Unmasked
Описание книги
“You have the luck of Croesus on stilts (as my Auntie Vi would have said) if you’ve had the sort of career, ups and downs, warts and all that I have in that wondrous little corner of show business called musical theatre.”One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera—Broadway’s longest running show—and most recently, School of Rock. In Unmasked, written in his own inimitable, quirky voice, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements, the twists of fate and circumstance which brought him both success and disappointment, and the passions that inspire and sustain him.The son of a music professor and a piano teacher, Lloyd Webber reveals his artistic influences, from his idols Rodgers and Hammerstein and the perfection of South Pacific’s ‘Some Enchanted Evening,’ to the pop and rock music of the 1960s and Puccini’s Tosca, to P. G. Wodehouse and T. S. Eliot. Lloyd Webber recalls his bohemian London youth, reminiscing about the happiest place of his childhood, his homemade Harrington Pavilion—a make-believe world of musical theatre in which he created his earliest entertainments.A record of several exciting and turbulent decades of British and American musical theatre and the transformation of popular music itself, Unmasked is ultimately a chronicle of artistic creation. Lloyd Webber looks back at the development of some of his most famous works and illuminates his collaborations with luminaries such as Tim Rice, Robert Stigwood, Harold Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, and Trevor Nunn. Taking us behind the scenes of his productions, Lloyd Webber reveals fascinating details about each show, including the rich cast of characters involved with making them, and the creative and logistical challenges and artistic political battles that ensued.Lloyd Webber shares his recollections of the works that have become cultural touchstones for generations of fans: writings songs for a school production that would become his first hit, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; finding the coterie of performers for his classic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar; developing his first mega-hit, Evita, which would win seven Tonys Awards, including Best Musical; staking his reputation and fortune on the groundbreaking Cats; and making history with the dazzling The Phantom of the Opera.Reflecting a life that included many passions (from architecture to Turkish Swimming Cats), full of witty and revealing anecdotes, and featuring cameo appearances by numerous celebrities—Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, David Frost, Julie Covington, Judi Dench, Richard Branson, A.R. Rahman, Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone, Richard Rodgers, Norman Jewison, Milos Forman, Plácido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Michael Crawford, Gillian Lynne, Betty Buckley, and more—Unmasked at last reveals the true face of the extraordinary man beneath the storied legend.
Оглавление
Эндрю Ллойд Уэббер. Unmasked
COPYRIGHT
PRAISE FOR UNMASKED
DEDICATION
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
OVERTURE AND BEGINNERS
1. Perseus & Co
2. Some Enchanted Ruin
3. Auntie Vi
4. A Whiter Shade of Something That Didn’t Taste Very Nice in the First Place
5 “Mr Lloyd Webber, Do You Like Cats?”
6. Enter Timothy Miles Bindon Rice
7. Teenage Operas, Pop Cantatas
8. Elvis with Mellotron and Tambourines
9. Any Dream Won’t Do
10 “Did Judas Iscariot Have God on His Side?”
11. Love Changes Everything, But …
12. JCS Meets RSO
13. Jesus Goes to Broadway
14. A Bad Case of the Edward Woodwards
15. Suddenly There’s a Valet
16. Syd
17. Driverless Juggernauts Hurtling Down a Hill
18. Eva and Juan
19. The Long Hot Summer and the Sound of a Paraguayan Harp
20. The Song that Cleared the Dance Floors
21. Imogen and Niccolò
22. Variations
23. Really Useful
24. Tell Me on a Sunday
25 “This Artfully Produced Monument to Human Indecency”
26. Shaddap and Take That Look Off Your Face
27. Mr Mackintosh
28 “All the Characters Must Be Cats”
29. Growltiger’s Last Stand
30. Body Stockings, Leg Warmers and Meat Cleavers
31. Song and Dance, and Sleep
32 “The Most Obnoxious Form of ‘Music’ Ever Invented”
33. Miss Sarah Brightman
34 “Brrrohahaha!!!”
35. Requiem
36. Epiphany
37 “Big Change from Book”
38. Year of the Phantom
39. In Another Part of the West End Forest …
40. Mr Crawford
41 “Let Your Soul Take You Where You Want to Be!”
PLAYOUT MUSIC
EPILOGUE
PHOTO SECTION
APPENDIX
FOOTNOTES. 2 Some Enchanted Ruin
4 A Whiter Shade of Something That Didn’t Taste Very Nice in the First Place
5 “Mr Lloyd Webber, Do You Like Cats?”
6 Enter Timothy Miles Bindon Rice
9 Any Dream Won’t Do
11 Love Changes Everything, But …
15 Suddenly There’s a Valet
16 Syd
17 Driverless Juggernauts Hurtling Down a Hill
18 Eva and Juan
19 The Long Hot Summer and the Sound of a Paraguayan Harp
20 The Song that Cleared the Dance Floors
21 Imogen and Niccolò
22 Variations
23 Really Useful
24 Tell Me on a Sunday
27 Mr Mackintosh
30 Body Stockings, Leg Warmers and Meat Cleavers
31 Song and Dance, and Sleep
32 “The Most Obnoxious Form of ‘Music’ Ever Invented”
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER