(Lloyd Webber’s opinion appeared in The New York Times, April 17, 2023; via Pam Green. Photo: Andrew Kelly/Reuters.)
By Andrew Lloyd Webber
Mr. Lloyd Webber is the composer of 13 Broadway musicals, including his most recent, “Bad Cinderella.”
“An apple a day, if well aimed, keeps the doctor away.”
I was speaking in P.G. Wodehouse quotes with my eldest son, Nick, who was in hospice, where he was being treated for cancer just days ago.
“Here’s one for you,” said Nick, laughing. He had surmised that, after bulletins from New York, his father, as Wodehouse might have put it, was less than gruntled. “Has anybody ever seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.” We hugged and said our goodbyes.
The next day, my son died. Nothing’s worse for a parent than the death of a child. In my bones I feel it wrong to write about the closing of “Phantom” or where Broadway’s going right now.
But I’ll try. I owe everything to my love of Broadway and its glorious legacy of musicals. So everything I write comes from my childhood dream that I’d make it to the Great White Way.
All roads lead to my late friend and collaborator Hal Prince. My association with Hal goes back to 1970, when he sent me a telegram proposing that he direct and produce “Jesus Christ Superstar” on Broadway. It got to me only after the show was already committed. Hal knew of my regret, and we kept in touch.
Cut to 1975. Hal had just triumphantly opened “A Little Night Music” when “By Jeeves,” the Wodehouse musical for which I wrote the music, bombed in London.
Hal wrote to me when I was at my lowest. The letter contained his mantra. He said he liked my score but “you can’t listen to music if you can’t look at it.” The sets for “By Jeeves” were as hideous as the ones for “Night Music” were gorgeous.
