← MickeyJoTheatre
MickeyJoTheatre
Are Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jamie Lloyd fighting?! | Updates on Cats, Evita, The Illusionist & more
00:33:16
Loading summary
Transcript23 lines
- [00:00]
Micky Joe Theatre
I finally committed to getting back in shape. Hit the gym, ate clean, did everything right. But after two days I felt drained. My body just couldn't keep up. That's when I found Stem Regen. It supports the release of my own stem cells to repair, recover and actually rebuild from the inside out. Now I'm not just working out, I'm bouncing back. I feel stronger, more energized, and more like myself every single day. Stem Regen didn't just change my routine, it changed my recovery. Empower your body to recover from within. Whether you are focused on recovery longev or just overall wellness, Stem Regen helps your body feel the best. It can release the best version of you. Try Stem Regen today at Stemregen co. Use code pod25 for 25% off your first order. Again, that's stemregen code pod25.
- [00:51]
James Richardson
Acast powers the world's best podcasts Here's a show that we recommend.
- [00:58]
Unknown Theatre Commentator
Foreign I'm.
- [01:04]
James Richardson
James Richardson and I host the Toadley Football show four times a week. If you're not familiar with it, perhaps you care to give it a listen in the season ahead because we cover all the big stuff. Premier League, Champions League, in depth, European League coverage, Football League and more. We've got insights and analysis from the best reporters in the industry and we've got quizzes and nostalgia too. Plus, we're going to be bigger and broader than ever for the season ahead. So check out the Totally Football show wherever you get your podcast. The rest is not as good as the Totally Football Show.
- [01:40]
Acast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.
- [01:50]
Unknown Theatre Commentator
Are Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jamie Lloyd fighting. Is Evita now not going to Broadway? And does all of this have something to do with Cats? What's the buzz? Let me tell you what's happening. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Oh, hello to you. If you're listening to this on podcast platforms, if I seem unduly excited, I'm trying to remain professional. It's just that it feels like it could be 2021 again. And listen, I do not invite drama to anyone's doorstep. It is hard enough to create theatre, it is hard enough to sell tickets, people. But I'm just having such a nostalgia for once again talking to you all tiny people in my camera about theatrical drama that is Andrew Lloyd Webber adjacent. We've been here before, you and I. It's how many of you met me in the first place. And though this has nothing to do With Cinderella, bad Cinderella as it became, it does have characteristics sort of familiar of that time. So the reason I'm sat here talking to you today is because a bunch of Andrew Lloyd Webber adjacent news has emerged, with the most substantial announcement being that the Cat's the Jellicle Ball, which was previously teased, is going to be a Broadway transfer in spring 2026. How exciting. Let's start engraving that Tony Award. Apologies, Chess, Apologies my beloved ragtime, but my money is in fact on the pussies. But that's not all that's been announced. There have been a whole host of Lloyd Webber musical revelations, including the news that the Phantom of the Opera is going to be turned into an anime, which makes so much sense. And that original Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford is going to receive a Kennedy center honour, which makes no sense whatsoever and is part of a political con that we're not getting into today. Because the real story here is the potentially fractured relationship between impresario theatrical legend, composer lord Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, who looms large over theatreland, and up and coming rising star hotshot visionary director Jamie Lloyd. One came to such prominence in the 1980s that for decades now he has been the only musical theatre composer from the UK that anyone has ever been able to name, while the other has been an emerging creative wunderkind for the past couple decades and in the last few years has created production that have really penetrated the zeitgeist and the musical which initially brought them together. Evita, with lyrics by Tim Rice, first staged by Jamie Lloyd at Regent's Park Open air Theatre in 2019, is now back in a new production at the London Palladium, starring Rachel Zegler, dominating this summer's cultural conversation and seemingly set to transfer to Broadway, following in the wake of the hugely successful Sunset Boulevard, which Jamie Lo directed first in London and then very successfully on Broadway, once theatres had begun to reopen after the shutdown. And it was seemingly due to the success of Sunset Boulevard, as well as Jamie Lloyd's Shakespearean stagings of the Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing at the Lloyd Webber Theatre's own Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, very close to the heart of Andrew Lloyd Webber, that Lloyd seemed to become the new de facto creative collaborator of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the