Andrew Lloyd Webber’s show shuts early

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s show shuts early

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norman lebrecht

February 25, 2014

It was always a tacky thing to make a musical out of the human miseries of the Profumo scandal, but the fallen Lord of the West End complains that he hasn’t had a hit in 20 years so he wasn’t going to be put off by such niceties. Stephen Ward opened before Christmas amid great media razzamatazz.

It has now been announced that the show will close in March, after a four-month run. You may wish to catch the last performances at discounted prices. Or not.

stephen ward

Comments

  • Pamela Brown says:

    Despite the flop, ALW is tenacious. During the last 20 years he hasn’t had a hit, but wrote six operas anyway. Good for him…

  • Ease up on ALW. He’s provided endless work for many in the performing arts over the last few decades and I’d rather hear one of his commercially less-successful offerings than a lot of the pseudo-intellectual bullshit the classical world regularly foists upon us in the name of New Music. For every masterpiece such as Written on Skin, there’s a tsunami of dross churned out unfit to lace ALW’s boots. The only ones having a good time are the composer and his mates who probably commisioned him.

  • franklin says:

    I’ll go with the “or not”.

  • Roberto Gonzalez says:

    Abbatoirs also provide work, but really don’t make worthwhile music…

    Andrew Lloyd Webber composes drivel for the brain-dead…

  • Janey says:

    If opera composers took just a tad from what ALW did for most of his career, perhaps an opera or two would find a much bigger audience. Melody. That ingredient whose disappearance dooms most 21st century operas to oblivion.

    • Alison says:

      But Janey you don’t seem to understand. Melody is for dim people.

      • Thank you, Alison and Janey. I’m currently working on a new opera which has no business even applying to enter the canon. The composer is clueless, the content risibly unvocal. Still, no doubt his friends in the media will praise his effort to the skies enough to earn him another outing at some other gullible theatre. It’s enough to make you weep. There are too many composers out there who take pride in not connecting with the audience.

        • Janey says:

          @Theodore McGuiver – Yes. For so many composers, opera has become simply an intellectual experience. I want no part of these operas, and neither do most other audience members, if one judges by the numbers. The worst insult given a new opera is to be called “accessible.” God forbid.

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