:29:57 | 0:30:01 | |
# ..You can never make it alone... # | 0:30:01 | 0:30:05 | |
It was rather a difficult time, | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
and I think lots of other people
were more disappointed than I was, | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
because I felt that, with Andrew, | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
that it would be quite hopeless | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
if you tried to make him do
something he didn't want to do. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
It would only just come back on him
and oneself. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
So I played it
as coolly as possible. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
There followed quite a serious
family row afterwards, | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
with both my mother and grandmother
saying, this is absolutely terrible, | 0:30:29 | 0:30:33 | |
he's ruined his life,
what a ridiculous thing to do, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
he's never going to make any money
out of music - ha-ha! | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
And, you know, my father was saying,
well, look, | 0:30:39 | 0:30:43 | |
that's where his interests lie,
he's talented, he can write tunes, | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
you've got to let him do it. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:49 | |
Andrew returned to the crowded
hothouse atmosphere | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
of Harrington Court. | 0:30:57 | 0:30:58 | |
With John Lill and Granny Molly
still living there, space was tight. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:02 | |
The family decided to rent the flat
next door. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
There was a spare bedroom going, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
so it made sense for Tim
to move in too. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:12 | |
So, that's your dad.
Yes, that's my dad. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
That looks like Julian.
That's John Lill. That must be me. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
And that's my mother. You seem to be
a bit stuck for space, don't you? | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
Yes. I just don't know where... | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
It looks rather cramped! I think
it must have been our kitchen. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
That's Julian with his hand on,
sort of pushing John Lill away. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:34 | |
Yes. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:35 | |
I took that. I don't know
what we were doing. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
We were just having a fight
or something. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
It's a great picture. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:42 | |
It was just a bit chaotic. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
And it took me a while to get used
to people padding around | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
with no shoes on and, you know... | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
It was just... It was fun. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:52 | |
It was a bit like living in
a student flat with grown-ups, | 0:31:52 | 0:31:55 | |
which was weird. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:57 | |
But it was a bit of a madhouse,
to tell you the truth. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
But I felt very sorry
for nearby neighbours. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
But they didn't seem to complain. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:04 | |
Perhaps they'd all been
driven deaf - who knows? | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
It was completely bohemian. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:09 | |
There were lots of
girlfriends around, | 0:32:11 | 0:32:14 | |
in various states of undress,
you know? | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
And our grandmother
in the middle of all this. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
It was bizarre. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
With such a racket going on, | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
it's a miracle that Andrew and Tim
emerged | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
with their first musical success. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:31 | |
Did you do any work here,
during that period? | 0:32:31 | 0:32:34 | |
Yeah, I'd do a bit of writing here.
I mean, we had the piano, | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
which we sort of shared. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
But, yes, I would have done
quite a bit of Joseph here. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:44 | |
And...so the original sketches of
Joseph and everything would have, | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
without doubt, have been done here
at Harrington Court. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
# May I return
May I return | 0:32:51 | 0:32:55 | |
# To the beginning? # | 0:32:55 | 0:32:59 | |
In the spring of 1967,
Andrew and Tim were approached | 0:32:59 | 0:33:03 | |
by a local music teacher
to write something | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
for a concert at Colet Court School. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
They'd spent a year writing
The Likes Of Us, | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
but it was going nowhere. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
# We are still waiting... # | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
Writing for a bunch of school kids
was hardly the dream, | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
but they agreed. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:21 | |
# Any dream will do. # | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
Tim thought it was a bit of
a come-down, to put it mildly, | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
because our West End debut
was not going to be. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
And to then do something in a school | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
was not exactly what we thought was
going to be our launch on the world. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
# Such a dazzling coat
of many colours | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
# How I love my coat
of many colours... # | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
Stuck for inspiration, they turned
to a children's book | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
of Bible stories,
and decided on Tim's favourite - | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
the revenge and forgiveness story of
Joseph and his coat of many colours. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:57 | |
Well, originally, Joseph - | 0:33:58 | 0:33:59 | |
talk about starting on the button -
started as... | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
# Way, way back,
many centuries ago. # | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
It just even started like that -
straight in with the children. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
And then eventually we wrote,
I did the big fanfare... | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
But of the coat of many colours,
you know... # Joseph... | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
# He was Jacob's favourite son | 0:34:21 | 0:34:23 | |
# Of all the family,
Joseph was the special one... # | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
That's, again, Tim getting into
the story immediately, | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
knowing that he had to engage
those children | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
and we couldn't have any fat
anywhere. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
# Jacob, Jacob, Jacob | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
# Jacob and sons. # | 0:34:39 | 0:34:44 | |
And Andrew kept coming up
with wonderful tunes. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
I'd say, "We need a tune
for the coat," | 0:34:47 | 0:34:49 | |
and Andrew writes
this wonderful tune. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
It was a pleasure to stick words
onto them. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
And writing allegedly funny words, | 0:34:54 | 0:34:56 | |
I've always found much easier | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
and much quicker
than writing romantic words. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:02 | |
And there weren't any romantic songs
as such in Joseph, | 0:35:02 | 0:35:06 | |
but there were a couple
of fairly serious songs. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:08 | |
But we did have
Close Every Door To Me. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:11 | |
# Hide all the world from me
Bar all my windows... # | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
I've always... | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
I've always felt, you know,
that that is the heart of Joseph. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:29 | |
And, despite everything else
that's going on around it, | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
all the fun and everything, that's
the central moment of it, I think. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:37 | |
The 1st of March 1968
was dull, grey and wet - | 0:35:42 | 0:35:47 | |
the day Joseph was first performed. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:49 | |
The audience loved it
and demanded a repeat performance. | 0:35:51 | 0:35:56 | |
Among the parents was a Sunday Times
journalist who was so impressed, | 0:35:56 | 0:36:00 | |
he gave Joseph a glowing review. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:03 | |
And Derek Jewell reviewed it. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:05 | |
Yeah, he was great...
He said, "It was fresh as paint, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
"irresistibly melodic,
clever beyond mere wittiness." | 0:36:08 | 0:36:12 | |
His son was at the school
and he'd come along, | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
and he was so taken with it,
he reviewed it in the Sunday Times, | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
which meant that we had record
companies and music publishers | 0:36:19 | 0:36:24 | |
keen to find out about it. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:26 | |
One year later, in 1969,
Joseph was released as an album. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:31 | |
# I closed my eyes | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
# Drew back the curtain... # | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
It did poor business, but proved
to be the calling card | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
that attracted the attention of an
agent producer called David Land. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
He offered the pair
a three-year writing deal. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
While the Old Testament story
of Joseph launched Lloyd Webber | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
and Tim Rice's careers, the New
Testament and a Bob Dylan song | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
would be the inspiration
for what they would do next. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
Bob Dylan, who I was
a very early fan of - | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
I'd even been to see him
way before he went electric - | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
and they did With God On Our Side
on television, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:12 | |
and it really, I thought, | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
"Wow, this is a fantastic song," | 0:37:14 | 0:37:15 | |
and beautifully sung
and a very powerful lyric. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
It had that line, "Did Judas
Iscariot have God on his side?" | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
A great line. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
# Did Judas Iscariot
have God on his side? # | 0:37:23 | 0:37:29 | |
That made me think that you can
write songs about people like Judas. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
Tim's fascination with Judas
gave them the way in. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:40 | |
Now they had the story,
Andrew set about writing the music. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:44 | |
Jesus Christ Superstar,
it's constructed | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
to the very, very last bar. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
Only through the construction of
the music and the storytelling | 0:37:50 | 0:37:55 | |
could we engage an audience. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
And I think maybe that's my kind of
architectural interest again, | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
you know, coming through. I think
the construction of a musical, | 0:38:01 | 0:38:05 | |
the actual architecture of a musical
is the most important thing. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
When we got to the moment of
the money lenders in the temple, | 0:38:09 | 0:38:13 | |
and we have, you know... | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
HE HUMS THE MELODY | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
It's in 7/8 time, so it's... One,
two, three, four, one, two, three... | 0:38:21 | 0:38:25 | |
And it's very deliberate,
because if it had been... | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
How boring would that be? | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
Right. So it was very... | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
What it does is it immediately
gets it going... | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
And I love using time signatures | 0:38:41 | 0:38:46 | |
like seven and five and things
in places, | 0:38:46 | 0:38:49 | |
because it just keeps
something dramatic. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
# Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ | 0:38:52 | 0:38:56 | |
# Who are you, what have you
sacrificed? # | 0:38:56 | 0:39:00 | |
Like Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar
started life as an album. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:04 | |
But at first, it didn't take off. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
It wasn't a big hit, that's true. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
We didn't get a hit single
in England. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
We got to number 39 or something. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
I was slightly surprised, actually, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:16 | |
because it sounded good
on the radio. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:18 | |
But in America, whoosh!
