0:00:02 > 0:00:04SONG: "The Phantom Of The Opera"
0:00:04 > 0:00:06Theatreland, London's West End.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10One square mile of musical talent
0:00:10 > 0:00:13worth over a quarter of a billion pounds a year.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17One of the cultural epicentres of Great Britain and the world.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20This programme contains some strong language
0:00:20 > 0:00:22But it wasn't always this way.
0:00:22 > 0:00:2665 years ago, the West End was parochial,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29trapped in a time warp of pre-war nostalgia,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33completely unprepared for a new breed of musical emerging from America.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43This is the story of the rise of the British musical.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47How the British fought back against American domination
0:00:47 > 0:00:49to not only reclaim the West End
0:00:49 > 0:00:53but to become a driving force behind musical theatre around the world,
0:00:53 > 0:00:59turning it into a global industry worth over £1.5 billion a year.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04It's a tale of Titanic shows...
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Half of it wasn't written
0:01:06 > 0:01:09and the bits that HAD been written were far too long.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14Nobody in our team had done it before except for me.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16This was a sort of a musical phenomena.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19..a story of prodigious talent...
0:01:19 > 0:01:23All the talent that was being invented were all in Britain.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25We just thought, "this is working quite well".
0:01:25 > 0:01:28And that was the day my life changed forever.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30..and phenomenal daring.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34After the reviews, our box office was shredded.
0:01:34 > 0:01:35"They gotta see some ass."
0:01:35 > 0:01:40- They took him off screaming, we never saw him again. - That's how difficult that show is.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48# Sing for me!
0:01:48 > 0:01:51OPERATIC SHRIEK
0:01:53 > 0:01:56SONG: "The Music Of The Night"
0:02:00 > 0:02:03At the end of the 1980s, the West End was conquering the world
0:02:03 > 0:02:09with a new brand of big, bold and fabulously expensive musical.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14Andrew Lloyd Webber's hits had involved dancing cats,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18roller-skating trains and a grand Gothic horror romance.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Some surprise then when he announced his next show would be based
0:02:22 > 0:02:25on an intimate story of romantic entanglements.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29He makes no secret of the fact that he wrote Phantom because of Sarah.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31Well, that relationship broke down
0:02:31 > 0:02:39as Aspects was going on and Aspects is a far more mature piece.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41It's edgier. It's where Andrew was.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44He chooses his projects very intelligently. He wanted it
0:02:44 > 0:02:46to be something different and I think he's excited
0:02:46 > 0:02:49by doing something which seems to be a contrast
0:02:49 > 0:02:50to whatever he's last done
0:02:50 > 0:02:54which is one reason he works with a lot of different directors and lyricists.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58SONG: "James Bond Theme"
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Three years earlier, Lloyd Webber had recognised
0:03:01 > 0:03:04the importance of celebrity in launching a new musical.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07He tried the same thing again with Aspects.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10But this time it wouldn't be with a star from British sitcom,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13it would be one of the world's most famous actors.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19BOTH SING IN HARMONY: # Because I'm free
0:03:19 > 0:03:23# Nothing's worrying me.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26- Oh, please!- That's brilliant!
0:03:26 > 0:03:31But the transition to musical theatre wasn't an easy one.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36This is a man who is a big, big movie star
0:03:36 > 0:03:39being asked to do something that he's never done before
0:03:39 > 0:03:41and I don't think he was supported.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46I think everyone was very concerned about their own problems,
0:03:46 > 0:03:52that nobody had the time to nurture Roger.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57You have to tell me honestly, you know, because I'm going to make a fool of myself.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00So he wasn't very honest and here I am making a fool of myself!
0:04:00 > 0:04:02BOTH LAUGH
0:04:02 > 0:04:05And you could watch him gradually getting more and more
0:04:05 > 0:04:08ill at ease with the process.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11- JOURNALIST:- Can you give us a quick tune?
0:04:11 > 0:04:13- Yeah, give us a song.- Ger'off!- Go on.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15- Just a hum even.- A few golden notes.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17HE HUMS BRIEFLY
0:04:17 > 0:04:19That's it, that's my range.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22He wasn't happy with the idea of all that singing
0:04:22 > 0:04:24but actually I saw a run-through with him,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27at least of one of the acts and I thought he was very charming.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31But he didn't... I mean, he used to change the lyrics.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36There's an ensemble where they sing, "I'm falling, I'm suddenly falling"
0:04:36 > 0:04:40and Roger was singing "I'm appalling, I'm fucking appalling"!
0:04:44 > 0:04:53# I want to be the first man you remember. #
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Just four weeks before opening, Moore left the production.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01The spotlight now fell on his little-known co-star,
0:05:01 > 0:05:0326-year-old Michael Ball.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Now, I have top billing and...
0:05:06 > 0:05:10AMERICAN ACCENT: With great power, comes great responsibility.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16It was great, in a sense because I was suddenly the leading actor
0:05:16 > 0:05:18in a brand-new Lloyd Webber show.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24With top billing, Michael Ball became the first star to be launched
0:05:24 > 0:05:28by a musical since Elaine Paige 11 years earlier,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31helped by a Number Two hit in the UK charts.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37# Love, love changes everything
0:05:37 > 0:05:41# Hands and faces Earth and sky. #
0:05:41 > 0:05:46For me, it all came together with the song Love Changes Everything.
0:05:46 > 0:05:47Once we had that song,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51somehow or other, not... It wasn't that easy
0:05:51 > 0:05:55but it was a foundation, it was a cornerstone.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Love Changes Everything was written for the show
0:05:58 > 0:06:02but we also wanted it to have a life outside the show.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Less than 4% of the population go to the theatre.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09# Love changes everything. #
0:06:09 > 0:06:15What having a single does is open you up to the whole of the country.
0:06:15 > 0:06:22# Nothing in the world will ever be the same. #
0:06:22 > 0:06:25Michael's new-found fame came at a price.
0:06:25 > 0:06:31With Lloyd Webber's maturity as a writer came a more ambitious score.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36It was vocally as demanding as anything that I've ever heard in the theatre.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41It's one of THE hardest vocal roles that Andrew's written
0:06:41 > 0:06:42because...
0:06:42 > 0:06:45HE GIGGLES
0:06:45 > 0:06:50..you start the show solo, in the spotlight, going
0:06:50 > 0:06:54# Love, love changes everything.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Usually you think the big song's going to be at the end of the show,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01the 11 o'clock number as we call it in musicals but no, Andrew writes it at the beginning,
0:07:01 > 0:07:07- SINGS WITH GUSTO: - # Love will never, ever let you be the same. #
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Right? That wasn't a B-flat, but every night you sing the first song
0:07:12 > 0:07:15and it's a B-flat that you have to hit.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18It's my fault! I put in the B-flat.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Initially it just ended on a repeat of the line.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24I said, "But it needs a big ending," to Andrew.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26He goes, "What...where could it go?"
0:07:26 > 0:07:29I said, "Well, you need to go right up at the end."
0:07:29 > 0:07:33He goes, "But that's a B-flat." And I said, "Is it?
0:07:33 > 0:07:36"I don't know, but I'm going to bloody try and sing it."
0:07:36 > 0:07:38# Love will never, never let you
0:07:38 > 0:07:45# be the same. #
0:07:45 > 0:07:48APPLAUSE
0:07:48 > 0:07:52I remember actually seeing someone, I'm not going to say who it was!
0:07:52 > 0:07:55But they didn't sing it. They didn't sing it.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00They kind of screeched it and they left the production without telling anybody,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02they just didn't show up for work the next day
0:08:02 > 0:08:07cos they couldn't deal with it. That's how difficult that show is.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15Aspects opened in April 1989 to sell-out audiences.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Less than one year later, following in the wake of other
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Lloyd Webber shows, it transferred to Broadway.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25- NEWS:- 'Although New York critics hadn't yet cast their judgement on
0:08:25 > 0:08:28'Aspects Of Love, everyone at the premiere thought it went well.'
0:08:28 > 0:08:31It was the most amazing evening I think I've had.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33We had a wonderful reception when we opened in London.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37We made a few changes to the show for here and it has just been splendid.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41I was very proud of it tonight. It's a very different show for me
0:08:41 > 0:08:46and in very many ways, it's the show that I'm most proud of.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51# Seeing is believing. #
0:08:51 > 0:08:54It was a great success, the opening night performance,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58and then we were waiting for Frank Rich from the New York Times,
0:08:58 > 0:09:03waiting for his review to come out, and I remember saying to Trevor Nunn
0:09:03 > 0:09:07at the party, "I'll be thrilled if he only hates it"
0:09:07 > 0:09:10because he was known as the Butcher of Broadway.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22I have never read a review like it.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Like he had gone through the programme and taken every department
0:09:26 > 0:09:32and rubbished everything, down to the ice cream seller.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36It was vile. It was vile!
0:09:36 > 0:09:41There was not one redeeming feature, he said, in the whole evening.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48For the first time, Andrew Lloyd Webber misfired on Broadway.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52Aspects failed to find an audience and closed after just 11 months,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57losing its entire 8 million investment. With the New York Times
0:09:57 > 0:10:01gleefully labelling it the "greatest musical flop in Broadway history",
0:10:01 > 0:10:05question marks were raised whether the British onslaught was faltering.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21After the extraordinary success of Les Miserables, Alan Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg
0:10:21 > 0:10:25had been wrestling with their next project for the West End's
0:10:25 > 0:10:28other great impresario, Cameron Mackintosh.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33Wanting to update Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Schonberg had
0:10:33 > 0:10:38come across a Vietnam war photo of a girl being separated from her mother
0:10:38 > 0:10:42when she's evacuated to American and a new life with her GI father.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48I was quite shocked because the picture is amazing.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50I still have the picture in my room.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55And I just rang Alan and said "Would you consider that the story
0:10:55 > 0:10:58"of Butterfly happened during the Vietnam War?
0:10:59 > 0:11:03"And he's an American soldier and she's a Vietnamese woman."
0:11:03 > 0:11:08This picture was so striking, so amazing, that obviously,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11we realised that in a simple conversation,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15we had decided to put the Vietnam War on the musical stage.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21It smelled dangerous to me.
0:11:21 > 0:11:27I described it to somebody as, "Doing the show would be like standing on a musical razor blade"
0:11:27 > 0:11:30because everything about the story was real
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and yet, people were buying a ticket to a musical so there
0:11:33 > 0:11:38was no point in doing a musical if it wasn't going to be entertaining.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43Therefore, finding the style was going to be crucial.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48Yeah, but I think that whole...
0:11:48 > 0:11:52I can not do it without the first bar.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56PLAYS PIANO
0:12:00 > 0:12:03HE WARBLES
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Along with Lloyd Webber, Mackintosh had helped redefine
0:12:06 > 0:12:09the possibilities of musical theatre but even for him,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13turning the Vietnam War into a song and dance stage show would be
0:12:13 > 0:12:18a difficult balancing act. But he did have one trump card.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21One of Britain's finest Shakespearian actors
0:12:21 > 0:12:23was looking for a career change.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28I was at Stratford playing Macbeth and around about the same time,
0:12:28 > 0:12:33I went to see Les Mis in London, the first production,
0:12:33 > 0:12:39and I was incredibly moved while I was watching it,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42moved to tears, and a big lump in my throat, and I thought
0:12:42 > 0:12:47"This is the kind of effect I want to have on an audience while I'm doing Macbeth
0:12:47 > 0:12:51"but I'm beating my head against a wall and suffering doing it."
0:12:51 > 0:12:54I looked at the actors on stage and though "They don't look as if
0:12:54 > 0:12:59"they're working that hard"! I want to do that!"
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Mackintosh was also able to draw a pool of talent well used
0:13:08 > 0:13:12to staging the new breed of mega-musical.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17John Napier had been designer on Cats, Starlight and Les Miserables,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21but even he was taken aback by the challenges of staging Miss Saigon.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27At the first meeting we had, John came to me and said,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30"What am I going to do with a helicopter on stage?"
0:13:30 > 0:13:35(FRENCH ACCENT) "John what you have to do is make the helicopter..."
0:13:35 > 0:13:38I said, "Listen, John, we could have written
0:13:38 > 0:13:41"the 747 taking off from Saigon Airport.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43"You just have a helicopter!"
0:13:43 > 0:13:48"And it has to be the most real scene in the show
0:13:48 > 0:13:51"because it's very important."
0:13:51 > 0:13:54"It's your problem, not mine.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57"You are the set designer, you have to deal with it."
0:13:57 > 0:14:04In the end, Napier's solution was simple, but hugely effective.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10What it was, basically, was really lightweight aluminium frame
0:14:10 > 0:14:15on the back wall of the theatre, there was a motor on the top of it,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19and on it were some rubber balls and bungee cord
0:14:19 > 0:14:26so that as the motor started to go, the ball was extracted further and further out,
0:14:26 > 0:14:31and we had little tapes on the bungee so when you looked at it,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35it was all illusion. I mean, it looked like a real helicopter
0:14:35 > 0:14:39was landing in the middle of Drury Lane Theatre.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45I'd never seen anything like it in the theatre ever
0:14:45 > 0:14:51and it was...really, really exciting and incredibly moving.
