Andrew Lloyd Webber: ‘The lifeblood of musical theatre is getting rather squeezed out’

In a 40-minute podcast, Andrew Lloyd Webber reflected on the current state of the musical theatre world.

Lloyd Webber, who recently ended a mammoth 44-year unbroken spell on Broadway with the closure of new musical Bad Cinderella, offered thoughts on a changing landscape in a chat for a new podcast from charity Help Musicians.

Lloyd Webber also recollected the initial album success of Jesus Christ Superstar, which was famously a vinyl smash before it even made its way to the stage. With the advent of streaming, the composer suggests “I’m not sure people listen to music in the same way that people did then.” This, he says, makes it harder for talent to emerge: “It makes it very difficult for young independent songwriters to get off the ground with a fair crack at the whip.” He also agreed with podcast host Chris Difford’s suggestion that attention spans have been shortened over the last few decades.

He also commented on the financial aspects of theatre, saying “It’s getting very difficult now to make production ends meet unless you’re a huge, huge hit. The lifeblood of musical theatre is getting rather squeezed out”.

The thoughts echoed those of Sonia Friedman, who warned at the Tony Awards on Sunday that plays like Leopoldstadt, which she produced, were being created in precarious circumstances: “The model needs a bit of fixing. I don’t know when there’ll be a play like [Leopoldstadt] again. It’s very high risk – however brilliant it is, however great the reviews are, however many people come. It’s a tough landscape for most shows, even those without 38 cast members.”

The Evita composer offered some thoughts on possible solutions: “The best way to get one’s work out now is to do it through one of the regional theatres. Sometimes they’ve got subsidies and can afford to do things that commercial producers probably can’t now.”

Evita, as it happens, is set to be staged by Curve Leicester, a subsidised venue that previously presented Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard and The Wizard of Oz. 

As for his next project, audiences might expect a departure from Lloyd Webber: “I’m beginning to think the next thing I do may go a different way. I think there is a huge future in immersive theatre… there’s going to be a time when it’s not done in all the conventional spaces in the same way”.

These spaces offer something new for producers, Lloyd Webber said those spaces don’t have the “old union restrictions, huge costs that the theatre owners take”.

Lloyd Webber has also previously called out the lack of funding in music education, particularly in schools.