inevitable director of his upcoming new musical, the Illusionist. It was said that he was set to direct it, only now everything that we had been anticipating about five minutes ago seems to have changed. Jamie Lloyd is no longer directing the Illusionist, Evita may not go to Broadway and it might Be the fault of Cats. I am Mickey Joe Theatre with the theatrical scoop. Let's dig in. Okey dokey. So what we're reading from here is a piece in Variety by Brent Lang inside Andrew Lloyd Webber's comeback from hit revivals of Evita and Sunset Boulevard to a dramatic overhaul of his entertainment company. The big announcement here being that the really useful group, which is Android Webber's theatrical production company, is rebranding as LW Entertainment in line with his theatre ownership company, LW Theater. But beyond that, amongst hit revivals of many of his most successful shows, bringing his work to new young audiences in conjunction with the producer Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, there is a careful curation going on of the brand of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Let's read a little bit through this article and see what he has to say about all of this in his own words. And it begins with a direct quote. We couldn't allow things to just trundle along. We had to make a big change. He's being interviewed in his Upper west side apartment, reflecting on the last few years, acknowledging some of the challenges that he's faced over those years, including personal ones. The sad loss of his son as well as the impact of COVID The closures of theaters. The end of the record breaking Broadway run of the Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre. Once the worst of the pandemic was over, things didn't get much better. Audiences returned, but in fits and starts. Citing declining ticket sales, the owners of the Majestic Theatre announced in 2022 that they were closing the Phantom of the opera, ending its 35 year run in New York, despite Lloyd Webber's objections. Then Bad Cinderella, the Broadway transfer of his Western, opened in March 2023. In contrast to London, where it was warmly received by some people, reviews here were scathing by some people, with one critic warning, bring earplugs. It closed just three months later. Much of this happened as Lloyd Webber was grieving an unimaginable loss. His son Nicholas had died at the age of 43 from gastric cancer two days after bad Cinderella opened. And as a sidebar, here is it crass of me to wish to offer not only my condolences, but also my apologies for the cruelty of that particular timing that that happen proximity to the opening of Bad Cinderella. And there was such a callousness and almost a delight in the tearing apart of that show, including from myself. There's some brief reflection on that difficult time shared by Madeline Lloyd Webber, the composer's wife and the group president of his company's girlboss. But we continue by saying, rather than breaking Lloyd Webber, this emotional gauntlet inspired him to overhaul the way he approached his business and his art, sparking a remarkable comeback that has made him the toast of the theater world again. And it's worth saying at that. It wasn't just the pandemic that began to damage Andrew's sort of brand and reputation, because really, for a while, you know, he'd been very financially successful and he owns all of these theaters in the West End and Phantom was continuing to run and playing around the world. But in terms of new musicals that he was developing, they were neither critically acclaimed nor particularly commercially successful. Love Never Dies opened in the early 2010s. Either side of that, you had shows like Stephen Ward. The most successful thing he's done, I think perhaps even since Phantom of the Opera, has been his TV appearances and those casting shows and him producing new versions of shows written by other people, with the exception of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. But in terms of brilliant new musicals, it has been some time since we've really seen genius from Lloyd Webber, I feel. And it wasn't just the pandemic that brought that into focus. Here is what Variety says. Over the past two years, he's partnered with a brilliant crop of iconoclastic directors who have reimagined many of his signature shows in radical ways. Really, there's only been a couple so far. Masquerade is still very early previews, but we can include that. Last June, Sunset Boulevard, Jamie Lloyd's stripped down version of the classic story of Hollywood excess, won the Tony for best revival, the first time in 30 years that a Lloyd Webber show has received the top prize, and not that we're calling best revival of a musical the top prize. What would that have made the last Lloyd Webber show to win a big Tony Award? Sunset Boulevard. The first time around, that was 1995. Year of my Birth. Let's carry on. In July, a Lloyd directed revival of Evita, which staged the life of Eva Peron as a pop concert worthy of Beyonce, became the hottest ticket of the summer in London. And this month, Diane Paulus will debut Musquerade, an immersive production of the Phantom of the Opera that she says will give Broadway audiences a more intimate experience