Research Catalog

Title

[Interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber : raw footage] [videorecording] / [documentary directed by Michael Kantor ; interview directed by Jeff Dupre]

Publication

England, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948-
• Dupre, Jeff
• Kantor, Michael, 1961-
• Hopkins, Terry
• Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
• Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Description

1 videocassette (VHS) (37 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Theater composer Andrew Lloyd Webber discusses the genesis of his 1981 musical Cats. Webber began by setting the verses of T. S. Eliot to music for what he originally intended as a concert piece. When Eliot's widow Valerie presented Webber with an outline for a story involving cats, which included Eliot's concept for an event called the Jellicle Ball, Webber reframed his project as a dance musical, and presented his idea to director Trevor Nunn. Lloyd Webber collaborated with Cameron Mackintosh, a little known producer at the time, on the project, which "everybody thought was going to be the biggest turkey." By its third preview the show had become an unstoppable hit. Lloyd Webber discusses how he and Nunn constructed Cats; its structured "through composed" score, a precedent set in his earlier musical Evita; his preference for working without a libretto; and his musical influences, which include Richard Rodgers, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. A major influence was Oh boy!, a teenage rock & roll show on British television, broadcast from the Hackney Empire theatre. Lloyd Webber discusses whether rock & roll belongs on the Broadway stage; his current project The woman in white, on which he is collaborating with lyricist David Zippel; the shows on Broadway currently, which he feels generally lack innovation as well as musical values; Mackintosh's success as a producer during the 1980s, and more on his collaboration with Mackintosh on the hit musicals The phantom of the opera and Cats; the legacy of theatrical producer Robert Stigwood, and his significance in Lloyd Webber's career; the state of producing on Broadway; contemporary Broadway composers he admires; the so-called "British invasion" of Broadway during the 1980s; the musical as an "American" art form; why his shows appeal to broad audiences; the dearth of talented young composers on Broadway; the stimulus he finds in the score for the show Bombay dreams, which he is currently producing; the enormous cost of producing on Broadway in comparison with London's West End; his first musical Joseph and the amazing Technicolor dreamcoat, which he co-authored with Tim Rice, which led to his next show Jesus Christ superstar; the state of the musical currently; spectacle in his productions; the genesis of his show The phantom of the opera; and lastly, what the musical represents to him professionally and personally. On camera discussion ends ca. 36 min.; audio-only discussion resumes ca. 59 min. with discussion of his show, The beautiful game, which involved terrorism as a plot element and was a commercial failure; and more on the current shows on Broadway.

Alternative Title

• Broadway, the American musical
• Broadway: the American musical : Webber/Rice

Subject

• Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948- > Interviews
• Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948- > Friends and associates
• Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948-
• Eliot, T. S. 1888-1965
• Theater > New York (State) > New York
• Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
• Musical theater > Production and direction
• Composers > Interviews
• Broadway (New York, N.Y.)

Genre/Form

• Documentaries and factual works.
• Musicals.
• Unedited footage.

Note

• This interview is one of a group of interviews with 90 individuals used in making the documentary Broadway, the American musical. The completed production is available on NCOX 2058.
• Credits for completed production from pbs.org: A film by Michael Kantor ; produced by Jeff Dupre, Michael Kantor and Sally Rosenthal ; written by Marc Fields, Michael Kantor, Laurence Maslon, and JoAnne Young ; directed by Michael Kantor.
• Time code on frame.
• Contains various takes, at occasional brief intervals, audio continues without sound.
• Interview begins ca. 3 min. into tape.

Credits (note)

• Cameraman: Terry Hopkins.

Performer (note)

• Interviewer: Jeff Dupre. Interviewee: Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Event (note)

• Videotaped in England on Sept. 18, 2003.

Biography (note)

• Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Call Number

NCOX 2174

OCLC

155275149

Title

[Interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber : raw footage] [videorecording] / [documentary directed by Michael Kantor ; interview directed by Jeff Dupre]

Imprint

England, 2003.

Credits

Cameraman: Terry Hopkins.

Performer

Interviewer: Jeff Dupre. Interviewee: Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Event

Videotaped in England on Sept. 18, 2003.

Biography

Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Local Note

Gift of Broadway Film Project, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET, 2005.

Connect to:

Request Access to Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Special Collections material

Added Author

Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948- interviewee.

Dupre, Jeff, interviewer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Hopkins, Terry, cameraman.

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2174