You know, it was extraordinary. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
# Tell me what you think
about your friends at the top | 0:39:21 | 0:39:25 | |
# Who'd you think, besides yourself,
was the pick of the crop? # | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
The success of the album in the US | 0:39:28 | 0:39:30 | |
led to a summons from
the pop promoter Robert Stigwood - | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
the man behind the careers
of Eric Clapton, | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
the Bee Gees and David Bowie. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
On the table was both a Broadway
AND a movie deal for Superstar. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:44 | |
They could hardly say no. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
INTRO PLAYS | 0:39:47 | 0:39:51 | |
Jesus Christ Superstar opened
on Broadway in October 1971. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:59 | |
But while the angels that adorned
both the album and posters | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
would become the first mega-logo
in musical theatre history, | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
the Broadway audience
were turned off, | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
as Christians took offence
and accused the show of blasphemy. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
I think what annoyed them,
funnily enough, | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
was the concept of rock music, | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
which was associated with drugs
and sex and all these evil things - | 0:40:24 | 0:40:29 | |
that being associated with Jesus
was the problem, | 0:40:29 | 0:40:32 | |
not so much what it said. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
When the show opened in London
the following year, | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
there were no protests, | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
and despite the cool reception
of the album in the UK, | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
the stage version was a massive hit. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
Everyone loved it. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:52 | |
Even the composer Shostakovich
loved it. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
He saw the show two nights running,
and confessed that, | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
but for Joseph Stalin, he would
have written similar work. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
MUSIC: Superstar | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
The movie of Superstar started
filming, and Andrew got married. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:33 | |
He'd met Sarah Hugill
when she was 16. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
She turned 18 in 1972,
the year they chose to tie the knot. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:40 | |
# Oh, what a circus
Oh, what a show... # | 0:41:42 | 0:41:46 | |
As Prime Minister,
I want to speak to you | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
simply and plainly
about the grave emergency | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
now facing our country. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:54 | |
The idea for their next project
was born during the early '70s, | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
when the IRA stalked the mainland | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
and Britain was crippled
by strikes and economic meltdown. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:06 | |
Britain in 1974, it was not
a particularly nice place to be. | 0:42:07 | 0:42:12 | |
I mean, we'd just come out of
the three-day week, | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
then the stock market
sort of absolutely collapsed, | 0:42:15 | 0:42:19 | |
and the IRA were blowing up London
and cities all around the place. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
It was a time that I don't believe
people really think happened. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:28 | |
Tim Rice was driving one day. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
On the car radio was programme about
the actress Eva Peron. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:36 | |
Eva Peron, in that old cinema
cliche, went from rags to riches. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:40 | |
The man she captured, Peron,
became the boss of Argentina. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:45 | |
And not content merely to be
his wife, | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
Eva Peron manoeuvred her way past
an oligarchy which hated her | 0:42:47 | 0:42:51 | |
to become the most powerful woman
Latin America has ever known. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
And I'd got a vague idea
who she was, | 0:42:55 | 0:42:58 | |
I remembered her from
my stamp collection as a kid. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
And I heard this radio programme and
I thought, "This is a great story." | 0:43:01 | 0:43:06 | |
The parallels between
the trade union-led revolution | 0:43:11 | 0:43:11 | |
The parallels between
the trade union-led revolution | 0:43:11 | 0:43:14 | |
that swept Peron to power in 1946
and the industrial unrest | 0:43:14 | 0:43:19 | |
that gripped '70s Britain
struck a chord. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
The thought that an extremist could
get power in a democracy was | 0:43:23 | 0:43:29 | |
very, very much uppermost,
certainly in MY mind, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:34 | |
and I thought of Evita as a really
interesting cautionary tale. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:39 | |
I thought, I've got to find some
angle on this, musically, | 0:43:40 | 0:43:45 | |
that means that I can say to Tim, | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
"Yes, I think I know
how I can do this." | 0:43:48 | 0:43:50 | |
And I thought about it
for a long time, | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
and I remembered,
just after I left school, | 0:43:53 | 0:43:56 | |
I went to see Judy Garland
in The Talk Of The Town, | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
and it was pretty much
the last thing she ever did, | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
I think it might even have been the
last performance she ever gave. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
Anyway, she was drunk,
she was out of it, you know, | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
the audience turned on her. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:10 | |
And she tried to sing
Over The Rainbow, | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
and it was like seeing a little bird
crushed in front of you. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
It was just awful. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:18 | |
And I thought, if I can find
a melody or situation | 0:44:18 | 0:44:23 | |
where I could create an anthem for
Eva Peron that could turn on her, | 0:44:23 | 0:44:29 | |
and I could use it in a completely
different way, | 0:44:29 | 0:44:33 | |
then I'm on the case. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
And I remember, in Bristol, it was,
that I was writing, I wrote... | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
And that is when Argentina happened. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:42 | |
I remember saying to Tim,
"I think I've got a way in." | 0:44:44 | 0:44:49 | |
# All through my wild days | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
# My mad existence... # | 0:44:51 | 0:44:54 | |
Like Joseph
and Jesus Christ Superstar, | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
they started by releasing
a concept album. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
Julie Covington sang the title song. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
We never thought that Don't Cry For
Me Argentina had a hope as a single, | 0:45:05 | 0:45:07 | |
because it was five minutes long, | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
Julie Covington was not
an automatic record seller. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
But the single came out
and was a massive success, | 0:45:12 | 0:45:15 | |
um, to our surprise. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:17 | |
# And as for fortune
and as for fame... # | 0:45:17 | 0:45:22 | |
As Evita rose up the charts,
Lloyd Webber sent a copy | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
to the only director he felt was up
to the job of staging the story - | 0:45:26 | 0:45:30 | |
the legendary Hal Prince. | 0:45:30 | 0:45:32 | |
I've always thought that unusual
settings, unusual subjects, | 0:45:32 | 0:45:36 | |
the sort of thing that people say,
"Wait a minute, is that a musical?" | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
and then you give them that and
it's unexpected and they respond. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:46 | |
# Don't cry for me, Argentina... # | 0:45:46 | 0:45:51 | |
Nicknamed the Prince of Broadway, | 0:45:52 | 0:45:54 | |
Hal Prince boasted a string
of credits | 0:45:54 | 0:45:57 | |
that included West Side Story,
Fiddler on the Roof, and Cabaret. | 0:45:57 | 0:46:01 | |
Hal assumed they'd already found
their lead actress, | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
after the success
of Julie Covington's hit single. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
We thought she'd be perfect to play
Eva, but she didn't want to do it. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:13 | |
Which actually, in the end,
was a plus, | 0:46:13 | 0:46:15 | |
because we then got
enormous publicity, | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
the press love disaster, so it was,
you know, "Julie turns down Evita." | 0:46:18 | 0:46:23 | |
You know, implying that the show was
going to be a total disaster. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:26 | |
And how did you find Elaine? | 0:46:26 | 0:46:28 | |
Well, the normal procedure
of auditions. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
We had huge... | 0:46:31 | 0:46:34 | |
..interest in it. And literally
hundreds of ladies came along, | 0:46:34 | 0:46:39 | |
some of them quite well-known. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:41 | |
The audition period for me for Evita
was LONG and tedious. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:49 | |
I must have auditioned eight, nine,
I don't know, ten times. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:52 | |
Everybody - the world and his wife -
auditioned for this role. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
You know, many of them were very
good but, you know, it's difficult. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
And of course we... They all sang
Don't Cry For Me Argentina. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:03 | |
Faye Dunaway, Liza Minnelli,
Barbra Streisand, | 0:47:03 | 0:47:07 | |
all these names were being
bandied about. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
# Peron, Peron, Peron, Peron
Evita, Evita... # | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
Elaine Paige made the final
shortlist of three. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:18 | |
She just got through on merit,
like the cup final. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:21 | |
She got through all the rounds
and saw off the opposition. | 0:47:21 | 0:47:25 | |
My doorbell went about midnight and,
to my surprise, it was my agent. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:32 | |
"The role of..." | 0:47:33 | 0:47:35 | |
"Yes, yes, yes, get on with it,
Libby!" | 0:47:35 | 0:47:37 | |
"..Eva Peron is..." | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
"Yes, yes, just tell me!" | 0:47:39 | 0:47:40 | |
"..yours." | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
# Evita. # | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
OK. Here we go. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:47 | |
# Don't cry for me, Argentina... # | 0:47:47 | 0:47:52 | |
Evita opened in London in June 1978, | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
but the cautionary tale about
economic crisis and the fragility of | 0:47:57 | 0:48:01 | |
democracy failed to resonate when
it opened on Broadway a year later. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:06 | |
"Stench is a stench on any scale."