of the famous love story. Admittedly, only if they travel to Off Broadway and become off Broadway audiences, because it is, in fact, an Off Broadway show. And, you know, in those years I was mentioning over the past few decades, when Andrew was struggling to find a new hit. When he was producing other shows and like adding songs to the wizard of Oz and casting people on the television, it did seem as though his greatest assets were the shows that he had already written those huge songs, those well known shows with which he was readily associated. There are very few musicals in the UK that have such name recognition and song recognition as a lot of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classics, like Joseph, like Phantom, like Evita, like Cats. And so it's not particularly surprising that the key to his big comeback and success has been getting out of his own way and affording new, exciting, brilliant, inspiring creatives the opportunity to do innovative and new things with those shows. Shows which we find out a little more about here. Andrew has been incredibly open to all of this, says Michael Harrison, the producer of Sunset Boulevard and Evita. Michael Harrison, also the producer of the new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium, which has then toured around the uk. It's touring right now, as well as the reimagined revival of Starlight Express, currently playing at the Troubadour Theatre in Wembley Park. And I on more than one occasion, have credited this collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Michael Harrison for this new period of success that he's been enjoying. Because Andre as many things, but he by his own admission, is a much better creative than he is a producer. So pair his existing body of work and his enthusiasm for those shows and for audiences and for young audiences and for the next generation of theatre goer with a producer who has the tools to make all of that happen and convince him to do new and exciting, bold things with those shows and you get terrific stuff. Michael went on to say, he wants this to be people's interpretation of his work. He's perfectly happy for them to approach these shows almost as a blank page. And therein I think you find a lot of artistic freedom and fantastic results. We can have a very long conversation about the comparison between those shows and those properties that have been in new productions afforded space for creative freedom and reinterpretation, versus those that haven't, that have had to stay within fairly rigid guidelines in terms of their staging, in terms of their choreography. Two years removed from the closures of Phantom and Bad Cinderella, Lloyd Webber, who is in town to watch rehearsals of Masquerade before flying to Los Angeles to see Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert in his rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood bowl, has never been busier or more relevant. And next year, the Jellicle Ball, which trades Dancing kitties for the club kids and drag artists who defined 80s ballroom culture will transfer to Broadway after an extended run downtown at Perelman Performing Arts Centre. And if you want to know more about that production, you can watch or listen to my review. I'm very excited that it's going to be heading to Broadway. I don't know if it's been announced the particular theatre it's going to, but I have had it confirmed via multiple sources and I'm not going to tell you yet because I don't know if I'm supposed to. Maybe it's been announced and I don't know anything that you don't know. Another thing I do know, though, is that when I was seeing it in early July of last year, was that last. I feel like that was last year. Michael Harrison and Angela Weber were both en route to go and see it, either later that week or had just seen it just before me. And it was said that they were surprisingly taken with it, which Andrew expands on here. He says the show hit a nerve. I didn't understand it until I saw it, but it works very well. My contribution has been to let the work go and hand it over to these artists. And, you know, I'm hopeful that now that he's seen it and understands it, he might hand it over to them a little bit more. I don't want them to rewrite the show. I just want them to be able to play more with the orchestrations because it sounds still very traditional Broadway, even though it looks very club kid. And there are moments where the sound is very different. I just want them to be able to orchestrate the thing in a way that feels more like the sound of that world that we're living in. I want.
- [13:25]
McDonald's Customer
Morning. One sausage McMuffin with egg, please.
- [13:27]
McDonald's Employee
Okay, your total is.
- [13:28]
McDonald's Customer
Wait, let's negotiate. How's about you throw in hash browns for a dollar?
- [13:33]
McDonald's Employee
Well, yes, sir, that price is already a dollar.
- [13:36]
McDonald's Customer
Take it or leave it.
- [13:38]
McDonald's Employee
Take it, I guess. Buy one, add one for a dollar on sausage McMuffin with egg, hash browns and more with McValue. Most locations open 5am or earlier. Price and participation may vary. Limited time only. Valid for item of equal or lesser value. Ba da ba ba ba.
