Lloyd Webber’s technical woe

Andrew Lloyd webber might once have staged Broadway’s most expensive musical in Starlight express — but he now regrets the trend for increasingly high-tech spectacles.

‘The biggest change is computerisation. If you go into the stalls for technical rehearsals there are now 40 people looking at computer scenes not at the stage,’ he complained in conversation with producer Hal Prince at The Other Palace theatre. ‘when I started it was easy to make a change in scenery. now if you want to change a piece of the material they say, “You might be able to in two days when we’ve reprogrammed everything.” ’

At least the computers haven’t mastered the art of writing a hummable tune. Yet.