tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/andrew-lloyd-webber-81203/articlesAndrew Lloyd Webber – The Conversation2022-04-11T19:06:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1806282022-04-11T19:06:05Z2022-04-11T19:06:05ZBest Easter pageant ever? Half a century of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457224/original/file-20220410-69681-vtn8z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C6%2C1004%2C676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' has always had ardent fans and fierce critics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jesus-christ-superstar-in-z%C3%BCrich-1992-news-photo/1173983488?adppopup=true">Blick/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the days leading up to Easter Sunday, Christians around the world will participate in retellings of the story of the last days of Jesus’ life, from his entry into Jerusalem to the Last Supper and to his trial, crucifixion and resurrection. They may walk the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stations-of-the-Cross">Stations of the Cross</a> – a processional ritual marking key points in the biblical narrative – attend a pageant or simply gather in church for religious services.</p>
<p>And some people will view or listen to “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the 1971 rock musical by <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-andrew-lloyd-webber-launches-a-youtube-channel-heres-how-he-revived-the-musical-135980">Andrew Lloyd Webber</a> and Tim Rice. NBC’s “<a href="https://www.nbc.com/events-and-specials/video/reasons-why-you-should-watch-jesus-christ-superstar-live-in-concert/4148346">Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert</a>,” featuring R&B star John Legend in the title role, was first broadcast on Easter Sunday 2018 and re-aired for Easter 2020, and the <a href="https://ustour.jesuschristsuperstar.com/tickets/">touring production</a> keeps touring. </p>
<p>As I detail in my book “<a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/7427158/playing_god">Playing God: The Bible on the Broadway Stage</a>,” “Superstar” is the most commercially successful adaptation of a biblical story in Broadway history, with well over 1,000 performances spanning multiple productions. In some ways, this is unsurprising. Church reenactments of biblical scenes <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/662153/pdf">were foundational</a> for the development of Western theater, especially the “<a href="http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/quem_quaeritis_trope.htm">quem quaeritis trope</a>,” a 10th-century dialogue that reenacts the moment when Jesus’ body is supposedly discovered missing from the tomb. Put another way, Christians have seen drama as an appropriate way to communicate the story of Jesus’ passion and resurrection for more than a millennium.</p>
<p>Yet something about “Superstar” has always seemed a bit improbable, and its depiction of Holy Week set off controversy from the start. Composer Lloyd Webber <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cI1XEE9De8">has recounted how</a> London producers initially regarded the project as “<a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/culture/jesus-christ-superstar-controversial-musical-phenomenon-turns-50">the worst idea in history</a>.” Many religious audiences viewed the play with <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/culture/jesus-christ-superstar-controversial-musical-phenomenon-turns-50">deep suspicion</a> for what they considered an irreverent approach, questionable theology and its rock ‘n’ roll-influenced score.</p>
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<img alt="Two men stand on either side of a woman holding a sign that says 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457226/original/file-20220410-96568-87lzt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Andrew Lloyd Webber, Yvonne Elliman and Tim Rice promoting the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in London in 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/andrew-lloyd-webber-yvonne-elliman-and-tim-rice-promoting-news-photo/1198415102?adppopup=true">Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As <a href="https://theatredance.ku.edu/henry-bial#link1">a theater professor</a>, I see “Superstar” as an important step in the evolution of the Broadway musical, a groundbreaking <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/1875086/theater_will_rock">rock opera</a> that paved the way for contemporary hits like “Mamma Mia!” and “Hamilton.” But the musical’s now-canonical status was anything but inevitable. </p>
<h2>‘Jesus is cool’</h2>
<p>The show’s irreverent attitude is encapsulated in its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX9fLQjqIZA">title song</a>, which combines a soaring choral hook (“Jesus Christ, Superstar, Do you think you’re what they say you are?”) with a series of pointed and ironic questions via rock melody – “Why’d you choose such a backward time and such a strange land?”</p>
