In honor of the "CATS" trailer, let's vote on the much maligned Andrew Lloyd Webber

mid market dreck through and through

Aww, some of it's quite catchy.

I voted for Evita, but I really also like Aspects of Love. It's an underappreciated gem and it's much better than his more recent work like Whistle Down The Wind and The Beautiful Game, which are both crap.

Normally I like the brooding grandeur of the Evita and Sunset Blvd songs.

If i'm high? Starlight Express.

Though nobody -not even I- will vote for it, I admit a fondness for "Joseph" because damn, those songs are just so catchy.

Evita, but only the Madonna-version.

[quote]Though nobody -not even I- will vote for it, I admit a fondness for "Joseph" because damn, those songs are just so catchy.

It's fun that the songs are all done in different styles.

Okay, "Evita" is brilliant and I'll always love the music from "Jesus Christ Superstar"... but fuck the snobs I LOVE "Phantom of the Opera"!

The music is cheesy and the story cliche'd, but the music is catchy and melodic and fun to sing, and the whole thing is carried along by the kind of blatantly emotional melodrama that you never see any more. It's the opposite of Sondheim-influenced too-clever stuff, it doesn't try to be clever, just satisfying.

"JCS."

I am sorry, but I believe Broadway musicals are a tourist trap. But a lot of gays make a living off of them.

Since ALW stole huge quantities of his music from other composers, notably Puccini, Paganini, even Pink Floyd, we shouldn't really be evaluating his shows as being HIS music. However, I think he has a certain ability for dramatic build, and that is his talent rather than composing.

Curious, R11. What arias / leitmotifs did he steal / borrow from Puccini?

OP, you should have include Weber's "Love Never Dies" musical (a.k.a. Phantom of the Opera 2: Return of the Cash-cow Sequel) into your poll list.

My oh my, what a 'gem' it was. I couldn't believe that someone who produced some of the most memorable West End songs of our generation, could produce something so underwhelming. It was just so... pedestrian, like it was made for Midwestern Fraus.

To be fair, I think the plot (book) was worse than the forgettable songs - it was utter melodramatic schlock. But the book was co-written by Webber himself and Ben Elton, inter alia. So this still boils down to Webber's creatively bankrupt recent choices.

*included

It's really ridiculous that The Shuberts haven't renamed The Majestic Theater after him. Just between Phantom and Cats they have over 20,000 performances at Shubert houses alone. Not to mention all his other productions that play in their theaters around the country. The name The Majestic has zero historical value yet they change the names of The Plymouth and The Royale after some pencil pushing Shubert execs who never put one ass in their seats their entire lives.

R12: this ‘Orientalist’ number from Cats is quite Puccini-esque...

Oh and I’m not r11.

Hardly a secret

R15, there's already a famous Shubert Theater in NYC. Maybe it's too avoid confusion. You'd be surprised how many foreign tourists can accidentally book tix for the wrong town or even country.

I recently went to a famous NYC offshoot restaurant in London. Their site was a bit confusing (and the restaurants obviously share the same franchise name), so I almost booked the NYC one in the booking app by error.

R16, nice spot. But that duet seems more like an intentional, tongue-in-cheek, humorous pastiche on Puccini.

The dissonant, heavy intro sounds a bit like Prokofiev.

christ

Wow, I didn't think some of those songs would be that close to classic tunes.

OP is worse than Hitler, how DARE he forget this gem

I enjoy the Phantom of the Opera most.

My vote was for Phantom as well R8. And I agree with your last statement. It's purpose is to give theater-goers an orgasm, simply there to beat you over the head again and again with spectacle, drama, craziness, and total schmaltzy-ness, and it does that so well. However, my belief is that, while ALW did write a great score (I think his best when taken as a whole work), the visuals of Phantom are what made the show so compelling and successful. M. Bjornson's costumes and sets are something from a truly inhuman artistic perspective. I want to say divine, but that might be a bit over-the-top. I found the new production underwhelming without her contribution.

R25 Think the Director had anything to do with it......

R26, admittedly, I'm not entirely knowledgable on what a director's duty truly is. I've always been under the impression that they were in charge of manipulating the acting performances and general onstage action. But maybe they are at the helm of the entire production, bringing all elements of the production together. If that's the case, then he did a marvelous job. For me, what always drew me to POTO was Bjornson's design (the lighting director deserves praise too).

R27 There is a great doco on hal Prince that explains it very well, worth finding

R27 Hal is a God, this is a great doco on him