- [13:56]
Unknown Theatre Commentator
More techno. Now here comes the big business news. At the same time that he started enlisting new collaborators, Lloyd Webber decided to overhaul the really useful group, which, if you are anything like me and you grew up watching Joseph and Cats on vhs, you might remember as the company with the Swiss army knife logo with the red Swiss with all the tools coming out of it. And there was a nice little animation. That's what I always think of it is the licensing and production company that controls the rights to his music and shows. In 2023 he hired James McKnight, a veteran executive who had helped J.K. rowling unrelated grow her Harry Potter empire beyond books to transform his business as its CEO Lloyd Webber calls him. Quited Catch. What a. What a funny way of phrasing that. Is he trying to set him up with someone? Is James McKnight single? Is Angela Dwebber now the matchmaker from Mulan? What's happening here? The goal is to evolve the really Useful group from a sleep theater company into an entertainment powerhouse with a hand in everything from gaming to movies to consumer products. And while capitalism is slowly destroying the world, almost every other industry started it. So you know, why not let's get more theater merchandise. That's what I'm hearing here. I for one would like a super Smash Bros style cats fighting game on the Nintendo Switch. I think it has legs four specifically. Oh, we have a quote from James McKnight. How many people were in this Upper west side apartment when this interview happened? Andrew set up this company 50 years ago to manage his work. But the world has changed so much over those decades. McKnight says it's time for a new vision. We see it as setting us up for the next 50 years. The new era will start with a different name. The really Useful group has been rechristened LW Entertainment, which more explicitly reflects the company's focus on different types of media. Does it? I mean it puts entertainment right there in the title. It also puts LW Lloyd Webber right there in the title. You're going to hear about the branding of Lloyd Webber as we carry on. But first a little bit more about James McKnight. Have I been introduced to James McKnight? I was introduced to someone from the really Useful group who I think was called James. I think I've met this man in passing at a press night. That sounds very bad by the way. Like I wasn't paying attention. I was passing. I was going down an aisle to get to my seat. So it was sort of. I was in motion the entire time. That's what I need you to know. McKnight. An ebullient personality with a slight Scottish bro. He's Scottish. I could have been reading these quotes differently this entire time. It's time for a new vision. We see it as setting us up for the next 50 year. Okay. I Can't do ours. Can't do. Apologies to the Scottish people. Anyway. McKnight believes the Phantom of the Opera, which has earned more than 6 billion doll globally, should serve as the fulcrum of the new enterprise. It is the show you think of. It's the show you associate with Lloyd Webber. It is about a composer, Sarah Brightman originally starred. You know, you just sort of readily. It brings him to mind, it conjures him. You think Andrew Lloyd Webber, you think the Phantom of the Opera. When I sat down to film this video, I picked up the Phantom of the Opera. Bear Barrick is just behind me. It's the most globally produced show in the world, but I still feel like it could be so much more, McKnight's says. And not to keep interrupting this, but this statistic gets thrown around an awful lot. Is Phantom the most globally produced show in the world because the Addams Family musical now calls itself the most produced? Because there are so many different and separate productions. I think the Lion King also has some kind of a statistic about that. I'm sure that Phantom can lay claim to some sort of a world record. I just don't know which one it is specifically. Anyway, Mr. McKnight thinks that there's more to do in fashion, in gaming, in interactive, in consumer products. There's lots of opportunities. Phantom VR. There's already a Phantom VR rollercoaster in Europe. McKnight sees great potential for Lloyd Webber's work in the publishing world and in Hollywood, LW Entertainment has signed a multi book deal with Penguin Random House, which will kick off with Our Strange Duet, a young adult novel based on Phantom. And it has enlisted. Here we go. Justin Leitch, an executive producer on Star Visions, to create an anime series based on the Phantom's obsession with Christine, which I think will be wildly successful. The company is also talking to studios about making films adapted from some of Lloyd Webber's most loved shows. And many of them, of course, have already been adapted for film, including Cats, including Evita, including Phantom. As mentioned here, Joel Schumacher's the Phantom of the Opera was a box office hit. But Lloyd Webber felt that Gerard Butler was miscast as the Phantom in the 2004 film. What gave that away, Andrew? Did you watch it? It's possible. Andrew had ears. It's an