Lloyd Webber next musical?

Didn't ALW once flirt with the idea of doing Brief Encounter as a musical? After what happened with Stephen Ward, I'm not sure if he should be doing musicals based on real life events although I do like the idea of the Khama and Williams story as a musical.

I would like to see ALW team up with directors and lyricists who he hasn't worked with before, someone like Kwame Kwei-Armah would be good or perhaps Roy Williams.

I suspect ALW  and probably Cameron will continue to work until there are physically unable to do it anymore.

I enjoyed School of Rock but it's no surprise it was the first ALW show in a very long time to run successfully both on Broadway and the West End, it was more laid back and fun compared to things like The Woman in White or Stephen Ward.

I wouldn't mind seeing Lloyd-Webber teaming up with Trevor Nunn again, if that is possible. Unlike his relationship with Cameron Mackintosh, I think Nunn and ALW are still on good terms?

Acorn Antiques?

I’m really hoping ALW has at least one more serious musical in him. I think he’s a much better composer than he’s often given credit for, but his dodgy reputation is largely because he does himself no favours. Often, the moment his work is starting to get interesting, he goes off and creates something really cheesy or crass. I think he is at his best with his more adult, serious works – JCS, Evita, Variations, Aspects, Sunset. I’d even rather hear a noble failure, like Stephen Ward, than some of his other material.

I know it will never happen, but I’d like him to write a major new show with Tim Rice. The recent release of Marry for love, from Cinderella, shows how badly he needs a lyricist with an acidity and spikiness to undercut his sweet touch. Marry for Love sounds like the sickliest greetings card sentiment and TR would never have set a lyric like that to the music. He would have found a more unusual angle, a little twist, something to give it ‘the butterfly sting’ (to quote one of his lyrics to an ALW tune that later appeared in Stephen Ward). It’s not that I want full out cynicism, just something that feels more nuanced and three-dimensional.

I’d also like him to get his skates on. Between Evita (1976) and Phantom (1986) he created four large musicals, a set of variations, a song cycle and his Requiem, along with a sprinkling of stand-alone songs. He combined the variations and song cycle into another musical, re-wrote the song cycle for the American market, and showed an adventurousness in tackling ideas outside the obvious (setting poems to music, writing non-theatre scores). I know he was young then, and hungry to cement his reputation, but wouldn’t it be amazing if he spent the next ten years (which he hopefully still has) working like that?

Personally, I’d like him to write something for a medium other than musical theatre. A ballet, perhaps, or another concert piece, or something for film, TV or the web. Alternatively, I’d like him to think outside the conventions of commercial West End theatre and make a musical that really challenges the form. Maybe something site-specific? Or perhaps – a random idea – two musicals launched simultaneously, set in different locations and time periods, but sharing themes and musical ideas. The musical ideas could be treated differently in each, based on where/when the stories are set, but echo each other. If you just saw one it would work fine as a stand-alone piece, but if you saw both then they’d paint a much bigger picture.

He’s the only theatre composer still working who has the money and name to really create something unique and actually get it in front of audiences. I hope he realises what an opportunity he has.

Yes lots of fun. Those saying he ‘hasn’t had a hit in years’ it was actually a 4 and 5 star hit according to the critics. They loved it and so did audiences. Myself included! Lots of fun.

We've had Meryl as Florence Foster Jenkins, and i know there was a play, but if ever a life was right for a musical it's hers. Also Joe carstairs (Queen of whale cay) would be brilliant - a life so bizarre as to almost be unbelievable.

Yea, I've involuntarily paid for bad screeching on stage, but I wouldn't consciously pay for it. 

There have been failed attempts before, but I'd like him to musicalise Rebecca. There's scope there for a sweeping romantic score and (though it may be too similar to Woman In White) a thumping good plot.

It was rumoured (quite a while ago - possibly before/after The Women in White?) that he was doing something around The Master and Margarita - it would be fascinating to see what he (or indeed anyone!) would make of that…