<p>Though set in the Jerusalem of 2,000 years ago, the play uses modern language – “Jesus is cool” – and imagery, such as paparazzi following Jesus through the streets. By representing Jesus as a charismatic celebrity <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/26/jesus-christ-superstar-40-celebrity">whose fame spirals out of control</a>, “Superstar” offers audiences a contemporary framework for understanding the ancient biblical narrative. This is underlined by self-aware lyrics that offer commentary on how the Passion story would go on to be told. During the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxd0RBEXGWg">Last Supper scene</a>, for example, Jesus’ disciples sing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Always hoped that I’d be an apostle<br>
Knew that I would make it if I tried<br>
Then when we retire, we can write the gospels<br>
So they’ll still talk about us when we’ve died.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For conservative Christians, such lighthearted paraphrasing of Scripture may have been offensive. More troubling, in the eyes of many religious leaders, was the musical’s theology. “Superstar” is structured similarly to a traditional Christian Passion play, depicting Jesus’ final days. But it abruptly ends with the crucifixion, omitting the resurrection that is <a href="https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/true-meaning-of-easter-why-is-it-celebrated.html">at the heart of the Easter story</a> – and Christianity itself. What’s more, the play hints at a romantic relationship between Jesus and his supporter <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/">Mary Magdalene</a>, and gives a prominent role <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Judas-Iscariot">to Judas</a>, the disciple whom the Gospels say betrayed Jesus – in fact, Judas is arguably the show’s leading man.</p>
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<img alt="Two Catholic nuns wearing head coverings pass out brochures." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457225/original/file-20220410-42486-kn5lhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Nuns protest the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nuns-demonstrate-because-of-the-musical-jesus-christ-news-photo/1173897240?adppopup=true">Blick/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>All this caused many Christian leaders to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/14/archives/superstar-the-cheers-and-jeers-build.html">dismiss the show</a> as blasphemous. Others argued that, while well-meaning, “Superstar” was overly focused on Christ’s humanity, to the exclusion of his divinity.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Jewish organizations <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/08/archives/superstar-film-renews-disputesjewish-groups-say-opening-could-stir.html">expressed concern</a> that the play would inspire antisemitism by perpetuating the idea that Jews bear responsibility for the death of Christ. A trio of Jewish priests sings “This Jesus Must Die,” and later pressures a reluctant Pontius Pilate to have Jesus crucified.</p>
<p>In 1971, this was a particularly sore spot for Jewish-Christian relations. The idea that the Jewish people bore collective guilt for killing Jesus had long been part of antisemitic rhetoric from Catholic leaders like the Rev. <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/charles-e-coughlin">Charles E. Coughlin</a>. In fact, it wasn’t until 1965 that the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html">Vatican officially declared</a>, “what happened in [Christ’s] passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.”</p>
<h2>Rock ‘n’ rebels</h2>
<p>Still, most early objections to “Superstar” were driven less by its content and more by its form. The mere idea of turning the Bible into a loud, flashy, rock ‘n’ roll spectacle was often seen as a kind of sacrilege. As religion scholar <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520242807/authentic-fakes">David Chidester</a> and others have observed, conservative Christian groups have historically complained about the superficial and amoral nature of American popular culture, with particular distaste for its music. In this view, rock lyrics <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.5.1.004">advocate sin</a> while the loud, sensual and unrestrained nature of the music encourages it.</p>
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<img alt="A woman in a white dress sits behind a lounging man in a white robe on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457227/original/file-20220410-20-rueijd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Actors Paul Nicholas and Dana Gillespie as Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene in the rock opera ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in the U.K. in July 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actors-paul-nicholas-and-dana-gillespie-as-jesus-christ-and-news-photo/1271923146?adppopup=true">D. Morrison/Express/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>For such critics, “Jesus Christ Superstar” seemed to pose a threat simply by juxtaposing the sacred narrative of the Bible with the profane atmosphere of the rock concert.</p>