0:14:51 > 0:14:58The fuss that that caused! I mean, ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01I mean, it wasn't high tech, particularly,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04but it did capture the audience's imagination.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11# The heat is on in Saigon
0:15:11 > 0:15:14# The girls are hotter 'n' hell. #
0:15:14 > 0:15:17At its premiere in September 1989,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Miss Saigon had the most triumphant opening yet with the show
0:15:20 > 0:15:25recouping its £3 million investment in less than seven months.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30But when the show transferred to Broadway,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34questions started being asked about the casting of Jonathan Price.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37There was a big controversy
0:15:37 > 0:15:42because we were at the peak of the politically correct movement.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46Certain people thought that this was a role that demanded to be
0:15:46 > 0:15:53played by an Asian actor and I could see their point, up to a point.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56You know, it was the right idea, but the wrong show
0:15:56 > 0:16:01because Miss Saigon, at that point in its history, employed more
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Asian performers than any other show in the whole history of Broadway.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10I'd come from the Royal Shakespeare Company that was fostering them,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13blind-casting, so people of any race could play any role
0:16:13 > 0:16:18and we had black actors in Macbeth playing what would be traditionally
0:16:18 > 0:16:23white British roles, so that's where my head was at, at the time.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27It wasn't anything new to me that I should play someone of a different race.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31PROTESTERS CHANT
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Matters came to a head with a showdown meeting
0:16:34 > 0:16:39between Cameron Mackintosh and the American Actors' Union.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43We had the biggest advance, at that point in history, of 35 million,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45which was an astronomic amount.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49The head of American Equity, who was a famous American actress,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52said, "Why do you care who plays this role
0:16:52 > 0:16:54"when you've got that amount of money?"
0:16:54 > 0:16:59And I got so incensed, I told them all to bugger off,
0:16:59 > 0:17:00and I closed the show.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08His ultimate argument was that if I didn't do it,
0:17:08 > 0:17:09then he would cancel the show.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14And that's what happened. That was his threat and they backed down.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18It wasn't a bluff.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22I really was so angry that American Equity would go,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24"Why do you care who plays this role?"
0:17:24 > 0:17:27When I was trying to do a piece of art.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31So it was all a great furore.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37# It's time we all entertained my American dream! #
0:17:39 > 0:17:44With Broadway facing a loss of revenue of over 100 million a year,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46American Equity was forced to back down.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Miss Saigon opened in April '91
0:17:50 > 0:17:53to become a commercial and critical hit.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58But unknown to everybody involved, it proved to be a watershed.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00The last of the great British mega-musicals
0:18:00 > 0:18:03to open in the West End or on Broadway.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05Everybody thought it could not stop.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09You had to remind people that these kind of successes
0:18:09 > 0:18:11are unbelievable flukes.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14I mean, no shows have ever run this length of time.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17And people were all expecting that to carry on.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19# There's no other way
0:18:19 > 0:18:21# There's no other way
0:18:21 > 0:18:25# All that you can do is watch them. #
0:18:27 > 0:18:33By the early '90s, Britain was in its longest recession for 60 years.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35To attract an increasingly cash-strapped audience,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38producers would need to find new ways to entice them in.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42With Aspects Of Love failing to live up to the success of Phantom
0:18:42 > 0:18:46or Cats, when he revived an earlier musical,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Andrew Lloyd Webber embraced a more commercial formula.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51The world of celebrity.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Producers love bums on seats, the maths is very simple.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59People fell in love with Scott Robinson.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03People fell in love with Jason Donovan's pop career,
0:19:03 > 0:19:08Why wouldn't they fall in love by coming to see a show
0:19:08 > 0:19:11that represented all those things and more?
0:19:11 > 0:19:15- # May I return? - May I return?
0:19:15 > 0:19:20- # To the beginning - Ah-ah-ah
0:19:20 > 0:19:24- # The light is dimming - Ah-ah
0:19:24 > 0:19:28# And the dream is too. #
0:19:28 > 0:19:30When Jason Donovan put on his dream coat,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Joseph was already 23-years-old, having started life
0:19:34 > 0:19:38as a 15 minute school concert, before being expanded for the stage.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42Its child-friendly appeal made it the perfect vehicle
0:19:42 > 0:19:44for a teenage pop idol.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46But I wasn't prepared.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50I'd come off a major tour and I'd suddenly landed myself
0:19:50 > 0:19:52in a rehearsal space in Battersea
0:19:52 > 0:19:59surrounded by 40 or 50 West End performers who knew their stuff.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05I could have barely sung a melody to Any Dream Will Do at that point.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08not because I couldn't, but because I hadn't invested the time
0:20:08 > 0:20:11in getting up to speed.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15So it was a very big awakening that day.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20- # I wore my coat - I wore my coat
0:20:20 > 0:20:23# With golden lining
0:20:23 > 0:20:25# Ahh-ahh
0:20:25 > 0:20:30Opening in 1991, the union of pop star, soap star and tried and tested musical
0:20:30 > 0:20:34proved to be a winning combination.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39We used to stop just outside of the stage door of Joseph on a Saturday afternoon
0:20:39 > 0:20:43and it was almost thousands of people at the stage door.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48This was a sort of musical phenomenon.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52# A crash of drums A flash of light...#
0:20:52 > 0:20:54After Donovan left,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57children's television presenter Phillip Schofield took over.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01The celebrity turnstile proved to be a model that others would follow.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Older pop stars also had pulling power if their fan base was strong enough.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Cliff Richard could even overturn a lifetime of wholesomeness
0:21:13 > 0:21:18when he starred and financed an adaptation of the novel Heathcliff.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20The reason why I loved Heathcliff was that it is
0:21:20 > 0:21:23totally against anything anyone has ever read about me.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27I really loved thrashing my stepbrother to pulp
0:21:27 > 0:21:29night after night,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32beating my pregnant wife to the floor. I loved it.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36OK, I took them to dinner afterwards, but I found it fairly easy to
0:21:36 > 0:21:40slip into being Heathcliff, who is so against everything that I believe in.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43I can't imagine myself doing it, and that is why I did it myself,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46because no-one was going to offer me that part.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51So I woke up one day and said, "Cliff, I would like you to Heathcliff" and I went, "Yes, OK."
0:21:51 > 0:22:00# The devil incarnate Or misunderstood man. #
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Despite scathing reviews, Cliff's name ensured Heathcliff
0:22:04 > 0:22:08became one of the few new musicals of the early '90s to turn a healthy profit.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13It was all my own money, and I had spent five or six million on it.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Pounds. We broke even in four and a half months.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21I have heard of musicals in the West End, musicals I have been to
0:22:21 > 0:22:24and really enjoyed, after two and a half years have not broken even.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28So, yeah, we were successful. The last six weeks were all profit.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37But celebrity could be a double edged sword,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40as Andrew Lloyd Webber discovered when casting the central role
0:22:40 > 0:22:46of eating film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50Sunset's big problem, you have to find the female star.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54There is only so many female stars out there who can do that role
0:22:54 > 0:22:56or want to do that role.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59And also, when you hire stars, female stars,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02who you put in rehearsals and you realise that they really
0:23:02 > 0:23:05can't sing, and then you have to pay them off...