That's the first sentence. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:12 | |
And they go on... | 0:48:12 | 0:48:13 | |
"If you want to fill the coffers
of these two amoral, | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
"barely talented whippersnappers" -
this refers to you and Tim - | 0:48:16 | 0:48:20 | |
"and their knowing
or duped accomplices, | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
"by all means see this
artfully produced monument | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
"to human indecency." | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
Well, that's not a very good review,
really, is it? | 0:48:30 | 0:48:32 | |
Well, he's an idiot. What can I say? | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
The Americans had no clue of the
context in which Evita was written. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:43 | |
I mean, Britain nearly fell apart,
and people forget that. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:48 | |
But we opened in September, | 0:48:48 | 0:48:50 | |
and it was that Christmas
that Russia invaded Afghanistan. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
And you started to hear people
talking about politics again | 0:48:53 | 0:48:57 | |
in America. But something happened
in the zeitgeist, | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
and by the time the Tonys happened,
eight months later, | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
I mean, Evita was
the toast of the town. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
# Don't cry for me, Argentina... # | 0:49:06 | 0:49:10 | |
Evita garnered award after award, | 0:49:10 | 0:49:13 | |
including an Olivier
for Best Musical in 1978. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:17 | |
Now, the winner is... | 0:49:17 | 0:49:19 | |
Oh, my nerves! | 0:49:19 | 0:49:21 | |
..Evita. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:22 | |
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
The ceremony was badly organised, | 0:49:28 | 0:49:30 | |
and during his acceptance speech,
Lloyd Webber quipped that Hal Prince | 0:49:30 | 0:49:34 | |
would have made a much better job
of the Oliviers | 0:49:34 | 0:49:37 | |
than that year's producer. | 0:49:37 | 0:49:39 | |
Unbeknownst to Andrew, the producer
was Cameron Mackintosh who, | 0:49:39 | 0:49:43 | |
up to this point, he'd never met. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:45 | |
I was furious!
And I went after him... | 0:49:45 | 0:49:49 | |
"I'm going to kill him." And I bump
into David Land, who's the wonderful | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
agent who had Tim and Andrew
under his wing, and I said, | 0:49:52 | 0:49:56 | |
"David, where's Andrew,
where's Andrew?!" | 0:49:56 | 0:49:59 | |
He said, "You're looking for
Andrew?" "Yes, I want to kill him." | 0:49:59 | 0:50:03 | |
"I want to kill him!" | 0:50:03 | 0:50:04 | |
And he went, "No, no, no, no, no,
don't do that." | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
I said, "Why not?" He said, "Because
you'll make a few bob out of him." | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
MUSIC: Theme Tune
to Thomas The Tank Engine | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
David Land's advice to Cameron
was prophetic. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
Just a year earlier, Andrew had
parted company with Robert Stigwood | 0:50:19 | 0:50:24 | |
to take ownership of both
the creative and commercial control | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
of future productions. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
The name of Lloyd Webber's
new company | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
was inspired by another childhood
passion - Thomas The Tank Engine. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:37 | |
It was called
The Really Useful company. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:41 | |
So Cameron's decision to forgive
Andrew's slight at the Oliviers | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
was probably the shrewdest
of his career. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
I got a sweet letter from Andrew
afterwards | 0:50:50 | 0:50:53 | |
saying, "I'm really sorry."
And then cut to, I think, 1980, | 0:50:53 | 0:50:58 | |
and Andrew said, would I like | 0:50:58 | 0:51:00 | |
to come and have lunch with him
at the Savile Club? | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
So, we met at one o'clock, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
and at half-past six, my secretary
was phoning the Savile Club to say | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
had this man killed me,
because I'd not gone home! | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
Because we got on so well
and started to... | 0:51:12 | 0:51:14 | |
I mean, it was hysterical, we just
laughed and laughed and laughed. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:19 | |
It was during the second bottle
of wine that Andrew Lloyd Webber | 0:51:22 | 0:51:26 | |
mentioned TS Eliot's anthology of
poems, the Book Of Practical Cats. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:31 | |
So, at the end of it he said, | 0:51:31 | 0:51:33 | |
"Well, would you come home to my
house and I'd love to play you a few | 0:51:33 | 0:51:40 | |
"of the songs that I've set
from TS Eliot." | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
Andrew, of course,
always loved cats, | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
and TS Eliot's playful poems
were favourite bedtime reading | 0:51:51 | 0:51:55 | |
when he was a child. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:57 | |
He would often take Perseus,
the family cat, | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
on daily walks from their flat
in Harrington Court | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
to Thurloe Square Gardens nearby. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:07 | |
And this would be... We're exactly
tracing the route Perseus would go. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:13 | |
Exactly tracing it. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
A few distractions, you know,
other people's gardens and things, | 0:52:15 | 0:52:18 | |
but this is where he would
most definitely have walked. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:22 | |
Thurloe Square is the only garden
we ever really got to play in. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:30 | |
I remember the square as being
a lot rougher than it is now, | 0:52:30 | 0:52:35 | |
cos I'm pretty sure we used
to ride our bicycles around here, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
and we were allowed to do that. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:40 | |
But to use the poems as a basis
for a stage musical, | 0:52:42 | 0:52:46 | |
he required permission
from TS Eliot's widow, Valerie. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
He didn't have far to go,
as Valerie lived in Kensington too, | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
right in the heart of Mungojerrie
and Rumpleteazer territory. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
My big away win with Valerie Eliot | 0:53:01 | 0:53:03 | |
was when I sort of took my life
in my hands, really, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
and I just said to her, "Look, | 0:53:06 | 0:53:08 | |
"have you seen Hot Gossip
on the Kenny Everett Show? | 0:53:08 | 0:53:13 | |
"Cos I think the cats ought to be
much more like that, | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
"I don't think they should be
pussycats." | 0:53:16 | 0:53:18 | |
And she just said,
"Tom would have liked that." | 0:53:18 | 0:53:20 | |
Kids, 20-year-olds and things, | 0:53:26 | 0:53:28 | |
were all hugely taken by what Arlene
Phillips was doing with Hot Gossip, | 0:53:28 | 0:53:33 | |
which was considered to be rude and
naughty by Mary Whitehouse, | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
and once Mary Whitehouse intervened
and made a huge kerfuffle about it, | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
everybody watched. And what Arlene
really was doing was, | 0:53:39 | 0:53:42 | |
it was sexy, yes, but it was
modern dance that, really, | 0:53:42 | 0:53:46 | |
the majority of us in Britain
hadn't seen in this country. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:50 | |
Valerie Eliot gave her permission,
and at their next meeting, | 0:53:53 | 0:53:57 | |
she brought along some
unpublished work - | 0:53:57 | 0:54:00 | |
a poem that TS Eliot thought
was too sad for children. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:04 | |
Once beautiful and adored, | 0:54:06 | 0:54:08 | |
Grizabella is the sad and lonely cat | 0:54:08 | 0:54:10 | |
who remembers the glamorous days
of her youth. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:14 | |
Grizabella was a story
that made you care. | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
And I remember going
absolutely cold, | 0:54:20 | 0:54:22 | |
and Cameron was there and I said, | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
"Cameron, Cameron, we've got
something bigger." | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
And Cameron saw this and he said,
"We have, haven't we?" | 0:54:27 | 0:54:31 | |
And, oh, God... | 0:54:32 | 0:54:34 | |
I immediately was getting... | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
HE PLAYS AND HUMS MELODY | 0:54:37 | 0:54:40 | |
# She haunted many a low resort | 0:54:40 | 0:54:44 | |
# From the grimy road
of Tottenham Court... # | 0:54:44 | 0:54:48 | |
It all flowed immediately. | 0:54:48 | 0:54:50 | |
# She flitted about
the no-man's land | 0:54:50 | 0:54:51 | |
# From The Rising Sun
to The Friend At Hand. # | 0:54:51 | 0:54:54 | |
And with that, there was such
a different tone quality | 0:54:54 | 0:54:57 | |
to the whole piece. | 0:54:57 | 0:54:58 | |
It was that moment
that the musical Cats was born. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
But some good tunes and a bunch
of verses by a dead poet | 0:55:03 | 0:55:07 | |
failed to persuade any investors
or convince Tim Rice | 0:55:07 | 0:55:11 | |
that his services were required. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:14 | |
Why did Cats not seem to you
to be the right thing for you? | 0:55:14 | 0:55:17 | |
Well, I wasn't needed. I mean,
the lyrics were there already. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:19 | |
So, simple as that. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:21 | |
So, what could I have done? | 0:55:22 | 0:55:24 | |
Chess. Well, I did that, yes. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:26 | |
# Wasn't it good?
Oh, so good | 0:55:26 | 0:55:29 | |
# Wasn't he fine?
Oh, so fine... # | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
While Tim teamed up with ABBA
to write Chess, | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
Tim's literary replacement,
TS Eliot, | 0:55:36 | 0:55:39 | |
started to attract
some blue-chip names, | 0:55:39 | 0:55:42 | |
including the Royal Shakespeare
Company's Trevor Nunn, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:46 | |
Judi Dench,
and the choreographer Gillian Lynne. | 0:55:46 | 0:55:50 | |
# I lost my heart
to a starship trooper... # | 0:55:50 | 0:55:55 | |
With no money and not even
a theatre, | 0:55:55 | 0:55:58 | |
the search began for that impossibly
rare breed in 1980s Britain - | 0:55:58 | 0:56:03 | |
dancers who could sing and act. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:05 | |
First stop, Arlene Phillips,
the founder of Hot Gossip. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:09 | |
Arlene suddenly says to me,
"There's a girl in my dance troupe, | 0:56:09 | 0:56:14 | |
"her name's Sarah Brightman, she has
the voice to take on anyone." | 0:56:14 | 0:56:18 | |
I remember she mentioned
Barbra Streisand. | 0:56:18 | 0:56:20 | |
She said, "But that girl is going
to change the course of your life." | 0:56:20 | 0:56:24 | |
And so I thought, "Huh?" | 0:56:24 | 0:56:26 | |
And you'd just got
Starship Trooper out, | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
which I thought was a great
pop record, but I never thought... | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
So I thought nothing more of it. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:33 | |
Yes. And then, of course,
Cats came along. | 0:56:33 | 0:56:37 | |
And I remember the first time
we met, I played appallingly, | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
and you came round to my flat, cos I
couldn't really believe it was you. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:45 | |
You were so lovely. I remember
sitting on your sofa, | 0:56:45 | 0:56:47 | |
looking at you, you were so lovely
and you were really quite nervous. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:51 | |
I was extremely nervous.