<p>Yet half a century after its premiere, the musical no longer generates much controversy. The recognition and appreciation of Jesus’ humanity has gradually <a href="https://www.stephenprothero.com/american-jesus">become more acceptable</a> among American Christians, though not to the exclusion of his divinity. Compared with earlier generations, Generation X and millennials are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/generational-cohort/">less likely to read Scripture</a>, and therefore less likely to be concerned over fine points of theological interpretation. </p>
<p>Rock music, meanwhile, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2018.01.007">aging along with its fans</a>, while the rise of the American megachurch has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004178397.i-240.56">blurred the line</a> between rock concert and church service, between celebrities and spiritual leaders. No longer are electric instruments, flashy costumes, spotlights and microphones seen as disrespectful <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2021.1925463">or inconsistent with worship</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, today’s audiences, both religious and not, may simply have a greater regard for so-called superstars. For many people in the 1970s, the musical’s comparison of the deification of Christ and the idolatry of a rock star was inherently derogatory, undercutting Jesus’ spiritual significance. Yet today, in an era when Lady Gaga has <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ladygaga/?hl=en">six times as many Instagram followers</a> as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/franciscus/?hl=en">Pope Francis</a>, arguably the title – and the musical itself – reads as a more sincere form of appreciation. </p>
<p>[<em>The most interesting religion stories from three major news organizations.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-best-of-1">Get This Week in Religion.</a>]</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the lyrics to “The Last Supper.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Bial does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s famous musical has long inspired controversy for how it depicts the story of Jesus of Nazareth.Henry Bial, Professor of Theater and Dance, University of KansasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1497832020-11-10T16:35:41Z2020-11-10T16:35:41ZThe Prom: the challenges of adapting the stage to the screen<p>There is growing excitement for the star-studded release of the Netflix film adaptation of the award-winning musical, <a href="https://theprommusical.com/">The Prom</a>. <a href="https://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/second-chance-teenage-dreams-the-prom-broadway_87058.html">Inspired by a true story</a>, the musical comedy follows a group of out-of-work Broadway actors who fight for lesbian teenager Emma Nolan to bring her closeted girlfriend Alyssa Greene to her high school prom.</p>
<p>From The Jazz Singer (1927) to Kander and Ebb’s Chicago (2002), performers playing performers is a familiar ploy in film musicals. But it’s a formula that doesn’t always work. Marvin Hamlisch’s 1975 backstage musical A Chorus Line was a phenomenal success at the box office, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/30/theater/after-15-years-15-a-chorus-line-ends.html">running for 15 years on Broadway</a> (far surpassing the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/30/theater/332-dance-on-a-record-3389th-chorus-line.html">record for longest-running Broadway musical</a> previously set by Grease), yet the 1985 film adaptation <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/cats-movie-box-office-bomb-tom-hooper-digital-fur-technology-1203450672/">bombed</a>. </p>
<h2>A different beast</h2>
<p>One of the most significant challenges in reimagining a stage musical for film is that of condensing a longer theatre work into the more modest proportions (with no interval) afforded by cinema. This inevitably means sacrificing some of the material of the original for the sake of shape and flow. </p>
<p>Certain songs are streamlined or cut altogether. Often at least one new song is added. More spoken dialogue is incorporated, as well as greater attention given to the show’s visual dimension. Actors, typically lip-synching to a “perfect” studio-recorded track, need only play to the camera right in front of them, not to the extremities of the theatre audience, facilitating more intimate and nuanced performances. </p>
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<p>Film is also much more sensitive than stage musicals to the need for A-list stars. The Prom, which boasts a glittering line-up led by Meryl Streep, James Corden and Nicole Kidman, is certainly no exception. The larger casts and manifold possibilities for expansive on-location filming beyond the “three-sided box” of theatre will also help to bring to life pivotal scenes in Netflix’s musical adaptation, not least that of the titular prom itself. </p>
<h2>A heavy investment</h2>
<p>In recent years, Hollywood has recognised the powerful hit-making potential of major musicals on the big screen. </p>