open secret that I wanted Antonio Banderas. He says he and McKnight are trying to mount a new movie adaptation, one that will have the Phantom played by an actor who is much older than the actress playing Christine. It could still be Antonio Banderas or. Or Gerard Butler now, but probably it shouldn't be. The whole point of the story is the confusion Christine feels about whether the Phantom is a romantic interest or a father figure. Lloyd Webber says daddy issues. That's what was missing from the 2004 film. Not enough daddy issues. He says the first film cast the Phantom too young. Oh, it's going to be Hugh Jackman, isn't it? I have such a fear that it's going to be Hugh Jackman. McKnight also mentions Jesus Christ Superstar, which was adapted by Norman Jewison into a 1973 film. I always forget the film of Jesus Christ Superstar at Harry happened so early on. He says, that's ripe for a fresh cinematic take. And I don't know necessarily how I feel about that because if anything, if the Cynthia Erivo casting noise taught us anything, it's that, you know, as the overtone window has shifted back, as societies around the world slip into alt right fascism, I think we're getting a little bit weird about depictions of religious figures in general. And I. I think that would probably unearth a lot of strong reactions. And speaking of strong reactions, Nicole Scherzinger, who drew Ra and one a Tony playing Norma Desmond, hopes that Sunset Boulevard can lead to a movie. She says, I'm trying to manifest. Is this an old quote or is she also there in the Upper west side apartment? Is this just a party? Who is there? Anyway? She said, I'm trying to manifest it. I keep putting it out there in the universe. There are only so many people who could see it in the theater. I mean, a lot of people did see it in the theater. You ran for a long time. So making a film would let us share it with the world. And I think the best case scenario there for that production and for Scherzinger would have been a pro. Shot shot of the Jamie Lloyd staging. If it didn't happen, which I don't believe it did, then that is very sad in terms of a cinematic adaptation. I know Glenn Close still wants to do it, so now Scherzinger wants to do it. What is it about doing this show on Broadway that makes everyone desperate to then do the film version? Something about Sunset Boulevard is turning all of these women who play Norma Desmond into Norma Desmond. There's a little bit here about James McKnight being credited with launching the composer's official fan community, the Box 5 Club. I get a lot of emails about this. And then, as I mentioned, the shifting focus of Lloyd Webber's company treating the legendary composer and his Work as a brand like Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I can't wait for the Andrew Webber Lego sets. That, presumably, is what has to follow. And Andrew has surprisingly strong feelings about people who sell their copyrights. He says they are idiots. They're waving goodbye to one's birthright. They just get passed along the line by private equity and they exploit them without any engagement with the creators. It's ridiculous. Now all of this brings us to an update about Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, the Illusionist. I have been chatting and speculating about this for some time now. I am very intrigued. He apparently has spent much of the summer working on it. I bet his lovely home isn't nearly as warm as my flat is. Mine are no conditions in which to write new musical theatre, which, as we know, is an Adaptation of the 2006 Edward Norton film about a magician in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, which Andrew hopes will open in London in 2026. And when last he spoke about it, he had offered a couple of different timelines. 27 was the most conservative version of that, and that seems to be what we're now going with. He does say that the changes at the company have left him able to get on and do the new work. He's pretty much finished with the Illusionist, which indicates to you how long it takes to turn these shows around, because it's then going to have, you know, readings and workshop and development. So even though he's pretty much finished writing it, still not projecting a production until 2023, and I have a plan in place for what I'd like to do next. That sounds incredibly ominous and I'm both intrigued, but mostly scared about what that might mean. This is what I enjoy doing and what I'm best at doing. And I'm glad that he's finally arrived at a place where he is able to do that and where he's able to recognize that. To that end, Lloyd Webber decided to step back from producing his own work. Instead, he formed a joint venture with Harrison. I've already told you about this. Who now handles both his new productions and the revivals of his own older shows. It was Harrison who introduced Lloyd Webber to a new generation of directors. Andrew says Michael is much more in touch with what's going on. Historically, my collaborators have all been older than me. This is the first time I am working with younger people, and that's