0:23:05 > 0:23:09The actress Faye Dunaway has launched a multi-million pound
0:23:09 > 0:23:12law suit against Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber after the composer removed
0:23:12 > 0:23:16her from the Los Angeles production of his musical, Sunset Boulevard.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22I sang in my range. He cast me in that range.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Only later deciding to try to push me into a higher one.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35The combination of legal battles and enormous running costs meant
0:23:35 > 0:23:40Sunset fails to live up to the child Lloyd Webber hits of the '80s.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Meanwhile, Cameron Mackintosh had avoided celebrity
0:23:46 > 0:23:48cachet for the musical Martin Guerre,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52continuing the model of the epic scale mega-musical.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57But even after extensive rewrites, it failed to draw an audience.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Martin Guerre was back to the average run, it was two years in London.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08Which is not bad, but it is not the big, big hit.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11You cannot programme hits. They come and they don't come.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14That's the nature of the theatre.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17# That'll be the day when I die...#
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Although still giants of the West End, Lloyd Webber and Mackintosh
0:24:21 > 0:24:25could no longer guarantee a hit with their names alone.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30Instead, pop music was the rising star of the West End.
0:24:30 > 0:24:31In the late '90s,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35unknown producer Judy Craymer would harness the power of pop to
0:24:35 > 0:24:39completely re-write the rulebook of what a successful musical could be.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44Using the music of one of the most fondly remembered bands of the 1970s.
0:24:50 > 0:24:56# My, my At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender
0:24:56 > 0:24:59# Oh yeah...#
0:24:59 > 0:25:01I just loved Abba's songs.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05I felt there was something very theatrical in those songs.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10I used to put my own little selections together,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14trying to make a story out of the songs.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17One day she came to me
0:25:17 > 0:25:21and said that she wanted to do a television special, as they were
0:25:21 > 0:25:23called in those days, something,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27an hour-long programme would be based on Abba songs.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31I was so tenacious to try and move this forward, that I knew that
0:25:31 > 0:25:37Tina Turner lived close by to my office, that was in Notting Hill
0:25:37 > 0:25:40at the time, and I went and shoved a script through her letterbox.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43I got a rather curt letter from her manager telling me
0:25:43 > 0:25:45that I should not have done that.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54It might have turned out to be a BBC2 film with Tina Turner in it.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58# If you change your mind On the first in line...#
0:25:58 > 0:26:01With the TV projects stalling, Craymer looked at turning
0:26:01 > 0:26:03the idea into a stage musical
0:26:03 > 0:26:09and started looking around for a writer who could turn a back catalogue into a workable story.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14I phoned by agent and said, "I am really, really skint.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16"please find me some work. Anything."
0:26:16 > 0:26:19And he rang back a couple of days later and said,
0:26:19 > 0:26:21I noted producer called Judy Craymer,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25who is looking for somebody to fit a story to the songs of Abba.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28I burst out laughing and he laughed too, and he said, "Yes, I know,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31"but it's probably worth the meeting, isn't it?"
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Despite Johnson having never written a West End musical and Craymer
0:26:38 > 0:26:42never having produced one, Benny and Bjorn agreed to develop the idea.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47I gave up my job, I sold my flat and I formed a company with Benny and Bjorn.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49They put in the music and the lyrics
0:26:49 > 0:26:54and I put in the hard work and the rest, in a sense.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59I have to say that I was ready, at any point, to put a stop to it.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03If I had felt that this is not going the right way,
0:27:03 > 0:27:06this is not good for Abba.
0:27:07 > 0:27:14# Money, money, money, always funny In a rich man's world. #
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Earlier pop these musicals had mostly been biographies using an artist's back catalogue.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24What would make my Mama Mia different was that it was a brand-new story.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29I thought the Abba story would be very dull
0:27:29 > 0:27:32and not very interesting at all.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35I mean, I had gone through it myself, so I know.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38What really inspired me
0:27:38 > 0:27:43at the time was wanting to write about being a single parent,
0:27:43 > 0:27:48as I was, and there being an awful lot of stuff in the media about single mums
0:27:48 > 0:27:53and how they were letting their kids down and the scourge of society, blah blah.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56I wanted to write something that was very positive about being
0:27:56 > 0:28:01a single parent, so the next stage was to set down and read the lyrics
0:28:01 > 0:28:06over and over again, until characters started suggesting themselves.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11# I work all night, I work all day To pay bills I have to pay.
0:28:11 > 0:28:12# Ain't it said? #
0:28:12 > 0:28:18Mamma Mia's story of a single mother reuniting with three former boyfriends,
0:28:18 > 0:28:22any one of whom is the father of her daughter, turned the musical upside down.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26usually, musicals take a pre-existing story and shape new songs around it.
0:28:26 > 0:28:31In my Mamma Mia, it was exactly the opposite - old songs, new story.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36# I fooled around and had a ball
0:28:41 > 0:28:47# Money, money, money, must be funny In a rich man's world
0:28:48 > 0:28:54On opening night in April 1999, Mamma Mia took the West End by surprise.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59Not only was the music good, but the story worked.
0:28:59 > 0:29:05After the opening night, it was the first time I dared think that yes, this is a huge success.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10I didn't know then how big it was, but only one month after that,
0:29:10 > 0:29:15I think we realised we were onto something really, really big.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18# Voulez-vous (Aha!)
0:29:18 > 0:29:20# Take it now or leave it (Aha!)
0:29:20 > 0:29:22# Now is all we get (aha!)
0:29:22 > 0:29:25# Nothing promised, no regrets. #
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Mamma Mia returned a sense of fun to musical theatre,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32largely absent from the days of the '80s mega-musicals.
0:29:32 > 0:29:38Broadway beckoned and the show went into production in September, 2001.
0:29:38 > 0:29:44And I thought, "No, we cannot go ahead with this. This is..."
0:29:44 > 0:29:47You know, how can we?
0:29:47 > 0:29:49This happy...
0:29:49 > 0:29:53careless kind of musical.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Mayor Giuliani, at the time,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59was encouraging Broadway to get back, very much so, within days.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05I mean, Broadway is such an... you know, an economic kind of jewel to New York,
0:30:05 > 0:30:10and tourists and trying to make people feel that New York was getting back to normal.
0:30:10 > 0:30:17When Judy talked to the people over there, they said, "Oh, please, PLEASE go on.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20"It is the best thing you could do for New York,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23"to go on, with a musical like this.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25"Just go on."