And I was nervous too. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:53 | |
I don't normally have people coming
round to my flat with blue hair. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
Good morning, everybody.
Can you all come onstage, please? | 0:56:56 | 0:56:59 | |
We'll do a little bit of
cat warm-up! Cat dip. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:04 | |
Sarah clearly impressed, | 0:57:04 | 0:57:06 | |
and secured the role
of a cat called Jemima. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:10 | |
Once the cast was assembled, | 0:57:10 | 0:57:11 | |
the next challenge was for
Gillian Lynne to make them feline. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:15 | |
I gave them a long and difficult
class every day | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
so that we could find a way
to be cats, cos it's a tough show. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:23 | |
And unless you have people going
flat-out and really, you know, | 0:57:23 | 0:57:29 | |
practically breaking their leg and
really being very daring and brave, | 0:57:29 | 0:57:34 | |
and at the same time
you are being a cat, | 0:57:34 | 0:57:36 | |
which is not the same as
being a human, it's tough. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:40 | |
I remember when you came on,
you played all these tunes for Cats, | 0:57:47 | 0:57:52 | |
and I was thinking,
"How is this going to work? | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 | |
"There's a director from
the Royal Shakespeare Company, | 0:57:55 | 0:57:57 | |
"there's Andrew playing these..." | 0:57:57 | 0:57:59 | |
I could not envisage at all... | 0:57:59 | 0:58:02 | |
And we still really didn't have
a theatre. | 0:58:02 | 0:58:05 | |
And we looked at all... You know,
we looked at Her Majesty's, | 0:58:05 | 0:58:08 | |
at Drury Lane and everything. Then
one day, at the tender age of 12, | 0:58:08 | 0:58:12 | |
Andrew was doing his second
This Is Your Life... | 0:58:12 | 0:58:15 | |
Tonight, Andrew Lloyd Webber,
this is your life. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:18 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:58:18 | 0:58:19 | |
This Is Your Life was recorded in
the West End's New London Theatre. | 0:58:24 | 0:58:29 | |
Back in the '80s, it was used
as a television studio. | 0:58:29 | 0:58:33 | |
But it wasn't the parade of friends
and relatives that captivated Andrew | 0:58:33 | 0:58:36 | |
that evening. It was the theatre. | 0:58:36 | 0:58:39 | |
He'd found his cats a home. | 0:58:39 | 0:58:41 | |
Problem was, there was no money
to hire it. | 0:58:44 | 0:58:47 | |
We couldn't get the money for it. | 0:58:47 | 0:58:49 | |
There was an incredible meeting,
quite late on in the process. | 0:58:49 | 0:58:52 | |
And Andrew said,
"Well, we haven't got the money, | 0:58:52 | 0:58:56 | |
"so we've all got to go home tonight
and anyone who knows anyone with any | 0:58:56 | 0:59:00 | |
"money, try and get at them." | 0:59:00 | 0:59:01 | |
Desperation set in, | 0:59:07 | 0:59:09 | |
so Lloyd Webber raised
a second mortgage on his house | 0:59:09 | 0:59:12 | |
to secure the theatre. | 0:59:12 | 0:59:14 | |
Two weeks before the first preview,
they moved into the New London, | 0:59:16 | 0:59:20 | |
at which point Judi Dench,
who was playing Grizabella, | 0:59:20 | 0:59:23 | |
snapped her Achilles tendon. | 0:59:23 | 0:59:26 | |
They had to find a replacement,
and fast. | 0:59:26 | 0:59:29 | |
PIANO PLAYS | 0:59:30 | 0:59:32 | |
Damn! OK, thank you. | 0:59:36 | 0:59:37 | |
Luckily, Elaine Paige
happened to be free, | 0:59:37 | 0:59:41 | |
and agreed to take on
Judi Dench's role. | 0:59:41 | 0:59:44 | |
But all the mishaps and delays
that had plagued the production | 0:59:45 | 0:59:48 | |
had taken their toll. | 0:59:48 | 0:59:50 | |
We'd just seen a run-through
the night before. | 0:59:50 | 0:59:53 | |
We both said,
"There'll be just ridicule." | 0:59:53 | 0:59:55 | |
Cameron and I said, "People are just
going to... It's just hopeless." | 0:59:55 | 0:59:59 | |
So we sat Trevor down and we said,
"We're closing the show." | 0:59:59 | 1:00:02 | |
And Trevor said, "No, no, no, | 1:00:02 | 1:00:04 | |
"we'll just carry on rehearsals
tomorrow morning and..." | 1:00:04 | 1:00:07 | |
And Trevor's quite powerful,
and there's Cameron, you know, | 1:00:07 | 1:00:11 | |
now the powerful producer, and me,
the so-called powerful composer... | 1:00:11 | 1:00:15 | |
We just said, "OK." | 1:00:15 | 1:00:17 | |
And that was that! | 1:00:17 | 1:00:19 | |
The first preview night
finally arrived, | 1:00:33 | 1:00:37 | |
and, nervously, Andrew and Cameron
stood in the wings of the New London | 1:00:37 | 1:00:41 | |
and looked out at the expectant
crowd of theatre critics | 1:00:41 | 1:00:44 | |
who were sharpening their knives. | 1:00:44 | 1:00:46 | |
And it was an extraordinary thing,
really, | 1:00:47 | 1:00:50 | |
cos we were all waiting here
for the cats to go on | 1:00:50 | 1:00:53 | |
and none of us had a clue,
none of us had a clue | 1:00:53 | 1:00:55 | |
what the reaction was going to be. | 1:00:55 | 1:00:57 | |
We bade them good luck
and off they went, | 1:00:57 | 1:01:00 | |
and we went straight down to
the bar and ordered large drinks, | 1:01:00 | 1:01:04 | |
because we thought that was it,
it was going to be a disaster. | 1:01:04 | 1:01:07 | |
We did the overture and, of course,
we revolved the audience | 1:01:11 | 1:01:15 | |
and, of course, I suppose now,
with hindsight, | 1:01:15 | 1:01:18 | |
nobody expected that
that would happen - I mean, | 1:01:18 | 1:01:20 | |
it had never, ever been done before, | 1:01:20 | 1:01:22 | |
with a whole load of people
actually physically moving | 1:01:22 | 1:01:25 | |
through a building. | 1:01:25 | 1:01:27 | |
And they didn't realise
that they were moving either, | 1:01:27 | 1:01:30 | |
that was the thing. So suddenly,
when the first cat came out, | 1:01:30 | 1:01:34 | |
we were in a totally different
environment | 1:01:34 | 1:01:37 | |
to that that we started with. | 1:01:37 | 1:01:38 | |
# Jellicles would and Jellicles can | 1:01:38 | 1:01:42 | |
# Jellicles can and Jellicles do | 1:01:42 | 1:01:44 | |
# Jellicle cats and Jellicles would | 1:01:44 | 1:01:47 | |
# And Jellicles do... # | 1:01:47 | 1:01:49 | |
And the overture, I remember, | 1:01:51 | 1:01:53 | |
was actually greeted with a big
round of applause, and people were, | 1:01:53 | 1:01:58 | |
I think, genuinely,
utterly blown away. | 1:01:58 | 1:02:01 | |
And we heard the first cheer. | 1:02:03 | 1:02:06 | |
And then we listened a bit longer
and we heard this real... | 1:02:06 | 1:02:10 | |
You could feel the warmth coming,
you know? | 1:02:10 | 1:02:13 | |
So we crept back up
and the audience was going mad. | 1:02:13 | 1:02:17 | |
So we rushed straight back
to the bar and had another one... | 1:02:17 | 1:02:20 | |
To celebrate. | 1:02:21 | 1:02:22 | |
# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats | 1:02:22 | 1:02:24 | |
# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats | 1:02:24 | 1:02:27 | |
# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats | 1:02:27 | 1:02:30 | |
# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats | 1:02:30 | 1:02:32 | |
# Jellicle songs
for Jellicle cats. # | 1:02:32 | 1:02:34 | |
And at the end, it was just like
everybody rose up, | 1:02:35 | 1:02:39 | |
the whole theatre, and just
applauded and screamed, | 1:02:39 | 1:02:42 | |
and it was like,
"God, nobody expected that." | 1:02:42 | 1:02:45 | |
Already you could tell
the show was going to be a hit. | 1:02:45 | 1:02:49 | |
What we didn't know,
until a few weeks later, | 1:02:49 | 1:02:52 | |
was it was going to become
a phenomena. | 1:02:52 | 1:02:54 | |
# Touch me | 1:02:55 | 1:02:57 | |
# It's so easy to leave me | 1:02:57 | 1:03:02 | |
# All alone with the memory | 1:03:02 | 1:03:07 | |
# Of my days in the sun... # | 1:03:07 | 1:03:13 | |
The phenomena was not
just box office. | 1:03:13 | 1:03:16 | |
Within days of the opening, there
were long queues for Cats T-shirts, | 1:03:16 | 1:03:20 | |
signalling a merchandising sensation | 1:03:20 | 1:03:23 | |
that musical theatre
had never seen before. | 1:03:23 | 1:03:26 | |
# A new day | 1:03:26 | 1:03:31 | |
# Has begun. # | 1:03:31 | 1:03:41 | |
On October the 7th, 1982,
Cats opened on Broadway. | 1:03:45 | 1:03:49 | |
It was a huge hit. | 1:03:49 | 1:03:51 | |
But success was tinged with sadness. | 1:03:53 | 1:03:55 | |
Back home, Mum rang to say
Dad's operation had gone well. | 1:04:01 | 1:04:04 | |
I bought dad a Walkman
plus a few cassettes, | 1:04:07 | 1:04:10 | |
including Rachmaninov's
First Piano Concerto. | 1:04:10 | 1:04:12 | |
Dad donned the headphones | 1:04:17 | 1:04:19 | |
and was thoroughly enjoying
the first movement, | 1:04:19 | 1:04:21 | |
when he suddenly said,
"Andrew, what key is this in?" | 1:04:21 | 1:04:24 | |
I said, "G flat minor." | 1:04:26 | 1:04:27 | |
Dad shook his head. | 1:04:28 | 1:04:30 | |
"Have you still not learned
the difference | 1:04:30 | 1:04:32 | |
"between G flat and F sharp?" | 1:04:32 | 1:04:34 | |
These were the last words
I remember him saying to me. | 1:04:35 | 1:04:38 | |
William died the next day. | 1:04:42 | 1:04:44 | |
He was only 67. | 1:04:44 | 1:04:47 | |
But his legacy was to be the guiding
spirit of Andrew's next project. | 1:04:47 | 1:04:52 | |
# Pie Jesu | 1:04:55 | 1:05:00 | |
# Pie Jesu... # | 1:05:00 | 1:05:07 | |
In the winter of 1982,
Andrew's life began to unravel. | 1:05:07 | 1:05:11 | |
He was grieving for his father... | 1:05:11 | 1:05:14 | |
..and then fell in love
with one of his Cats. | 1:05:17 | 1:05:20 | |
Then I began writing
the Requiem Mass | 1:05:22 | 1:05:25 | |
and, of course, you were beginning
to really, really... | 1:05:25 | 1:05:28 | |
I would lock you in your room,
do you remember that? | 1:05:28 | 1:05:31 | |
I do. "Just keep at it," I said,
"it's all there, it really is." | 1:05:31 | 1:05:35 | |
It's the one piece, you know,
that I'd love to go over again, | 1:05:35 | 1:05:38 | |
because I don't think
I got it completely right. | 1:05:38 | 1:05:40 | |
And you were very, very passionate
about the piece. | 1:05:40 | 1:05:43 | |
Um, and I think that's what
shines through, | 1:05:43 | 1:05:46 | |
through moments of it,
and especially the Pie Jesu. | 1:05:46 | 1:05:49 | |
You know, the thing that I always
think when I look back at it is | 1:05:55 | 1:05:58 | |
how extraordinary that Pie Jesu,
which I never thought of, you know, | 1:05:58 | 1:06:02 | |
as anything that would ever be
a stand-alone... Piece, yes. | 1:06:02 | 1:06:06 | |
And, of course, that's really
the piece | 1:06:06 | 1:06:08 | |
everybody remembers from it now. | 1:06:08 | 1:06:10 | |
# Qui tollis peccata mundi | 1:06:10 | 1:06:17 | |
# Dona eis requiem... # | 1:06:17 | 1:06:26 | |
Pie Jesu reached number one in the
UK charts, and its income alone | 1:06:26 | 1:06:30 | |
could have kept the composer
living relatively comfortably | 1:06:30 | 1:06:33 | |
for the rest of his life. | 1:06:33 | 1:06:35 | |
The melody... | 1:06:37 | 1:06:38 | |
I mean, I was on my own turf
with that, but I didn't... | 1:06:46 | 1:06:49 | |
Anyway, it would have been lovely
sung by the Everly Brothers. | 1:06:51 | 1:06:54 | |
I mean, could you imagine... | 1:06:54 | 1:06:56 | |
..their harmonies on that? | 1:06:56 | 1:06:59 | |
I mean, that absolutely fits... | 1:07:02 | 1:07:03 | |
Can you imagine Don and Phil
doing that? | 1:07:10 | 1:07:12 | |
That really would have been
something. | 1:07:12 | 1:07:13 | |
In November 1983,
Andrew divorced Sarah Hugill, | 1:07:17 | 1:07:21 | |
his wife of nearly 12 years, | 1:07:21 | 1:07:23 | |
and married Sarah Brightman on the
afternoon of March the 27th, 1984... | 1:07:23 | 1:07:29 | |
..the very same day that
Starlight Express opened in London. | 1:07:31 | 1:07:36 | |
# Starlight Express | 1:07:36 | 1:07:39 | |
# You must confess | 1:07:39 | 1:07:41 | |
# Are you real? Yes or no? # | 1:07:41 | 1:07:45 | |
Performed entirely on roller skates, | 1:07:45 | 1:07:48 | |
it's the story about a child's dream
in which his toy train set | 1:07:48 | 1:07:52 | |
comes to life. | 1:07:52 | 1:07:53 | |
# There are dark days ahead... # | 1:07:53 | 1:07:55 | |
With the opening of Starlight, | 1:07:55 | 1:07:57 | |
Lloyd Webber now held the record
of three shows on Broadway | 1:07:57 | 1:08:01 | |
and four in London. | 1:08:01 | 1:08:02 | |
But his marriage to Sarah Brightman
would be the catalyst | 1:08:02 | 1:08:06 | |
for his next show - a project
that would eclipse | 1:08:06 | 1:08:09 | |
everything he'd written before. | 1:08:09 | 1:08:11 | |
I was sitting in the bath one day, | 1:08:11 | 1:08:13 | |
one morning, and Andrew says, | 1:08:13 | 1:08:16 | |
"Cameron, what do you think about us
doing Phantom of the Opera?" | 1:08:16 | 1:08:20 | |
Andrew came across a copy of
the French novel while | 1:08:28 | 1:08:31 | |
working with Sarah on Requiem.
He thought his new wife | 1:08:31 | 1:08:34 | |
would be perfect in the lead role
of Christine. | 1:08:34 | 1:08:37 | |
I remember reading it and it ending
up with Christine's ring | 1:08:37 | 1:08:41 | |
being on the Phantom's finger
and I thought, "Oh, my God, | 1:08:41 | 1:08:44 | |
"it's a high romance." It's
a romance. It is a high romance. | 1:08:44 | 1:08:47 | |
And it was a huge risk
for a composer to say, | 1:08:51 | 1:08:56 | |
"I've written a show, | 1:08:56 | 1:08:59 | |
"but my wife's going to star in it." | 1:08:59 | 1:09:01 | |
And I think Sarah
was the remarkable catalyst, | 1:09:01 | 1:09:05 | |
the fact that she and Andrew had
this extraordinary relationship, | 1:09:05 | 1:09:09 | |
all touched on the ingredients that
were necessary to explode this | 1:09:09 | 1:09:13 | |
and give him a reason
for writing it. | 1:09:13 | 1:09:16 | |
The story of Phantom is about | 1:09:20 | 1:09:22 | |
a beautiful soprano called
Christine, who becomes the obsession | 1:09:22 | 1:09:26 | |
of a mysterious, disfigured composer
who haunts the labyrinth | 1:09:26 | 1:09:31 | |
of passageways beneath
the Paris Opera. | 1:09:31 | 1:09:34 | |
And so, I mean, there I was, | 1:09:34 | 1:09:37 | |
faced with the possibility of
writing the kind of melodies | 1:09:37 | 1:09:39 | |
I've always wanted to do. So, I
mean, out comes All I Ask Of You... | 1:09:39 | 1:09:42 | |
I mean... | 1:09:45 | 1:09:47 | |
I mean, it's wonderful.
