Lloyd Webber: Government said we should stage musicals without singing
mainFrom an interview in the Independent:
ALW: ‘I have seen a report, I don’t know what’s going to be in the report on theatre that’s coming out on Monday (22 June), but I sincerely hope it doesn’t contain some of the things that I’ve seen in some of their advice, one of which was a brilliant one for musicals – that you’re not allowed to sing.’
‘All one can do is try and be positive. I really believe that we in theatre must be positive and use everything we can to demonstrate that we can open. If having done that we fail, at least we’ve tried.’
More here.
==the UK is on the brink of “cultural catastrophe”, the composer told BBC Radio
ALW is a “cultural catastrophe” with all that pre-digested pap be spews out.
The man who flew back to London especially to vote down a Labour motion to give more support for poor people! (First class, naturally!)
Thousands of people like it and ALW has made a motza out of it – and good luck to him. But I think it actually discounts his credibility in discussing anything of higher cultural value than the Phantom. That’s fair; you cannot have everything your own way.
I was going to suggest turning the headline around: Singing should be allowed, without ALW musicals 😛
Some modern musicals might actually be improved without the singing. Sure helps some operas. Ring Without Words, for example.
The Ring Without Words is beautiful, a long symphonic poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFfzwunOqak
Rex Harrison in Phantom of the Opera…?
A true transfigured achievement. “Let a Woman in your Life”.
I’d be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling..!!
A bit like gay mardi gras where the boys are dressed up like nuns – misogyny.
If the report if the Report is true, it reminds me of a comment from a very senior civil servant in Hong Kong. A large outdoor stadium had been renovated and upgraded to accommodate pop concerts as well as sports events. The government forgot that it had enacted quite strong anti-noise legislation. At the top of a hill at one end of the stadium were expensive housing complexes. Their owners and tenants then complained about the noise from live concerts being way above the decibel limit!
So this idiot civil servant went public with the comment that the sound volume of concerts be at least halved and attendees be given headphones to listen at the usual level and gloves for their applause!
Cameron Mackintosh has already announced that none of his West End theatres will re-open before next March. So there we have it. End of. I’m quite sure that this wretched Brexit government would come up with a stupid idea like the above. Duh! You keep the first couple of seat rows in the stalls empty then all those sisters can sing out. Common sense has been absent through much of this crisis – or ‘plague’ as some like to call it.
IF ALW isright and the report is banning singing in theatres, presumably opera will also be affected?