0:30:25 > 0:30:29# I was cheated by you and I think you know when... #
0:30:32 > 0:30:3510 months after the last British success, Miss Saigon,
0:30:35 > 0:30:41closed on Broadway, another very different West End musical triumphantly opened.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46Mamma Mia became the poster child for the jukebox musical.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49And it wouldn't just be pop acts that would follow in its wake.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53For the first time since Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar,
0:30:53 > 0:30:58rock music would once again be enticed back into the theatre.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01Our manager was keen on the idea of a Queen musical.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04and we were going, "No, it's rock'n'roll. We don't do musicals.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06"We're the antithesis of musicals."
0:31:06 > 0:31:08And, of course, much later we lost Freddie
0:31:08 > 0:31:12and then we started to think about Queen again
0:31:12 > 0:31:14and what was there left to do?
0:31:14 > 0:31:18Obviously, one of the great solutions is to put on a musical
0:31:18 > 0:31:20where you don't need to have Freddie.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24You just have young people to act, young people to sing and play.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27And so we were attracted to the idea from then on.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30# And everybody wants to put me down
0:31:30 > 0:31:32# They say I'm going crazy
0:31:34 > 0:31:37# That's right, I've got a lot of water on my brain
0:31:37 > 0:31:42# I ain't got no common sense, I got nobody left to believe in... #
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Initially planned as a Queen biography,
0:31:44 > 0:31:49once band members Brian May and Roger Taylor brought on Ben Elton,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53as writer, the story quickly changed into a work of fiction.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55I thought what we really want here
0:31:55 > 0:31:58is something that represents the spirit of the band.
0:31:58 > 0:31:59And of course, the first word
0:31:59 > 0:32:02that springs to mind with Queen is legend.
0:32:02 > 0:32:07Of course, there's a fabulous Gothic scale to much of their music.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11So I thought what we want is a legend, something Arthurian.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15And immediately, a guitar buried in rock as opposed to a sword.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Because it should be fun, it should be silly.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21# This thing called love
0:32:21 > 0:32:25# I just can't handle it... #
0:32:25 > 0:32:27We Will Rock You would tell
0:32:27 > 0:32:30the futuristic story of a group of youths searching for
0:32:30 > 0:32:34the legendary guitar that can bring back the power of rock.
0:32:34 > 0:32:35# ..Crazy little thing, love. #
0:32:35 > 0:32:37STAMPING OF FEET
0:32:39 > 0:32:40Start again.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43But for choreographer Arlene Phillips,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47fusing the world of rock with the world of musical theatre,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49was a difficult challenge.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53I was bringing in a lot of dance...
0:32:53 > 0:32:56until I got to my meetings with Brian and Roger.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58Roger did not want any dancing in it at all in the beginning.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02So that was a pretty difficult place for her to start.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04Try and keep it very real.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Very, sort of, misshapen and real,
0:33:07 > 0:33:09like real people are doing these things.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14The music was the most important part of the show.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20And the dance couldn't ever dominate
0:33:20 > 0:33:23or be bigger than the music and the voices.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31MUSIC: "Intro to We Will Rock You"
0:33:36 > 0:33:41We Will Rock you wanted to keep its rock credentials in the world of musical theatre.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44But on opening night in May 2002, the question was
0:33:44 > 0:33:48whether the audience and critics would accept it.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51# We will, we will rock you. #
0:33:51 > 0:33:55It came to opening night, the audience went wild.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58They went crazy.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02And the next day the reviews came out.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Possibly the worst reviews ever written about any show ever, anywhere.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10And...we just thought,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14"That is it. It is all over."
0:34:14 > 0:34:17# Who wants to live forever...? #
0:34:21 > 0:34:23The critics hated it.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26The critics hammered us and it was very reminiscent
0:34:26 > 0:34:29of how we had been hammered as Queen in the very early days.
0:34:29 > 0:34:30And sort of trivialised.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Very expensive to buy a ticket for the theatre.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39And if your newspaper, which you trust says, "It is awful.
0:34:39 > 0:34:46"It is really awful. It is genuinely wickedly bad. You must NOT go and support this."
0:34:46 > 0:34:52You know, it's hard to say I am still going to spend £40 and the taxi and the meal.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55And so after the reviews, our box office was shredded.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03The following day, ticket sales were slashed by up to 50 percent.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07But jukebox musicals have an advantage over normal musicals -
0:35:07 > 0:35:09a pre-existing fan base.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14Luckily we had this incredibly strong word-of-mouth. That's what matters.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17People come to the theatre and if they have a good time, they go,
0:35:17 > 0:35:22"I've got to come back. I've got to bring my friend, my mum." That's what has happened over the years.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25# I am just a poor boy, nobody loves me
0:35:25 > 0:35:28# He's just a poor boy from a poor family
0:35:28 > 0:35:31# Spare him his life from this monstrosity... #
0:35:31 > 0:35:36Jukebox musicals can also benefit from their rock connections.
0:35:36 > 0:35:42Just two weeks after opening night, the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee with a party at the Palace.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45In a PR coup, playing alongside the royalty of rock
0:35:45 > 0:35:48was the entire cast from We Will Rock You.
0:35:51 > 0:35:58We Will Rock You performed in the show and just blew the audience,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01which was now of millions, away.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03They just went for it.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10CHEERING
0:36:14 > 0:36:20# So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye...? #
0:36:20 > 0:36:25From that moment on, it has not looked back.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27It is musical theatre for a new generation
0:36:27 > 0:36:31and a generation of people that keep coming along with their backpacks
0:36:31 > 0:36:34and sitting down and watching We Will Rock You.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38# We are the champions.... #
0:36:38 > 0:36:41Part rock concert, part theatre,
0:36:41 > 0:36:44the jukebox musical has found a new audience.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49But the one thing it hasn't always found is the respect of the critics.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53The phrase "jukebox musical" tends to be used in a derogative sense.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57I do not know why it should be. Theatre used to be where people came for their pop music.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Before radio, before records - you went to the theatre.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05Now I don't think it is such a bad thing that pop music is coming back to the theatre.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09And I think it is a wonderful development when it's good.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13# Night fever, night fever We don't have to do it... #
0:37:13 > 0:37:16The jukebox musical took pop culture
0:37:16 > 0:37:19and turned it into a formula for hit musicals.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23In 2003, composer Richard Thomas turned pop culture
0:37:23 > 0:37:30into an acerbic stage show that showed that the musical could not only entertain, but satirise.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33I had been watching Jerry Springer quite a lot.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37There is a particularly violent episode of the Jerry Springer show
0:37:37 > 0:37:39which was bleeped out so you couldn't hear a thing,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42but you saw eight people screaming at each other,
0:37:42 > 0:37:43you couldn't understand a word
0:37:43 > 0:37:46that was said and I thought, "Oh, this is opera."
0:37:46 > 0:37:49It was a eureka moment. I thought, "This is a show I'm going to do."
0:37:49 > 0:37:52I didn't care if anyone was going to buy it or if I could sell it.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55I just thought, "I'm going to write this show whatever happens."
0:37:55 > 0:37:57# You can hush all your shouting
0:37:57 > 0:38:00# You can hush all your bitching you can talk to the hand
0:38:00 > 0:38:03# Cos the face ain't listening... #
0:38:03 > 0:38:05To say we are going to take something as trashy
0:38:05 > 0:38:08as that American talk show where someone says,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12"You thought I was a man and we have been having sex for 40 years and I am a woman."
0:38:12 > 0:38:14You know, something as trashy as that,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16and to say, "No, we are going to the opera."
0:38:16 > 0:38:19That is really, really witty.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21# My advice to you bitch get a face peel... #
0:38:24 > 0:38:29And then you go and see the show and it opens and the set is exactly like
0:38:29 > 0:38:34Springer and the actors look exactly like the people who are on that show.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37The Jerry Springer Show is a piece of theatre in itself
0:38:37 > 0:38:39and they completely understood that.
0:38:40 > 0:38:45# I don't give a fuck no more
0:38:45 > 0:38:52# If people think I am a whore... #
0:38:52 > 0:38:57The conflict between high culture and low culture extended into the writing.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00What I like to do is so, you have a character singing,
0:39:00 > 0:39:06"I hate you, I hate you." But the music is saying, "I love you, I love you."
0:39:06 > 0:39:09So this is happening at the same time. You have two languages.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13That is what is interesting about music theatre and opera.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16You can have a thing called stealth emotion as far as I'm concerned.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19You are suddenly inexplicably moved halfway.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23That is because the music has been working at you even though you have been laughing
0:39:23 > 0:39:25at all this fight and all the mayhem.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29There has been this whole emotional arc that you haven't really noticed.
0:39:29 > 0:39:36# I want to do some living because I've done enough dying
0:39:36 > 0:39:46# I just wanna dance I just wanna fucking dance... #
0:39:46 > 0:39:51Opening in 2003, Jerry Springer: The Opera received positive reviews.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55And more importantly appealed to a new audience
0:39:55 > 0:39:59with 50 percent of ticket buyers being first-time theatregoers.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03It became such a hit phenomenon that the BBC took the unusual
0:40:03 > 0:40:06step of broadcasting it in its entirety.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11Prior to it being broadcast there is this massive internet backlash
0:40:11 > 0:40:15and thousands of people complained who had never even seen the show.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19- ALL:- What do we want? Jerry off! When do we want it? Now!
0:40:19 > 0:40:22'They claimed it was total blasphemy and that got into The Sun.'
0:40:22 > 0:40:25The Sun said there were 6,000 or 8,000 swear words
0:40:25 > 0:40:28when in fact there is only 174 - we counted - including "dick" and "tit" which
0:40:28 > 0:40:32aren't technically swear words, but we thought we'd chuck them all in.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37It contains a very high level of swearing and bad language
0:40:37 > 0:40:42and aspects - this man dressed up in a nappy saying, "I am Jesus and I'm a bit gay".
0:40:42 > 0:40:46I think that is calculated to cause considerable offence.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50Then there were death threats.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52And the BBC executives had to be put on police guard
0:40:52 > 0:40:55on the night of the transmission.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Everybody was under police guard apart from the writers,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00which we realised, "Oh, don't worry".
0:41:00 > 0:41:04I remember a scene in which Christ was portrayed by a large man
0:41:04 > 0:41:06wearing nothing but a nappy.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10That to my mind as a middle stump Anglican I found upsetting.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14You are doing Jerry Springer: The Musical,
0:41:14 > 0:41:19and in the second half you bring in the Devil. So you are going to get criticised.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27Whether for commercial or controversial reasons,
0:41:27 > 0:41:32six weeks after the BBC broadcast, Jerry Springer: The Opera closed.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Plans for a UK tour were cancelled.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42While the British were looking to pop music and television for
0:41:42 > 0:41:47inspiration others had discovered an even bigger untapped resource.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52British dominance of the theatre was once again about to be challenged by the Americans.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55One of the biggest entertainment corporations in the world had
0:41:55 > 0:41:58spotted a massive commercial opportunity.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02Every musical on Broadway virtually, almost every success you can think of
0:42:02 > 0:42:07are based on something - a book, a play, a movie
0:42:07 > 0:42:09a historical incident.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11They are always based on something. Almost always.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15SINGING
0:42:15 > 0:42:18'The big difference between what we do
0:42:18 > 0:42:20'and what other people have been doing'
0:42:20 > 0:42:24is that we are not turning films into musicals,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27we are taking musical films and expanding them for the stage.
0:42:27 > 0:42:37# Circle of... life. #
0:42:41 > 0:42:45The Lion King was the smash hit of 1999.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49It was not just popular with the traditional Disney audience of children -
0:42:49 > 0:42:51with its ground breaking use of puppetry
0:42:51 > 0:42:56and dynamic staging it also impressed critics initially
0:42:56 > 0:43:01sceptical about the ability of a film studio to do live theatre.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Flushed with success, Disney looked for more films to adapt.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08The obvious thing to put on Broadway is Mary Poppins.
0:43:08 > 0:43:13It was early on that we figured out that we Disney do not own the stage rights to Mary Poppins.
0:43:13 > 0:43:14Fire.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19'Light up the sky. It is the entertainment thrill of a lifetime.'
0:43:19 > 0:43:24Disney only owned the rights for the film version of Mary Poppins books,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27much to the annoyance of Disney chairman Michael Eisner.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31The rights to any stage adaptation had already been bought by a rival,
0:43:31 > 0:43:33Cameron Mackintosh.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Michael quite understandably was slightly miffed in the nicest
0:43:39 > 0:43:42possible way that for some reason one of their greatest titles
0:43:42 > 0:43:45was not owned by him lock, stock and barrel.
0:43:48 > 0:43:49'For a number of years'
0:43:49 > 0:43:54there was a lot of argy-bargy back and forth with Cameron.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59The stand-off finally came to a head with the president of Disney Theatrical, Thomas Schumacher,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03flying in for an impromptu meeting with Cameron Mackintosh.
0:44:04 > 0:44:09I said, I know that everyone thinks Mary Poppins can't happen,
0:44:09 > 0:44:11but wouldn't it be good
0:44:11 > 0:44:16if we actually once just talked about what you wanted to do with it.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18He wanted to know what I had in mind.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21I told him and he said that's exactly the kind of show I have in mind.
0:44:21 > 0:44:27- It was fantastic.- He is the most engaged, plugged in collaborator.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30# Let's go for a jaunty saunter... #
0:44:30 > 0:44:36'Disney have the ability as I do, to do what we want.'