<p>Some have been adaptations of blockbuster stage shows, including ABBA jukebox musical <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkN-A00WLYE&ab_channel=TrailersPlaygroundHD">Mamma mia!</a> (2008), which was the fifth highest-grossing film that year and was so popular it inspired an original sequel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd4cLL_MP7M&ab_channel=UniversalPictures">Mamma mia! Here We Go Again</a> (2018). There have also been financially and critically successful adaptations of Les Misérables (2012) and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (2014). </p>
<p>An anomaly here would be the adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtSd844cI7U&ab_channel=UniversalPictures">Cats</a> (2019), which, despite its all-star cast and big budget, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/31/cats-film-box-office-failure-universal">tanked</a>. That said, it is potentially already on its way to becoming a <a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/cats-cult-classic">cult film</a> as it teeters on the line of so bad it’s potentially good.</p>
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<p>Despite the failure of Cats, Hollywood has a series of <a href="https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/musicals-set-for-movie-film-adaptations_42992.html">film adaptations of stage musicals</a> in the pipeline. Some of these are contemporary musicals, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpOeZw7xdfI">Everybody’s Talking About Jamie</a> and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. </p>
<p>There’s also a series of planned remakes of classic film musical adaptations, including <a href="https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/new-guys-dolls-movie-musical-works/">Guys and Dolls</a>, <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a32758863/fiddler-on-the-roof-movie/">Fiddler on the Roof</a> and <a href="https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/chris-evans-little-shop-horrors-dentist/">Little Shop of Horrors</a>.</p>
<p>The biggest of these, however, is the remake of Leonard Bernstein’s <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/03/a-first-look-at-steven-spielbergs-west-side-story">West Side Story</a> with Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair. This could be considered a particularly brave move since the original is much-loved and netted a total of ten academy awards. To mess with perfection, as many perceive the original, could be dangerous – even 60 years later.</p>
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<p>We’ll have to wait until winter 2021 to see whether it succeeds though, as West Side Story’s debut has been <a href="https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/new-west-side-story-film-pushed-back-to-2021_52454.html">pushed back</a> along with many other films set for December release. </p>
<p>With many cinemas and theatres still closed, The Prom going to straight to Netflix next month will be a welcome addition to festive watching for many. Following the success of Netflix’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/06/28/netflix-eurovision-is-will-ferrell-most-successful-movie-since-lego-movie/?sh=6f9173fd38f4">Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga</a> earlier this year, as well as the video of the stage version of the critically acclaimed <a href="https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/hamilton-disney-plus-premiere-app-downloads-72-percent-1234698795/">Hamilton on Disney+</a>, there is a certainly a healthy appetite for movie musicals and The Prom is sure to do well for Netflix.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Wiley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are a host of stage musicals set for film adaptation in the coming year and they are sure to draw bigChristopher Wiley, Senior Lecturer in Music, Department of Music and Media, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1359802020-04-14T15:56:19Z2020-04-14T15:56:19ZAs Andrew Lloyd Webber launches a YouTube channel, here’s how he revived the musical<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326812/original/file-20200409-158177-1sy7nh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C18%2C3052%2C2049&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cats-scene-legendary-musical-first-staged-13166608">kojoku/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>British musical theatre maestro Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has launched a YouTube channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag">The Shows Must Go On</a>. Over the coming weekends, a number of his musicals will be screened for a limited time. </p>
<p>Lloyd Webber possibly occupies a unique position among contemporary musical theatre composers as an international household name. And you are bound to be familiar with his work. Before him, the art-form was dominated by American musicals and had <a href="https://www.musicals101.com/1960bway3.htm">lost some favour with modern audiences</a>. His aesthetic style has gone to influence the creators of Les Misérables, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the work of Rent’s Jonathan Larsen and Hamilton’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfa3Z3ECT9U">Lin-Manuel Miranda</a>. </p>