because all of his collaborators who were older than him are pretty much dead. These young directors have helped make Lloyd Webber cool to the TikTok generation, attracting stars like Rachel Zegler and Scherzinger to their revivals and restaging shows that were once seen as lumbering and fussy as something sleeker and sexier. But they've also revealed something that's often overlooked. This is very interesting and very true. Much of Lloyd Webber's early work was subversive when it premiered. He created a concept album of Jesus Christ Superstar to prove that it could function as a stage show. Something that Lin Manuel Miranda and Issa Davis have recently replicated with their pre production concept album version of Warriors. He pioneered cutting edge special effects with Phantom. Well, not personally. And he found unlikely subject for the musicals he wrote. We have a Diane Paulus quote here. He has always had a huge theatrical imagination. He made musicals about Jesus Christ and eva Peron and T.S. eliot's poems. And we have some more praise for his work. But this is the bit that I really wanted to get to. This is where we get to the possible Jamie Lloyd feud. So it says here, Lloyd Webber's collaborators can strip away elaborate sets and costumes as they have and even change the setting of his shows as they have. But the composer requires them to remain true to to his scores. The really useful group, for instance, nixed one idea for the Jellicle Ball that would have had Lloyd Webber's original music overlaid with ballroom beats. Sadly, that does seem to imply that it's going to be the same for Broadway. But he has been willing to cut songs, permitting Lloyd to lose two numbers from Sunset Boulevard. Thank God that he deemed old fashioned. He was right. Lloyd Webber also composed new music for the new production and hours of additional material for Masquerade that will play as audiences move from one setup to another. I'm deeply intrigued about Masquerade and I hope that I have the option for opportunity at some point to go and do it. I'm hearing nothing specific because I'm not trying to find out spoilers, but I am hearing that it's just mind blowing and great. So that's very encouraging. I'm also hearing that it is not the Phantom of the Opera it is based on, it is inspired by, but it's a different version of that show as an experience anyway. That brings us to a conversation about Evita. Now, Andrew was always full of nothing but praise when it came to Sunset set and Nicole Scherzinger's performance as Norma Desmond. What he has to say about Evita is a little different. It's a little more measured. He praises the London production Particularly Zegler's handling of the famously difficult central role, calling her extraordinary. And he's had a lot to say about how brilliant he thinks that she is and she deserves that praise. However, he felt the show was initially too loud and he pushed Lloyd to lower the volume. It is very loud. He also has clearly absorbed some of the criticism of that production as favoring style over substance. Who could have said that? The feedback that I am getting is that the young are absolutely loving it, and they are, but they like the overall feel of the evening. They don't really follow the story, which is a far more succinct way of conveying what I shared in my hour long review of Evita, which, if you haven't already, you can go watch, you can go listen to, which is to say that it's an extraordinary spectacle and it's thrilling and the dance is fantastic and Rachel is fantastic and Diego is fantastic and the energy of the whole thing, thing is phenomenal and unmatched. But the, the narrative is sort of being neglected in a way that could potentially alienate people who don't already know the story. And you don't get a tremendous sense of Ava's rise, her arc, the political nuances happening in the background. Here is the most telling part of the entire piece. If Evita transfers to Broadway, does Lloyd Webber want the production to make the story of Peron's dramatic rise to power clear era? Here is the response. Jamie Lloyd is Jamie Lloyd. He answers with a flicker of annoyance. And while we're still processing that, we carry on with this revelation. Lloyd was originally announced as the director of the Illusionist. He was. However, Lloyd Webber now says that it's much too early to decide who will direct the show with a new work. It needs to be someone I'm comfortable with, he says, indicating fairly plainly that Jamie Lloyd, despite having got Android Webber very excited after his success with Sunset Boulevard, has now made him uncomfortable and suggesting that the two may have had something of a falling out around Evita. And we could read into this and we could speculate about their respective personalities. They are both big personalities. They are both identities that kind of own the productions of their work whenever they are happening, you know, it was Jamie Lloyd's Sunset Boulevard. That was the conversation. It has always been Andrew Lloyd Webber's the Phantom of the Opera, whatever else. And so you could question, especially with a