0:44:36 > 0:44:38We were able like old-fashioned showmen to say,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42"We want to do this, we don't want to do this, blah, blah".
0:44:42 > 0:44:45I had the dream relationship with them.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48# I tell you what She seems so different
0:44:48 > 0:44:51# But I bet she's not... #
0:44:51 > 0:44:56Mary Poppins heralded a new era of transatlantic co-operation.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00To complement the Sherman Brothers songs from the film,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02a British songwriting duo were brought on board -
0:45:02 > 0:45:05George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.
0:45:05 > 0:45:10It is such a well-known story that we knew that we were going to have to tread very carefully.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12I said to George when he got the job,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15"If we get this right no-one will know we've done anything.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17"If we get it wrong we will get the blame
0:45:17 > 0:45:19"because it will be our songs
0:45:19 > 0:45:20"that are the least familiar parts
0:45:20 > 0:45:22"of this whole experience for an audience".
0:45:22 > 0:45:26# You're practically perfect in every way
0:45:26 > 0:45:27# I guarantee
0:45:27 > 0:45:31# Practically perfect We hope you'll stay
0:45:31 > 0:45:33# No flies on me... #
0:45:33 > 0:45:38With the contribution of Stiles and Drewe and the weight of Disney and Mackintosh behind it,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Mary Poppins became an international hit.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44More Disney musicals are in the pipeline,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47reinforcing their position as major players in the industry.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52But their business model can be traced back to one man.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55Cameron changed the face of the theatrical
0:45:55 > 0:45:56industry in terms of musicals.
0:45:56 > 0:45:58Our success at Disney Theatrical,
0:45:58 > 0:46:03we owe to the model that Cameron created with his megahits.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06His commitment to the role of the producer being all over the show
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and at the centre of it with the creative team has allowed us
0:46:09 > 0:46:11to do things like Lion King around the world,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Beauty And The Beast around the world,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Aida around the world, Mary Poppins.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21# What the hell's wrong with expressing yourself?
0:46:21 > 0:46:23# Being who you want to be?
0:46:23 > 0:46:24# Join in... #
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Other film companies have now entered the market for musicals -
0:46:27 > 0:46:30Universal and DreamWorks.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35But the most successful British musical of recent years has come
0:46:35 > 0:46:40not from an American blockbuster, but from a low-budget British drama.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44One of those who fell in love with Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot
0:46:44 > 0:46:46was Elton John.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50I got a call from Stephen Daldry who said that Elton wanted to
0:46:50 > 0:46:52talk about this as a musical.
0:46:52 > 0:46:53To be quite honest,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56I thought it was the worst idea in the world,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00but I thought, Elton has asked to see me, I must go and see Elton.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03So Stephen and I flew to New York to talk to him.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06The big surprise for me because I always assumed that
0:47:06 > 0:47:09I would write the book because I'd written the film
0:47:09 > 0:47:15and being told, "You've got to write the lyrics," I was really taken aback,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18terrified and thrilled at the same moment.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21# We were born to boogie... #
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Billy Elliot told the story of a 12-year-old miner's son who
0:47:24 > 0:47:27dreams of becoming a ballet dancer.
0:47:27 > 0:47:33But transferring the story from film to stage had inherent difficulties.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38Trying to find Billy was the most difficult thing of all
0:47:38 > 0:47:43'because without an amazing child you can't do anything.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46'On the film if they can't do a double pirouette you just cut,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51'but in this we needed to find a boy who had the aptitude at least
0:47:51 > 0:47:54'to be able to learn if he couldn't do it already.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56'It was at that point'
0:47:56 > 0:48:00where we went, "We're going to have to train these children".
0:48:03 > 0:48:09Because of child labour laws, three children would need to be trained for each role.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12One of those playing the part of Billy was Liam Mower.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15We had our first run through and we suddenly realised that Liam
0:48:15 > 0:48:20was at the side of the stage being sick
0:48:20 > 0:48:22because he was so physically exhausted.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27'I was just in mid-pirouette'
0:48:27 > 0:48:29and I threw up everywhere.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33I literally projectile vomited
0:48:35 > 0:48:39'If you see the show, Billy never stops dancing.'
0:48:39 > 0:48:41He is cartwheeling off pianos
0:48:41 > 0:48:44and backflipping and turning, and it's crazy.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49'A couple of days later we got the stamina to get through the show
0:48:49 > 0:48:52and this happens with all the kids there.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55At first it was really at the edge of what is physically
0:48:55 > 0:49:00'possible for these kids to do. I think that is what makes it exciting in the theatre because you'
0:49:00 > 0:49:01are actually seeing a real kid
0:49:01 > 0:49:04doing the same thing as the character is doing.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Billy Elliot also created another major challenge
0:49:11 > 0:49:13for the creative team.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17Set against a backdrop of the bitter miners' strike of 1984,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20this would be a gritty, very British story,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23quite different to the usual western musical.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27As much as I admire the Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30that's not what we wanted to make and that had been done.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35I mean, it seemed that it was time to do something else.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38The problem is dancing miners. How do you do dancing miners?
0:49:38 > 0:49:42This could be twee, it could be awful.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44In desperation, the team looked back
0:49:44 > 0:49:47into the history of British musical theatre
0:49:47 > 0:49:49and came across the work
0:49:49 > 0:49:52of radical left-wing stage director, Joan Littlewood.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55Joan Littlewood's work at the Theatre Workshop
0:49:55 > 0:49:58was very much that thing of making populist theatre,
0:49:58 > 0:50:00politically engaged theatre,
0:50:00 > 0:50:03and emotionally accessible theatre.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05And a good night out at the same time.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09And when I realised that we were allowed to follow that tradition,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12it made complete sense of what to do.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17I think that I felt very nervous about that
0:50:17 > 0:50:22because it hadn't really been done for a long time.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25# Solidarity, solidarity
0:50:25 > 0:50:27# Solidarity forever
0:50:27 > 0:50:29# We're proud to be working class
0:50:29 > 0:50:31# Solidarity forever... #
0:50:31 > 0:50:37Billy Elliot opened in May 2005 to overwhelmingly positive reviews,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40becoming one of the greatest musical success stories
0:50:40 > 0:50:42of the last ten years.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Like many of its contemporaries,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48it benefited from its film and pop star credentials,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51but Billy Elliot also brought back the tradition of a musical
0:50:51 > 0:50:54where the story, not just the creators, were British.
0:51:03 > 0:51:04In 2006, Andrew Lloyd Webber
0:51:04 > 0:51:07was also looking at film to attract an audience.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Before his revival of The Sound Of Music
0:51:10 > 0:51:14he'd also come up with an idea that would draw
0:51:14 > 0:51:16on the power of television.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21We knew we had to have a star to play Maria,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25and the real truthful thing is we couldn't get that star at the time.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27We didn't have a star to play it.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29And then up came the idea
0:51:29 > 0:51:33of casting it in a TV show casting programme.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37# The hills are alive... #
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Next!
