the works that you're so closely associated with Mark cited some of them
I'm gonna embarrass you say some of those names again but Jesus Christ
Superstar Evita cats phantom of the opera I mean these are not just wildly
popular shows but there are part of the bedrock of contemporary musical theatre
how do you keep yourself vital and how do you keep yourself engaged across a
span of work like that I guess because i dont really really think about it like
that I i'm I'm one of those people I just love musical theatre and I'm lucky
enough you know that I not only did I knew I wanted to be a writer for musical
theater when I was very very young and I knew what I wanted to do and I i just
sort of breath everything but the fact that I that's that's what I do I i mean
you don't sit down when you're writing a musical thing is this going to be a huge
hit or is it not really what this I don't I just right because I enjoy
writing and I love being a part of the theater you have a show that you've been
working on for some time now that's a week away from opening School of Rock
School of Rock Canyon that it it's interesting one this one because it in
one sense it's me slightly off duty but in another sense it's it's just been a
great joy because the first piece that I ever wrote that really saw the light of
day was good Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat I think it was
performed it was performed when I I guess I was about 19 when I wrote it and
what happened was that the school master that she talked my brother he asked me
if I would write something for the children of the school to incorporate
all of the kids in the school whether they be musical or not something that
they would do and I just started working with Tim Rice and I think he probably
thought is ideal but actually writing for a Friday afternoon concert for a
school in west London was not
exactly the career launching thing that we do gotta go broadway but it was not
to be so we did Joseph and I suppose that was where my actually working with
kids and doing something which children could perform really started now the
European you've got a couple more shows under your belt but I mean you're very
close to a Broadway opening now I mean do you feel yourself going through you
know the same kinds of emotions or even if they're even the slightest sense of
uncertainty is a curtain is about the course there is you know I mean we had
previews that have luckily you know talk something rather gone gone very well but
you can never tell I think most people probably know the School of Rock began
as as a motion picture it movie was with Jack Black and was this a film that
played often in the Lloyd Webber household is it taking will not but
nearly 10 years ago it was when he came out my oldest kids with 13 and 12 at
that time maybe just a little bit younger and they watched it all the time
and eventually they got their mom who was in the audience and we're here to
watch it and then she said well you to see this because there is something that
could be done with it I said you gotta be crazy but not only is it is not going
to happen but but I mean paramount and never going to let the rights go for
something like this anyway she decided that rather dogged me that she would get
so she eventually went to paramount and had a meeting with him in Hollywood and
things went rather interesting because they thought that she was somehow the
film producer of name is rather
so she went through this meeting
not really knowing you know that scene and sunset boulevard
Sheldrake who doesn't turn down gone with the wind which he sort of had that
kind of conversation with these guys I don't even know if this is a process you
can put into words I imagine you get asked this kind of thing a lot but you
know just arrived
fully formed in your head you just think something and it comes right out on a
piano or where there were there moments we had to leave over and rework and
rework but the most important thing i think in musical theater were you have
to start and it was the case with superstar 2 is you've got to get the
construction right I mean I think there are two things in in music often people
don't don't actually necessarily notice but the really great musicals are very
well constructed and the other thing which i think is going something how
Prince said to me very early on in my career when I got to meet him he says he
said you can't listen to a musical if you can't look at it it's very
interesting that what he means is if the design of the show is wrong
of the production of the show is actually wrong for the material great
material can be lost because I find it difficult I mean I I'm a very visual
animal that by if I see something that looks wrong on stage I'm lost I think
audiences I I think house right I think I i can think of several productions of
mine which i've seen
work and i've seen the not work and in every case I think the actual design of
the production has been responsible yeah I mean when you were trying out the show
me there was no we didn't even do a sort of traditional
out of town line in Boston or Chicago or some others I need to get to your rock
club here in New York well yes I mean when I think back to when I can I
started musical theatre that all those things were sort of beginning to get a
little bit technical there's nothing like the technology that's involved
now with everything complete like everything in life isn't it I mean we
need the assets and I will terminated and run on computers and other so where
you want to but if you want to make a change its could take days were
went up when I started you just say look we were gonna redo this tomorrow and you
just people actually move sets now it's all automated and it's all to rise and
it's just a nightmare I thought to myself what is the point of going to say
out of town somewhere and all will do will play the material and then we'll
discover something isn't working and we want to change it and will find that we
can't we can't for two or three days and I thought we gotta shows about comedy we
got children will lose the will delete we do so so we decided that it would be
great just to go and take a space somewhere say we're going to perform
safe for five nights a week that's exactly what we did and you know put put
on the net that we're performing tonight or whatever it is exactly what we did
but when not get upset when not going to try and say that this is what it's going
to look like but we are actually going to perform the material for people who
aspire to careers as composers are want to create musicals and what kind of
advice can you give me again what I said early on that I think the most important
thing is to get your work performed I think I don't think it really matters
where or how who but I think that providing the work is done if the work
is interesting enough I think it's amazing how it can get picked up
I did it really particularly today I mean where it's so much easier to to
move recalled things I mean when I started it was virtually impossible to
get a decent recording something it it's a to school concert but now you can
obviously get something pretty high standard and that would be my advice and
my my other device I think would be
really to follow your own instincts and don't try and be steered towards I mean
I mean look I haven't things that happen is one of the great events in musical
theater but I mean what I I hope is not going that is that there are going to be
two hundred and forty musicals about sort of you know american figures I mean
Samuel Adams the musical donald Trump that's your idea you're welcome to