new musical, the extent to which either of them is really willing to share creative credit or particularly creative vision. I was immediately hugely interested in this because we don't see Jamie Lloyd directing new work, we see Jamie Lloyd reinterpreting revivals and not having to work as closely with writers because they're almost always dead. And the way that his rehearsal room directing style has always been explained to me doesn't feel necessarily conducive to brand new work either. It's more about bringing the actors into a space, not doing a table reading, but having them learn the script and having them just like move around the space and sort of devising the whole thing thing as a company with the skills and the talents and the sensibilities and the personalities that you have in the room, which is not necessarily the best way to get brand new material on its feet. But that flicker of annoyance that was mentioned is very interesting. It does seem that the love affair that was happening between Angelo Weber and Jamie Lloyd has perhaps ended. Did this, I wonder, have anything to do with the early closure of Sunset Boulevard on Broadway? And I know people are going to tell me Sunset didn't close early, it extended, it ran as long as it was always going to. And factually, that just isn't the truth. Truth because investors had been told that the production was going to extend, that they were going to find replacement casting. But as I heard it, there were only a very small handful of names that Jamie Lloyd was willing to have replaced Nicole Scherzinger in the show. Or it could have something to do with the potential Broadway transfer of Evita, because back in early July of this year, when Evita had just opened at the London Palladium, Baz Bamigboy for Deadline shared that even though many close to the production wanted to wait until 2027, it was the ambition of director Jamie Lloyd as well as Ly Sir Tim Rice, to get the show to New York even sooner. Jamie Lloyd is quoted as saying he's eager for 2026. That's when I would like it to go as soon as possible. Really a point he repeated to me several times on Tuesday night and into the early hours of Wednesday. Now, interestingly enough, Sunset Boulevard was produced with Lloyd, Weber Harrison Musicals and the Jamie Lloyd Company and ATG Entertainment. It was first produced at the the Savoy Theatre in the West End, transferred to the St. James on Broadway. The relationship between the Jamie Lloyd Company and ATG Entertainment seems to have dissolved. And so if I were to speculate about the egos and the personalities of players involved here, is this a second mark against the Jamie Lloyd Company and do they play better by themselves? None of which, for what it's worth, takes away from the brilliant work that Jamie is doing. But it's interesting that there was no quote of enthusiasm for 2026 run from Andrew because he is also thinking about Cats and even without his producer hat on anymore, even delegating that responsibility to Michael Harrison, Sunset has just finished its run on Broadway. It won last year's Tony for Best revival, by which I mean this year's Tony Phantom is now opening Off Broadway with Masquerade. There is a little bit of rumor about Jesus Christ Superstar coming to Broadway from the Hollywood bowl, which I don't necessarily believe because that's not really a thing that happens. Cats going to Broadway, Evita possibly also going to go to Broadway. From what I understand, there is a concern that Broadway may become overwhelmed by a sudden saturation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Broadway's critics. New York's critics have never enjoyed Lloyd Webber anywhere near as much as London's have, and so any disagreement about the timing of a potential Evita Broadway transfer likely has something to do with the fact that Katz is already lying cleaned up and they a don't want to overwhelm New York with all of the Lloyd Webber all of a sudden and b they don't want to fight themselves for the Tony Award for Best revival of a musical.
- [30:26]
McDonald's Customer
Morning 1 sausage McMuffin with eggplace okay, your total is. Wait, let's negotiate. How's about you throw in hash browns for a dollar?
- [30:35]
McDonald's Employee
Well, yes sir, that price is already a dollar.
- [30:38]
McDonald's Customer
Take it or leave it.
- [30:40]
McDonald's Employee
Take it, I guess. Buy one, add one for a dollar on sausage McMuffin with egg hash browns and more with McValue. Most locations open 5am or earlier. Price and participation may vary. Limited time only valid for item of equal or lesser value.
- [30:56]
Shopify Advertiser
Businesses that are selling through the roof like Untuck it, make selling and for shoppers buying simple with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet, and with shop pay you can boost conversions up to 50%. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify, upgrade your business and get the same checkout Untuck it uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com podcast free. All lowercase go to shopify.com podcast free to upgrade your selling today.