0:51:43 > 0:51:47X-Factor had explored the pop world very successfully,
0:51:47 > 0:51:49and Pop Idol before that.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53And I was intrigued by the idea, of could we apply the same principles
0:51:53 > 0:51:58into a completely new area? Which was musical theatre.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Running across eight weeks, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
0:52:07 > 0:52:10was an audition process like no other.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14The star would be chosen by the British public.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16The public has a huge responsibility.
0:52:16 > 0:52:17It really does.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20They could be taking some girl's career, and her life,
0:52:20 > 0:52:22and literally destroying it.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28My fate was in the public's hands, and that was even more scary.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Because I've never been Miss Popular.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Suddenly it was like Big Brother.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36And it was a popularity contest as well as a talent show.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40That was the toughest song tonight, once again, for you.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42Once again you nailed it, and again I'm going to say,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45- she's the best person here. - APPLAUSE
0:52:45 > 0:52:49We all very much thought Connie Fisher was the one we wanted to cast.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51And if we'd been in a normal process,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54she'd have absolutely been the one we cast.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56But ultimately it wasn't in our control.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58Actually, if they ended up with someone
0:52:58 > 0:53:00they didn't think was really up to the part,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03you know, they were the ones that were going to suffer.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06So there was real jeopardy actually,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08in who would get through.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10If we'd have had, shall we say,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13the John Sergeant moment, with regards Strictly Come Dancing,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17and the audience just putting somebody back in
0:53:17 > 0:53:20and voting for them just for fun, the laugh would have been on us.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24# How do you solve a problem like Maria? #
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Whoever the public would finally vote for,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29accusations were quickly levelled
0:53:29 > 0:53:32that the show wasn't so much an audition process
0:53:32 > 0:53:35as a primetime publicity stunt.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37I remember Equity speaking out against it at the time,
0:53:37 > 0:53:39and not approving,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41a lot of actors and actresses
0:53:41 > 0:53:43that had been in the business a long time
0:53:43 > 0:53:47publicly spoke out and thought that it was an appalling way to go.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50# How do you solve a problem like Maria? #
0:53:50 > 0:53:53I think I got swept around with my fellow actors,
0:53:53 > 0:53:54in disapproving of it,
0:53:54 > 0:53:57but I think we all eventually came round to it,
0:53:57 > 0:54:02because, you know, we could see that kids were getting a break
0:54:02 > 0:54:05that probably wouldn't have done in a general audition.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09The girl the public have cast to be Maria Von Trapp...
0:54:11 > 0:54:13..is...
0:54:20 > 0:54:21..Connie!
0:54:21 > 0:54:25CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:54:28 > 0:54:31Winning a talent show like How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35whether you want to call it reality TV,
0:54:35 > 0:54:37a talent show, an open audition,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40whatever it was, that process completely changed my life.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Connie, you are Maria!
0:54:48 > 0:54:51I think what it really did was created a new style
0:54:51 > 0:54:52for musical theatre.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55And we'd gone quite a few years
0:54:55 > 0:55:00since stars had been created by the theatre show.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02One had to go back to...
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Perhaps Michael Ball, one would argue, was found in Aspects of Love.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08# The hills are alive
0:55:08 > 0:55:12# With the sound of music... #
0:55:12 > 0:55:18The 7 million viewers who followed Connie's winning moment
0:55:18 > 0:55:21helped generate advance ticket sales of £10 million.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24With the BBC and Lloyd Webber both happy,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27more talent shows followed.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32I think that those shows reinvigorated musical theatre
0:55:32 > 0:55:37and brought in a much bigger, wider audience,
0:55:37 > 0:55:38and a much younger audience.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42You're not just getting older people coming to see the show,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45you're getting four, five, six-year-olds,
0:55:45 > 0:55:47coming to see their first ever production.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50When we did our market research in the early days,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53it was over 70% of the audience,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56not just hadn't seen The Sound Of Music before,
0:55:56 > 0:55:57they hadn't been to the theatre before.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01So I thought it's greatest achievement was changing
0:56:01 > 0:56:05the demographic and the audience profile of who went to the theatre.
0:56:05 > 0:56:06It was an incredible thing.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16Today, the reality TV cast musical, has,
0:56:16 > 0:56:20along with star-led and film-inspired shows,
0:56:20 > 0:56:23transformed the West End and brought a new audience to Theatreland.
0:56:34 > 0:56:3765 years ago, the West End musical was trapped
0:56:37 > 0:56:40in a time warp of pre-war nostalgia.
0:56:40 > 0:56:45Completely outclassed by the shows arriving from Broadway.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50Through phenomenal daring, prodigious talent and breathtaking ingenuity,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53it fought back to become a world leader.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00Today it is home to an industry worth over £1.5 billion a year.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04But what of its future?
0:57:04 > 0:57:07I think the future of the British musical,
0:57:07 > 0:57:09it's always about the writers.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11The marvellous thing for Andrew and I
0:57:11 > 0:57:15is that our shows that we did nearly 30 years ago
0:57:15 > 0:57:20still have the ability to appeal to a contemporary audience.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24And that's because the basic writing is so marvellous.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27Through the '80s and early '90s,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30we created some extraordinary bits of theatre.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35We hadn't done that for a while.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40I suspect that at any moment in time you could have asked anyone
0:57:40 > 0:57:42where the future is going, and everyone would have thought,
0:57:42 > 0:57:46"Well, it's all going off a cliff." And yet, things rise up and happen.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49It's becoming a hotbed again, I think, the West End.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53I think really interesting people are being drawn, again,
0:57:53 > 0:57:56into writing musicals, and that makes me very excited.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03Today the West End musical operates in a very different arena
0:58:03 > 0:58:05from the past,
0:58:05 > 0:58:09its fortune tied up with other media, and other countries.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12It now operates on a global scale.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15I don't at the moment think of musicals
0:58:15 > 0:58:17in terms of whether they're British or not,
0:58:17 > 0:58:21because the musicals in London, there are so many people, from different countries.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24So I think one's just got to think of the future of musical theatre,
0:58:24 > 0:58:26not specifically the future of British musical theatre,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29because we're in an international world now.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32- # When I grow up - When I grow up
0:58:32 > 0:58:34# When I grow up
0:58:34 > 0:58:38# I will be tall enough to reach the branches
0:58:38 > 0:58:42# That I need to reach to climb the trees
0:58:42 > 0:58:46# You get to climb when you're grown up
0:58:48 > 0:58:51- # And when I grow up - When I grow up
0:58:51 > 0:58:53# When I grow up
0:58:53 > 0:58:56# I will be smart enough to answer all the questions... #