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Synopsis
Andrew Lloyd Webber is the most famous—and most controversial—composer of musical theater alive today. Hundreds of millions of people have seen his musicals, which include Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Sunset Boulevard. Even more know his songs.
Lloyd Webber’s many awards include seven Tonys and three Grammys—but he has nonetheless been the subject of greater critical vitriol than any of his artistic peers. Why have both the man and his work provoked such extreme responses? Does he challenge his audiences, or merely recycle the comfortable and familiar? Over three decades, how has Lloyd Webber changed fundamentally what a musical can be?
In this sustained examination of Lloyd Webber’s creative career, the music scholar John Snelson explores the vast range of influences that have informed Lloyd Webber’s work, from film, rock, and pop music to Lloyd Webber’s own life story. This rigorous and sympathetic survey will be essential reading for anyone interested in Lloyd Webber’s musicals and the world of modern musical theater that he has been so instrumental in shaping.
Library Journal
This second volume in the "Yale Broadway Masters" series is a welcome one. Theater and music historian Snelson writes with an appreciation of Andrew Lloyd Webber, describing his musical influences (Webber has been reprimanded for borrowing extensively from other composers, including Brahms and Schubert) while offering specific musical analysis. Biographical information is given in the volume's early sections, but readers wanting more detail (in addition to more photos) will find them in Michael Walsh's Andrew Lloyd Webber. Snelson's contribution to our understanding of this music theater giant lies in his ability to explicate Webber's musical creations, both the successes and the failures. The chapters on The Phantom of the Opera and Snelson's analysis of Webber's films (e.g., Evita) are excellent. This first comprehensive survey of Webber's oeuvre is recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Susan Peters, Univ. of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.