<p>Through five of his plays, here is how the Englishman rehabilitated the form and gained international success with biblical figures with a penchant for rock ballads and cats singing for their lives. </p>
<p><strong>Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1968)</strong></p>
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<p>Lloyd Webber is a product of his time and place, and his early musicals reflect this. In his book on <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137598066">British identity</a> in Edwardian musical comedy, scholar Ben Macpherson identifies the tension between the traditional past and modern present reflected in the musicals of the time as being a central aspect of British identity.</p>
<p>The first produced musical by Lloyd Webber, in collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice, was originally conceived as a 20-minute piece for school children. The aesthetic tension between past and present is explicit in the way the pair described it as a pop cantata – a contemporary take on a Baroque sacred choral work. </p>
<p>Telling the biblical story of Joseph and his journey from outcast brother to advisor to the Pharaoh of Egypt entirely through song, the piece lays the foundations for subsequent Lloyd Webber musicals featuring an underdog who rises to success. The score also establishes Lloyd Webber’s ability to employ pastiche for comedic and dramatic effect.</p>
<p>The musicals that established Lloyd Webber’s name tend to have one aesthetic foot in the past – his penchant for <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/through-sung">through-sung</a>, no dialogue, operatic structures – with his other aesthetic foot planted firmly in the present – the pop and progressive rock music prevalent during the 1970s. It’s this aesthetic tension that imbued Lloyd Webber’s scores with a sense of freshness and ingenuity, exciting audiences in much the same way Hamilton has more recently. </p>
<p><strong>Jesus Christ Superstar (1971)</strong></p>
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<p>Described as a rock <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AndrewLloydWebber/videos/1567681320061944/">opera</a>, Jesus Christ Superstar expands on the aesthetic experiment of Joseph. Originally, Lloyd Webber and Rice were unable to find a producer willing to stage a rock musical about Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot, leading the duo to release the score as a concept album in 1970. </p>
<p>The score explores the tensions between acoustic folk (Mary Magdelene), and amplified rock (Judas), with Jesus oscillating between the two. These are the same aesthetic tensions explored in <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/the-persistence-of-prog-rock">progressive rock</a>, a form said to be British in origin which was in vogue at the time of the opera’s creation.</p>
<p><strong>Jeeves (1975) and By Jeeves (1996)</strong></p>
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<p>An old-fashioned musical comedy inspired by the much-loved P G Wodehouse’s Jeeves characters, the show marked an attempt by Lloyd Webber to change pace, form and style. Playwright Alan Ackybourn provided the book and lyrics for the musical.</p>
<p>According to Lloyd Webber in his memoir <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/28/unmasked-a-memoir-by-andrew-lloyd-webber-review">Unmasked</a>, the piece was doomed from the start. The show lacked a creative producer to effectively guide it to opening night; it had an overlong script, and the songs didn’t appropriately reflect the tone of the Wodehouse’ characters. The failure of Jeeves prompted Lloyd Webber to return to Rice and the through-sung poperetta form with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/sep/09/how-we-made-evita-tim-rice-elaine-paige">Evita</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Cats (1981)</strong></p>
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<p>In setting the poems of T S Elliot’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-old-possums-book-of-practical-cats">Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats</a> to music, Cats contrasted Lloyd Webber’s previous collaborative process of lyricists crafting words to fit his melodies. The musical is a series of thematically linked songs framed as a competition with each cat vying for the right to gain another of their nine lives. </p>
<p>The score demonstrates a maturation in Lloyd Webber’s use of pastiche to effectively capture the various feline personalities, and the show became Britain’s first major dance musical. In <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=31165">The Megamusical</a>, musicologist Jessica Sternfeld acknowledges that Cats was the first musical to appeal to three generations of a family – offering something to all ages – suggesting this is one of the reasons for the musicals phenomenal international success.</p>
<p><strong>The Phantom of the Opera (1986)</strong></p>