- [31:32]
Unknown Theatre Commentator
Now, I do still believe that Evita will transfer to Broadway at some point. I just think it might not be in the upcoming. And Variety also believes that is still on the cards because the piece continues. Their close collaboration seems to have become strained, at least temporarily. Still, Lloyd's version of Evita was such a smash that the original plan was to bring it to Broadway in 2027, and there was also talk of taking the allusionist to New York after it debuts in London. That may no longer be possible, Lloyd Webber says, because of the high cost of mounting Broadway musicals, audiences, especially tourists, aren't always open to checking out shows that aren't based on popular movies. And I actually think that's more of a problem in London than than it is in New York, where maybe happy ending has become a Tony Award winning success. Moreover, news broke recently that a tax credit program that helped Broadway comeback from COVID by providing shows with millions of dollars in subsidies is running out of funding. And this actually is a huge problem. I have dismissed a lot of the chatter over the past few years that the sky is falling on Broadway, but when you start to hear it from big player producers and investors, then you start to get really worried. I am hearing on multiple fronts that a big reckoning may be a problem approaching within the next few years for Broadway and that the current financial model is simply not working and that something is going to have to give in a big way. All very scary news. And I also think for what it's worth, given the last few new Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and the quality of the pieces, that it would be a little bit presumptuous to anticipate a Broadway transfer for the Illusionist simply because it's him who is writing it. I think let the piece open first and see whether a Broadway transfer is really justified by the strength of the main material. And not that I'm a betting man, but if I was to guess who is going to end up directing the Illusionist, there is Luke Shepard, who also directed Starlight Express, who is another rising star director at the moment, Just for One Day and Juliet and the upcoming Paddington musical, which is going to be absolutely huge. Or, and I'm just recalling that comment Andrew made about someone he is comfortable with. Could he revert to a previous collaborator like Lawrence Connor, who directed Cinderella, of Broadway's financial troubles? He says these aren't cheap shows to do and I think the tax credit might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for quite a lot. He means investors. I've been worried about Broadway for a very long time because people are not really able to get their money back and most of these shows have limited runs. It's a brave person who brings something to Broadway now. And even in just the last couple of years you have really big successful shows like maybe Happy Ending and oh Mary and Death Becomes her and the Outsiders. None of which have yet recouped, I believe, which is troubling. Lloyd Webber pauses and seems to consider, clearly concerned that he's been too dismissive of an art form he's devoted his life to popular polarising. I'm not gloating about it, he says, his voice softening, because I love it, you know, I love Broadway. And that, sort of bizarrely, is the end of the piece. And I think largely what that offered us is confirmation of things that have been suspected for a while. I was reflecting last month about how, in the space of just a few weeks, I had seen so many Lloyd Webber musicals. I had been back to see Starlight Express again for its new cast here in London. I had just seen Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. I'd just seen Circus Cats at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora. Horror. Whatever they're doing with the licensing of Cats in the us, with all of these different productions, with Circus Cats and Cowboy Cats and abandoned Roller coaster Theme Park Cats and of course, Ballroom Cats in New York, they've really done a great job of putting that show on the map for theater fans again. Masquerade has been this really buzzy, hugely anticipated off Broadway moment. Capturing it seems as much excitement as Cats did off Broadway. I think that's going to do really well. Cats, I mean, when it transfers in the spring, Evita is really the biggest show of the summer right now in London. So it is undeniably a fantastic time to be Andrew Lloyd Webber. And I'm excited to find out more about a lot of the other things that are being talked about here, other film adaptations, Phantom animes and the like. And we will have to wait and see about that Evita Broadway transfer. We will have to keep speculating about where they might try and pull off that balcony moment, how they might try and pull off that balcony moment. Listen, we didn't think the walk was going to work either, and it did throughout the run. But my biggest curiosity is reserved for the Illusionist. And I suppose there is still the chance that Jamie Lloyd and Andrew Lloyd Webber could rekindle their creative collaboration and he could still end up directing the thing. It might be for the best if he doesn't, because he is attached to so many other theatrical projects in the meantime. And we know that new musicals are more demanding, more time consuming and just harder to get right than revivals are, and perhaps less conducive to Jamie Lloyd's particular style. There's every possibility that it's the lack of narrative clarity in Evita that made Andrew worried about Jamie doing the Illusionist telling a new story that audiences don't already know. But on that front we will have to wait and see. Although I will continue to bring any updates right here to YouTube or to podcast platforms. In the meantime, thank you for listening to my thoughts. I hope that you enjoyed make sure to share all of your thoughts about this news in the comments section down below. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Micky Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey.
- [36:47]
McDonald's Customer
Now you can fly anywhere in the world and pay discount prices on your airline tickets. Book a flight today to London, Paris, Madrid or anywhere else you want to go and pay a lot less guaranteed. Call the international travel department right now at low cost airlines, 8002-155141-80021 that's 800-215-5141.
- [37:21]
James Richardson
Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's the show that we recommend.
- [37:33]
Hello everyone, I'm James Richardson and I host the Totally Football show four times a week. If you're not familiar with it, perhaps you care to give it a listen in the season ahead. Because we cover all the big stuff. Premier League, Champions League, in depth, European League coverage, Football League and more. We've got insights and analysis from the best reporters in the industry and we've got quizzes and nostalgia too. Plus, we're going to be bigger and broader than ever for the season ahead. So check out the Totally Football show wherever you get your podcast. The rest is not as good as the Totally Football Show.
- [38:09]
ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.