I'm doing all the sort of... | 1:09:52 | 1:09:55 | |
..all those kind of harmonies. | 1:09:55 | 1:09:57 | |
And I just let myself go. | 1:09:57 | 1:09:59 | |
# All I ask for is one love | 1:09:59 | 1:10:04 | |
# One lifetime... # | 1:10:04 | 1:10:07 | |
And then, you see, I had this idea
that wouldn't it be great | 1:10:07 | 1:10:11 | |
if we started
in an old, old opera house | 1:10:11 | 1:10:13 | |
which was deserted for some reason, | 1:10:13 | 1:10:15 | |
and they were auctioning
off the contents | 1:10:15 | 1:10:17 | |
and one of the items
was a chandelier...? | 1:10:17 | 1:10:20 | |
MUSIC: Overture
from Phantom Of The Opera | 1:10:22 | 1:10:25 | |
So, what if it's in pieces on
the stage and it reassembles | 1:10:28 | 1:10:32 | |
and rises up over the audience? | 1:10:32 | 1:10:35 | |
And I just thought, "Oh, yeah!" | 1:10:43 | 1:10:45 | |
And that's, of course, when I got... | 1:10:45 | 1:10:46 | |
PLAYS MAIN MOTIF | 1:10:46 | 1:10:50 | |
I thought,
"We're off to the races now." | 1:10:50 | 1:10:52 | |
PLAYS MAIN THEME | 1:10:52 | 1:10:54 | |
And so on. | 1:10:55 | 1:10:57 | |
And it still is a moment,
I have to say, every time I see it, | 1:10:57 | 1:11:00 | |
it still is the moment I think
that I'm never going to top | 1:11:00 | 1:11:02 | |
that as a theatrical idea. | 1:11:02 | 1:11:04 | |
Lloyd Webber started
working on Phantom | 1:11:09 | 1:11:11 | |
with the Starlight writer
Richard Stilgoe. | 1:11:11 | 1:11:14 | |
But after months of rewrites, | 1:11:14 | 1:11:16 | |
the pair agreed that Andrew
should find another lyricist. | 1:11:16 | 1:11:19 | |
His name was Charles Hart
and he was only 25. | 1:11:27 | 1:11:31 | |
It was a cauldron, really,
of tension, | 1:11:32 | 1:11:35 | |
because there was so much at stake. | 1:11:35 | 1:11:36 | |
But at the same time,
it became apparent to me | 1:11:36 | 1:11:39 | |
as I worked on it that I had, | 1:11:39 | 1:11:41 | |
of all the people involved
in it, the least to lose. | 1:11:41 | 1:11:44 | |
Because the worst thing
that could happen to me | 1:11:44 | 1:11:46 | |
would be I would go back
to signing on, | 1:11:46 | 1:11:48 | |
which is what I was
doing at the time. | 1:11:48 | 1:11:50 | |
While Lloyd Webber took a big risk
with the lyricist, | 1:11:51 | 1:11:54 | |
he entrusted the staging of Phantom
to a safe pair of hands - | 1:11:54 | 1:11:59 | |
the Evita director, Hal Prince. | 1:11:59 | 1:12:02 | |
The problem was, Hal had
no Phantom to direct. | 1:12:03 | 1:12:06 | |
Andrew called from London and said,
"I've got an idea, | 1:12:08 | 1:12:11 | |
"and I think it's a terrific one." | 1:12:11 | 1:12:15 | |
And he said, "Michael Crawford." | 1:12:15 | 1:12:18 | |
And I said, "Michael Crawford?
Can he do this sort of thing?" | 1:12:18 | 1:12:21 | |
He said, "Get on a plane
and fly over | 1:12:21 | 1:12:23 | |
"and we'll have him sing for us." | 1:12:23 | 1:12:25 | |
So I did, immediately. | 1:12:25 | 1:12:27 | |
And so he sang a little for us and
you thought, my God, he's terrific. | 1:12:27 | 1:12:30 | |
That's it. | 1:12:30 | 1:12:31 | |
Frank! | 1:12:32 | 1:12:34 | |
The decision to cast
Michael Crawford was a bold move. | 1:12:34 | 1:12:38 | |
In the '80s, he was best known
to UK audiences | 1:12:40 | 1:12:43 | |
as the hapless Frank Spencer
in Some Mothers Do Have 'Em. | 1:12:43 | 1:12:48 | |
The question was
how to make him say yes. | 1:12:48 | 1:12:50 | |
It didn't take a lot of persuading, | 1:12:50 | 1:12:52 | |
because when I played him
the overture, which I'd recorded, | 1:12:52 | 1:12:55 | |
and told him about
the chandelier idea, he was in. | 1:12:55 | 1:12:58 | |
# Night-time sharpens | 1:12:58 | 1:13:03 | |
# Heightens each sensation | 1:13:03 | 1:13:08 | |
# Darkness wakes | 1:13:08 | 1:13:11 | |
# And stirs imagination... # | 1:13:11 | 1:13:16 | |
The whole point of
The Phantom of the Opera | 1:13:16 | 1:13:19 | |
is that Christine is obsessed
by the Phantom. | 1:13:19 | 1:13:23 | |
It's a relationship that is there,
made through music. | 1:13:23 | 1:13:26 | |
And also, she finds him incredibly,
incredibly charismatic. | 1:13:26 | 1:13:30 | |
There's nothing very likeable
about him, really. He's a... | 1:13:36 | 1:13:39 | |
He's an... You know, an egocentric
who kills people, | 1:13:40 | 1:13:45 | |
mesmerises,
virtually date-rapes women, | 1:13:45 | 1:13:47 | |
and in the end his only saving grace
really is his sense of decor. | 1:13:47 | 1:13:51 | |
You know? His pad is amazing. | 1:13:51 | 1:13:53 | |
Amazing as the Phantom's pad was, | 1:14:00 | 1:14:03 | |
the sinister opulence of
the Paris Opera House, | 1:14:03 | 1:14:06 | |
populated by swinging chandeliers, | 1:14:06 | 1:14:08 | |
floating gondoliers
and a grand staircase, | 1:14:08 | 1:14:12 | |
presented a whole host
of technical challenges. | 1:14:12 | 1:14:15 | |
As a set, it's quite simple. | 1:14:16 | 1:14:18 | |
It's a black box
with bits and pieces in it. | 1:14:18 | 1:14:21 | |
But those bits and pieces moved...
Had to move... | 1:14:21 | 1:14:23 | |
..quite complicatedly. | 1:14:23 | 1:14:24 | |
Yes, at the time,
because of course, nowadays, | 1:14:24 | 1:14:26 | |
with technical things that we have,
it's easier. | 1:14:26 | 1:14:28 | |
But then...
Because the dress rehearsals | 1:14:28 | 1:14:31 | |
were quite hairy, weren't they? | 1:14:31 | 1:14:33 | |
Well, because of the sets,
and it was the chandelier... | 1:14:33 | 1:14:36 | |
Yes. ..which was the main fear. | 1:14:36 | 1:14:38 | |
And the costumes,
the costumes were wonderful, | 1:14:38 | 1:14:40 | |
but, of course, they were complex. | 1:14:40 | 1:14:42 | |
They were very real
and they had to... | 1:14:42 | 1:14:45 | |
Everything had to move, it was all
moving parts, all the time. | 1:14:45 | 1:14:47 | |
Everything. That's the thing
about the whole production... | 1:14:47 | 1:14:50 | |
And it was very voluptuous,
so it had to move seamlessly. | 1:14:50 | 1:14:53 | |
And I think that was where...
That was the problem, | 1:14:53 | 1:14:57 | |
was getting it to do all of that. | 1:14:57 | 1:14:58 | |
September the 27th, 1986, | 1:15:07 | 1:15:10 | |
was the night when the infamous
Phantom dress rehearsal | 1:15:10 | 1:15:13 | |
entered into West End mythology. | 1:15:13 | 1:15:15 | |
The chandelier got stuck. | 1:15:16 | 1:15:18 | |
Many took this as an ill omen. | 1:15:19 | 1:15:21 | |
But on the opening night, | 1:15:21 | 1:15:23 | |
the set moved like clockwork
and Phantom became a musical legend | 1:15:23 | 1:15:28 | |
and a once in a generation
smash hit. | 1:15:28 | 1:15:30 | |
# Let your soul take you | 1:15:36 | 1:15:40 | |
# Where you long to be | 1:15:40 | 1:15:50 | |
# Only then can you belong
to me... # | 1:15:50 | 1:15:58 | |
It was a nuclear explosion... | 1:16:03 | 1:16:05 | |
..of heightened emotion. | 1:16:06 | 1:16:11 | |
But if it hadn't had that, | 1:16:11 | 1:16:13 | |
if he hadn't found a way of
channelling all things, | 1:16:13 | 1:16:16 | |
both in his private life
and his creative life, into that, | 1:16:16 | 1:16:19 | |
I don't think the show, however
beautiful, however well staged, | 1:16:19 | 1:16:22 | |
would have ever had the life it did. | 1:16:22 | 1:16:24 | |
Three, two, one... | 1:16:37 | 1:16:41 | |
Fast forward three decades
to January 2018. | 1:16:48 | 1:16:51 | |
Phantom has reigned
on Broadway for 30 years, | 1:16:56 | 1:16:59 | |
and Andrew and Cameron
are in town to throw a party. | 1:16:59 | 1:17:02 | |
As birthday celebrations go, | 1:17:06 | 1:17:08 | |
they don't come much bigger | 1:17:08 | 1:17:09 | |
than lighting up
the Empire State Building. | 1:17:09 | 1:17:11 | |
Many award-winning and critically
acclaimed shows followed - | 1:17:15 | 1:17:18 | |
Aspects of love,
The Woman in White, | 1:17:18 | 1:17:22 | |
Sunset Boulevard, | 1:17:22 | 1:17:23 | |
and Love Never Dies - | 1:17:23 | 1:17:26 | |
but none would match
the success of Phantom. | 1:17:26 | 1:17:28 | |
Andrew's relationship
with Sarah Brightman | 1:17:31 | 1:17:33 | |
didn't last the course. | 1:17:33 | 1:17:35 | |
It ended after publicity
over her affair | 1:17:35 | 1:17:38 | |
with the Phantom keyboard player. | 1:17:38 | 1:17:40 | |
A few years later, | 1:17:41 | 1:17:42 | |
he spotted the woman who would
become his lifelong partner on TV. | 1:17:42 | 1:17:47 | |
She was a professional rider. | 1:17:48 | 1:17:50 | |
She was a three-day eventer. | 1:17:50 | 1:17:52 | |
And I remember once seeing a race
before the Grand National, | 1:17:52 | 1:17:55 | |
and I remembered this girl
in the pouring rain underneath | 1:17:55 | 1:17:59 | |
the old Becher's Brook fence, | 1:17:59 | 1:18:01 | |
which was about three times
her size, | 1:18:01 | 1:18:04 | |
being very funny and saying,
"Where's my hair and make-up?" | 1:18:04 | 1:18:06 | |
Andrew and Madeleine have been
together now for nearly 30 years, | 1:18:10 | 1:18:14 | |
and since their marriage, | 1:18:14 | 1:18:16 | |
Madeleine has played
an increasingly active role | 1:18:16 | 1:18:19 | |
in the running of
The Really Useful Company. | 1:18:19 | 1:18:21 | |
All in all, it would seem
that he's led a charmed existence. | 1:18:22 | 1:18:26 | |
But the last few years
have proved challenging. | 1:18:26 | 1:18:29 | |
I think I got very depressed
when, recently, | 1:18:31 | 1:18:33 | |
when I really was pretty ill. | 1:18:33 | 1:18:35 | |
I mean, I had... | 1:18:35 | 1:18:37 | |
I don't want to bore anybody
with it, | 1:18:37 | 1:18:40 | |
but after I got cancer, I then... | 1:18:40 | 1:18:42 | |
That was fine, and that was cured. | 1:18:42 | 1:18:44 | |
But I then had issues with my back. | 1:18:44 | 1:18:47 | |
# Stephen Ward,
your friendly osteopath | 1:18:47 | 1:18:53 | |
# I can fix your lower back
for you... # | 1:18:53 | 1:18:57 | |
The timing couldn't have been worse. | 1:18:57 | 1:18:59 | |
Andrew was working on
the musical Stephen Ward, | 1:18:59 | 1:19:02 | |
a miscarriage of justice story | 1:19:02 | 1:19:04 | |
about the man who became
a public scapegoat | 1:19:04 | 1:19:07 | |
during the Profumo affair in 1963. | 1:19:07 | 1:19:10 | |
# 1963! # | 1:19:10 | 1:19:12 | |
Stephen Ward. Hello. | 1:19:12 | 1:19:14 | |
Do you mind coming with us, sir? | 1:19:14 | 1:19:15 | |
I don't see why I should have to
take the rap for your bit of fun. | 1:19:15 | 1:19:18 | |
# Sometimes that's
what pain can do... # | 1:19:18 | 1:19:22 | |
Stephen Ward was
an osteopath by profession. | 1:19:22 | 1:19:25 | |
That was an irony not lost
on Lloyd Webber, | 1:19:25 | 1:19:28 | |
suffering severe back pain
at the time. | 1:19:28 | 1:19:31 | |
When I was doing Stephen Ward,
I was... | 1:19:31 | 1:19:33 | |
I mean, I was doing
the musical on morphine. | 1:19:33 | 1:19:35 | |
And I advise you not to do
a musical on morphine, actually. | 1:19:35 | 1:19:40 | |
It's not the most brilliant idea. | 1:19:40 | 1:19:41 | |
It doesn't actually
help the mind hugely. | 1:19:41 | 1:19:44 | |
It didn't help
the box office either. | 1:19:45 | 1:19:48 | |
The reviews were mixed
and the audience didn't come. | 1:19:48 | 1:19:51 | |
When Stephen Ward opened in December
2013, it ran for just four months. | 1:19:52 | 1:19:57 | |
I think to myself, "Why did I get
so low?" But it was just the pain. | 1:19:59 | 1:20:02 | |
And, you know, it was not being
able to move half the time. | 1:20:02 | 1:20:07 | |
And I just thought, "It's all over." | 1:20:07 | 1:20:09 | |
And I thought,
"If I can't do my musicals | 1:20:09 | 1:20:12 | |
"and I can't do any more,
why bother?" | 1:20:12 | 1:20:15 | |
Despite these dark periods,
Andrew did manage to recover. | 1:20:16 | 1:20:21 | |
He was full of energy once again | 1:20:21 | 1:20:23 | |
and rediscovered his passion
for musical theatre. | 1:20:23 | 1:20:26 | |
# Stick it to the man! # | 1:20:29 | 1:20:31 | |
His wife, Madeleine, gave him
the idea for a new musical. | 1:20:31 | 1:20:35 | |
The School of Rock was
Andrew Lloyd Webber's comeback. | 1:20:37 | 1:20:39 | |
It follows Dewey Finn,
an out-of-work rock guitarist | 1:20:44 | 1:20:48 | |
who pretends to be a teacher
at a private school. | 1:20:48 | 1:20:51 | |
That's great.
Well done. Bravo, guys. | 1:20:57 | 1:21:00 | |
Try something for me. Why don't you
come in, around, for the beginning? | 1:21:00 | 1:21:04 | |
Just come in. So it's all very,
very cosy, and it's all very smile, | 1:21:04 | 1:21:08 | |
lots of smiles to each other,
but it's all this, | 1:21:08 | 1:21:10 | |
and then when you get to
the big moment with the drum solo, | 1:21:10 | 1:21:13 | |
go back to your marks
and then rock out. | 1:21:13 | 1:21:15 | |
When we started out
with School of Rock on Broadway, | 1:21:15 | 1:21:18 | |
the audience didn't think that
the children were playing live. | 1:21:18 | 1:21:21 | |
But I tell you, every single note
that those children play is live. | 1:21:21 | 1:21:25 | |
And that's the joy of it,
because, in the end, | 1:21:25 | 1:21:28 | |
the very simple message of School
of Rock is that music empowers. | 1:21:28 | 1:21:32 | |
A few miles north
of London's West End | 1:21:36 | 1:21:38 | |
can be found another school of rock. | 1:21:38 | 1:21:41 | |
This is Highbury Grove, | 1:21:43 | 1:21:46 | |
which hosts an extraordinary,
pioneering project | 1:21:46 | 1:21:49 | |
called the Music in Secondary
Schools Trust. | 1:21:49 | 1:21:51 | |
Partly funded by Lloyd Webber, | 1:21:53 | 1:21:54 | |
the school uses music
to teach life skills, | 1:21:54 | 1:21:57 | |
improve exam results
and combat gang culture. | 1:21:57 | 1:22:01 | |
# Produced on this road | 1:22:03 | 1:22:05 | |
# A famous music man
and the one you should know | 1:22:05 | 1:22:09 | |
# I think of all the cattle
that pass by the place... # | 1:22:09 | 1:22:13 | |
Great, now... Well done, brilliant. | 1:22:17 | 1:22:19 | |
Now, it's fun that you're doing it
all on real instruments as well. | 1:22:19 | 1:22:23 | |
But I always think that
the one thing to remember | 1:22:23 | 1:22:26 | |
with real instruments is,
you can just play them, you know? | 1:22:26 | 1:22:30 | |
You don't have to feel
at all inhibited. | 1:22:30 | 1:22:34 | |
In the end, the one thing
about music is | 1:22:34 | 1:22:36 | |
that you don't have to be
a professional musician. | 1:22:36 | 1:22:39 | |
I mean, I don't know if any
of you ever would want to be. | 1:22:39 | 1:22:41 | |
But music is the one thing that
keeps us all together, I believe. | 1:22:41 | 1:22:46 | |
And I'm just thrilled to hear you
having such a good time with it all. | 1:22:46 | 1:22:51 | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber
has never forgotten | 1:22:51 | 1:22:53 | |
the strong foundation
music gave him as a child, | 1:22:53 | 1:22:56 | |
and is now determined that
as many children as possible | 1:22:56 | 1:23:00 | |
get similar opportunities,
in a world where music education | 1:23:00 | 1:23:03 | |
is seriously under threat. | 1:23:03 | 1:23:06 | |
What really impressed me, Truda,
about what you were doing here | 1:23:06 | 1:23:09 | |
at Highbury was not that you were
turning these kids into musicians, | 1:23:09 | 1:23:13 | |
but that you were using
music to empower them. | 1:23:13 | 1:23:15 | |
Absolutely. So it's a vehicle
for transformation, | 1:23:15 | 1:23:18 | |
that what it's teaching young people
is discipline - | 1:23:18 | 1:23:21 | |
they have to practise,
they have to bring their instrument, | 1:23:21 | 1:23:24 | |
they have to look after it. | 1:23:24 | 1:23:25 | |
Every child in this school
has had three years | 1:23:25 | 1:23:28 | |
of classical music education.