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<p>The Phantom represents the pinnacle of Lloyd Webber’s creative output pushing toward European romantic operetta. Interestingly, although the musical primarily drives the story forward through a song, it contains some substantial dialogue sequences. Lloyd Webber employs his remarkable talent for pastiche to imitate the compositional styles of various opera composers for the fictional operas within the musical. Strikingly, the composer doesn’t shy away from his symphonic rock roots, anchoring the title song in a pulsing rock beat with the orchestration featuring distorted and wailing electric guitars. This aesthetically positions The Phantom as ahead of his time, further reflected in Lloyd Webber’s choice to incorporate more modern tonally uncentered passages as the musical language for the Phantom’s own opera “Don Juan Triumphant”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Lockitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By combining the tradition facets with modern music Lloyd Webber reinvigorated the form.Matt Lockitt, Senior Lecturer and Musical Theatre Programme Leader, University of WinchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1300692020-01-17T16:30:47Z2020-01-17T16:30:47ZCats: a box office bomb, but has anyone noticed the ethnic stereotyping?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310669/original/file-20200117-118347-jpz5ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3585%2C1491&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Idris Elba and Francesca Hayward</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">2019 Universal Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/cats-box-office-losses-flop-1203453171/">US$100 million film version</a> of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash-hit musical Cats, currently in cinemas, has bombed at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/12/30/cats-is-a-box-office-bomb-that-on-paper-looked-like-a-pretty-safe-bet/#2a076ed267f0">the box office</a>, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/cats-review-round-up-film-new-adaptation-musical-andrew-lloyd-webber-1345293">been savaged by critics</a> and withdrawn from <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/cats-reviews-oscars-awards-box-office-cost-critics-universal-a9262156.html">Oscar consideration</a>. </p>
<p>Part of this failure relates to problems in adaptation. How should creators transpose animal characters from stage to screen? How do we view bodies differently in real and recorded formats? What kind of criteria should be used to judge a hybrid production? But one thing the media has hardly mentioned, that is a problem, is the racial bias that is embodied in the representation of the cats on screen.</p>
<p>Adapting a text or play for the screen can be a tricky business. We inherit certain expectations from source materials, and ask questions about “fidelity” and what’s been added and cut when a narrative is translated into film.</p>
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<p>TS Eliot’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/old-possums-book-of-practical-cats-by-t-s-eliot?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6bHvmeDt5gIVirTtCh3O7Q5iEAAYAiAAEgIOSfD_BwE">original poems for children</a> were adapted to a stage show by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1981. The musical was hugely successful and went on to run for more than 20 years, grossing <a href="https://nypost.com/2012/11/21/how-cats-was-purrfected/">several billion dollars</a> and winning <a href="https://www.tonyawards.com/winners/?q=cats">seven Tony awards</a>.</p>
<p>Nearly four decades later, Universal Pictures adapted the show for the big screen and the resulting film was released in December 2019. The audience for this film is made up of musical theatre fans as well as other moviegoers who may not have the same expectations – and the film must make sense for both groups.</p>
<p>Much of the controversy over the Cats adaptation has focused on how bodies are represented and viewed. Cats as a stage show, with its 1980s unitards, was heavy on sex appeal – particularly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63&v=ywFbpDjpZno&feature=emb_logo">Rum Tum Tugger</a>, whose hip-thrusting choreography conjured up animalistic hedonism. </p>
<p>Criticism of the movie has fixated on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/19/cats-the-kinkiest-film-to-ever-earn-a-u-certificate-tom-hooper-andrew-lloyd-webber">CGI choices</a>, the grafting of moving ears, tails and “digital fur”, and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jason-derulo-cats-penis-928006/">removal of human parts</a> in pursuit of the “U” rating. In a moment that may be an in-joke, the character Jennyanydots wonders if Rum Tum Tugger has been neutered.</p>
<h2>Uncanny valley</h2>
<p>In digital film, an effect recently described as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uncanny-valley-why-we-find-human-like-robots-and-dolls-so-creepy-50268">uncanny valley</a>” – the slightly creepy effect created by use of technology to alter images – means that we find hybrid bodies disconcerting, as our expectations are confused. Are these human-like cats, or cat-like humans? Is the feline characterisation erotic or innocent? Is this a movie for adults or children?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uncanny-valley-why-we-find-human-like-robots-and-dolls-so-creepy-50268">Uncanny valley: why we find human-like robots and dolls so creepy</a>
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<p>There’s also a big difference between the way music works on stage and on screen – and if you saw the musical, your expectations for the film might leave you disappointed. The director, Tom Hooper, chose quiet, up-close delivery, similar to the effect he chose for his 2012 musical film version of Les Misérables, prioritising intimate vocals over the projection needed in a stage show. An exception is made for Jennifer Hudson’s powerful voice (as Grizabella), which we are primed for by her fame as a singer and a preview of her big moment in the trailer.</p>
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<span class="caption">Tragic diva: Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">2019 Universal Pictures</span></span>
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<p>In fact, most of her big number, Memory, is almost spoken. Hushed vocals, made for film, contrast with large-scale, theatrical choreography (much borrowed from the stage show). This confuses our expectations of the screen versus the stage even further.</p>
<p>But none of these issues prepare us for the central problem with the 2019 Cats – the racial bias evident in characterisation.</p>
<h2>Racial bias</h2>
<p>Since black-face minstrelsy, musical theatre has had a fraught history with race. It could be argued that anthropomorphised animal characters have the potential to express racial bias at its most troubling. For example, American academic and theatre-maker <a href="https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=braterj">Jessica Brater</a> and her co-authors have noted (in Theatre Journal – not available online) how the character of Donkey in Shrek The Musical – an adaptation from Eddie Murphy’s voicing of the character from the animated film – embodies the lineage of minstrelsy in operation on the Broadway stage. </p>
<p>In the Cats movie, black actors portray marginalised characters. Macavity, the criminal – originally a ginger cat – is now Idris Elba, clad in rich brown digital fur. Grizabella the outcast is also a character of colour, played, as we have heard, by Jennifer Hudson. Grizabella’s saviour, Old Deuteronomy, comes in the distinctly white form of Judi Dench. This is doubly unfortunate given the history of the character on stage – played by several black actors including Ken Page on Broadway and Quentin Earl Darrington in the 2016 revival. </p>
<p>Jason Derulo recreates the oversexed Rum Tum Tugger bedecked in hip-hop apparel. </p>
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<span class="caption">Oversexed: Rum Tum Tugger played by Jason Derulo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">2019 Universal Pictures</span></span>
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<p>The central character, Victoria – the white cat, ballerina and ingenue – is played by a dancer of dual heritage, Francesca Hayward. But <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2019/07/19/real-cats-controversy-whitewashing-francesca-hayward/">it has been noted in the press</a> and by many commentators on Twitter, that only in her case is her original skin tone concealed, by digital whitewashing.</p>
<p>Overall, elements of casting, costume, cultural appropriation and aesthetics become more problematic on a cumulative basis, where actors who are visibly black are cast and costumed as the criminal, the Lothario and the outcast, while saviour and ingenue characters are made explicitly white.</p>
<p>But, apart from the apparent whitening of Hayward, this appears to have largely escaped the notice of the press. </p>
<p>The film seeks family appeal – and there is potentially a great deal of appeal in a tale of singing, dancing, CGI-enhanced cats to engage youngsters. But this huge budget spectacle frees itself from the obligation to take on the social responsibility that is assumed, for example, <a href="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/diversity-inclusion-commissioning-guidelines-bbc-content.pdf">by BBC television productions</a> and other content created explicitly for children. </p>
<p>If there is a cult afterlife for Cats, as <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/worst-movies-2019-cats-cult-classic.html">some predict</a>, it is not raciness but racial bias embedded in the film that will frame it markedly within our current age – a time that really ought to know better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Daniel has previously received funding from the AHRC, the Royal Musical Association and the Fund for Women Graduates. She is currently affiliated with the Labour Party. </span></em></p>There are many reasons the movie version of Cats has flopped, not least the unfortunate way in which various characters have been assigned racial characteristics.Jennifer Daniel, Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.