That is amazing. | 1:23:28 | 1:23:30 | |
Everybody does it,
and when everybody does it, | 1:23:30 | 1:23:33 | |
kids don't opt out. | 1:23:33 | 1:23:34 | |
It's normal. It has normalised
for every child | 1:23:34 | 1:23:37 | |
what classical music is. | 1:23:37 | 1:23:39 | |
So you have no...
I have no Government funding. | 1:23:45 | 1:23:47 | |
I've had nothing, and we've
reached 5,000 young people. | 1:23:47 | 1:23:51 | |
Wow. All through philanthropists | 1:23:51 | 1:23:53 | |
and people who are
absolutely passionate. | 1:23:53 | 1:23:56 | |
It is a tragedy, what's happening
currently in our secondary schools. | 1:23:56 | 1:24:01 | |
Well, I completely agree. | 1:24:01 | 1:24:02 | |
I mean, I'm lucky, because
it was around me in my family | 1:24:02 | 1:24:05 | |
and music was around me
and the theatre was around me. | 1:24:05 | 1:24:08 | |
But you see what happens
when you take kids sometimes | 1:24:08 | 1:24:11 | |
who've never been near a theatre
for the first time... Yes. | 1:24:11 | 1:24:13 | |
And I despair that, you know... | 1:24:13 | 1:24:17 | |
I mean, we just make
a passionate plea that someday, | 1:24:17 | 1:24:20 | |
sometime, people will understand
just how vital it is. | 1:24:20 | 1:24:22 | |
And the work you've done here,
Truda, is extraordinary. | 1:24:22 | 1:24:25 | |
Thank you. Election broadcast. Yes! | 1:24:25 | 1:24:27 | |
So, now he feels it's time
to give something back. | 1:24:29 | 1:24:33 | |
And not just through music
education, but to theatre too. | 1:24:33 | 1:24:36 | |
It's no small irony that Andrew now
owns seven major West End theatres, | 1:24:38 | 1:24:43 | |
including the London Palladium
and the Cambridge Theatre. | 1:24:43 | 1:24:46 | |
But his favourite is
the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, | 1:24:50 | 1:24:53 | |
where he first fell
in love with musicals. | 1:24:53 | 1:24:56 | |
And his passion for architecture and
theatre has finally come together | 1:24:58 | 1:25:02 | |
in an ambitious restoration project | 1:25:02 | 1:25:04 | |
which he's working on
with Simon Thurley. | 1:25:04 | 1:25:06 | |
What we're walking in today | 1:25:07 | 1:25:09 | |
is this incredible sort of
Regency palace, really. | 1:25:09 | 1:25:12 | |
And it was a palace because,
as you know, | 1:25:12 | 1:25:14 | |
it was designed for the Royal family
to come here to the theatre. | 1:25:14 | 1:25:18 | |
Drury Lane has been
a working theatre | 1:25:18 | 1:25:20 | |
since the reign of Charles II, | 1:25:20 | 1:25:22 | |
but it's also a shrine to some
of the great writers | 1:25:22 | 1:25:25 | |
whose work has been staged here. | 1:25:25 | 1:25:27 | |
Well, let's go through
into the great rotunda. | 1:25:27 | 1:25:31 | |
I mean, wow. That's wow factor. | 1:25:31 | 1:25:34 | |
I quite like it. It's a sort of
Cenotaph to all these famous actors. | 1:25:36 | 1:25:40 | |
Yes. You've got these
statues of Garrick, | 1:25:40 | 1:25:43 | |
and it's a bit odd having
the statue of Shakespeare, | 1:25:43 | 1:25:45 | |
because obviously, he never
was involved here. | 1:25:45 | 1:25:47 | |
But you have these
incredible figures, | 1:25:47 | 1:25:50 | |
all of whom trod the boards
at the Lane. | 1:25:50 | 1:25:52 | |
Yeah. So where do we go from here?
We go the King's Route, I assume? | 1:25:52 | 1:25:55 | |
Let's go the... Yeah.
Well, you can go the King's Route. | 1:25:55 | 1:25:58 | |
Thank you. I will. | 1:25:58 | 1:25:59 | |
Front of house, the plan is to turn
this beautiful Regency room, | 1:26:02 | 1:26:06 | |
the grand saloon, into a social
space with a bar and restaurant. | 1:26:06 | 1:26:11 | |
But most of the money and effort | 1:26:11 | 1:26:13 | |
will be spent redesigning
the auditorium. | 1:26:13 | 1:26:16 | |
I don't suppose you remember | 1:26:17 | 1:26:19 | |
where you are sitting when you
watched... came to see My Fair Lady? | 1:26:19 | 1:26:22 | |
I think it was the upper circle. | 1:26:22 | 1:26:23 | |
I'm pretty sure
it was the upper circle. | 1:26:23 | 1:26:25 | |
And I have to say, | 1:26:25 | 1:26:27 | |
My Fair Lady looked pretty good,
because it was a great big show. | 1:26:27 | 1:26:30 | |
So, the whole purpose of
what I want to achieve here | 1:26:37 | 1:26:41 | |
is to make this an 1,800,
1,900-seater auditorium, | 1:26:41 | 1:26:44 | |
which is hugely more intimate
than it is today, | 1:26:44 | 1:26:48 | |
because if you look at this,
this is a vast, great cavern here, | 1:26:48 | 1:26:51 | |
and there is this gap between
the audience and the stage | 1:26:51 | 1:26:55 | |
which needs to be removed. | 1:26:55 | 1:26:57 | |
And the whole circle on both levels
here will come forward, | 1:26:57 | 1:27:02 | |
so the feeling of the auditorium | 1:27:02 | 1:27:04 | |
will be infinitely more intimate
than it is today. | 1:27:04 | 1:27:08 | |
We have got to recognise
it's a working theatre, | 1:27:08 | 1:27:11 | |
and it's got to be a theatre
that I leave fit for purpose | 1:27:11 | 1:27:14 | |
for the next couple of
hundred years. | 1:27:14 | 1:27:16 | |
That's long-term planning for you. | 1:27:22 | 1:27:24 | |
But it's not so surprising. | 1:27:25 | 1:27:27 | |
With brother Julian's help, | 1:27:27 | 1:27:29 | |
he started building his first
theatre in Harrington Court | 1:27:29 | 1:27:32 | |
over 60 years ago. | 1:27:32 | 1:27:35 | |
Nothing much has changed since then. | 1:27:35 | 1:27:37 | |
Andrew's love of melody
and passion for musicals | 1:27:39 | 1:27:43 | |
has barely wavered since childhood. | 1:27:43 | 1:27:45 | |
It's a kind of weird moment for me,
actually, | 1:27:47 | 1:27:49 | |
because I've got all of this
material sitting there... | 1:27:49 | 1:27:52 | |
..like kind of waifs and strays
looking for a home. | 1:27:53 | 1:27:56 | |
Yes, I think we've always...
The Lloyd Webber family, | 1:27:56 | 1:28:00 | |
especially from my mother's side,
has always loved a project. | 1:28:00 | 1:28:04 | |
If we don't have a project,
we're restless and we're not happy. | 1:28:04 | 1:28:07 | |
And Andrew... | 1:28:07 | 1:28:09 | |
..is very much like that.
He needs a subject, | 1:28:09 | 1:28:11 | |
and he will passionately find
and seek that subject. | 1:28:11 | 1:28:15 | |
So, Andrew has another show in him. | 1:28:15 | 1:28:19 | |
I have another show.
And there's a show after that too. | 1:28:19 | 1:28:21 | |
I just think we need
to keep working. | 1:28:21 | 1:28:26 | |
Have you got an idea that you're
not telling me about? Yes. | 1:28:26 | 1:28:29 | |
Absolutely. I can't. It's an idea
that I need to meet with, | 1:28:31 | 1:28:36 | |
because the character
is very much alive, | 1:28:36 | 1:28:38 | |
and I would need to talk
to that person. | 1:28:38 | 1:28:41 | |
MUSIC: Memory from Cats
by Andrew Lloyd Webber | 1:28:42 | 1:28:47 |