USA TODAY International Edition
Lloyd Webber finds himself ‘Unmasked’
As he approaches his 70th birthday on March 22, Andrew Lloyd Webber has decided the time is right to share some memories (sorry).
And yes, the story behind Memory, from Cats, or at least Barbra Streisand’s rendition of it, is one of the juicier tales in Unmasked (Harper, 487 pp., ★★★☆), Lloyd Webber’s meticulously rendered memoir of his life and fabulous career — up to The Phantom of the Opera in 1986.
(He says he planned to write a singlevolume autobiography, but “verbosity” got in the way. He wraps up the ensuing 30 years in a mindbogglingly brief final chapter that may presage a sequel.)
Even if the 1970s and ’80s marked the creative pinnacle for Lloyd Webber (and early collaborator, lyricist Tim Rice), the composer/musical impresario has been enjoying a revival. In 2017, four of his shows were on Broadway at the same time. And on Easter Sunday, NBC will resurrect the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar with a live broadcast.
While hardly universally beloved by critics, no one can deny Lloyd Webber knows how to grab an audience. Unmasked will tickle music and theater geeks. It’s an insider’s inside account, highly readable, thanks to Lloyd Webber’s affable, intelligent voice, but disappointingly discreet when it comes to personal gossip.
The fact that Tim Rice was an apparent stud who had to fight off women is one of its more amusing revelations. When it comes to his own relationships, let’s just say Lloyd Webber seems more comfortable extolling his love for ecclesiastical architecture and his foresight in securing “Grand Rights” to his shows, which helped make him a very rich man. Some impatient readers may find Unmasked more of a door-stopper than a show-stopper.
We journey through the enfant terrible’s somewhat eccentric childhood as a music buff, and before long he and Rice are ginning up Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which began life as a piece for a local school choir. Some highlights:
❚ Lloyd Webber hastily scrawled the Superstar theme chords on a paper napkin in a London restaurant.
❚ During an early L.A. run of Evita, Lloyd Webber fretted about star Patti LuPone’s “diction” and feared she wasn’t “caressing and seducing” the audience during Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. When it opened on Broadway, the show received “excoriating” reviews, he writes, and then went on to win seven Tony awards, including one for LuPone.
❚ Streisand, who was thinking of recording Memory, insisted on seeing Cats incognito in 1981. After Act 1, she pleaded claustrophobia, fled the theater and missed the song in Act 2.
A few months later the star showed up to record the song.
The next day was spent “revoicing,” with Streisand “constantly finding some tiny fault or other” with her performance. Sitting in the vocal booth, she asked if she could stand for the big “Touch me” verse.
“Barbra,” joked the future British knight, “most artists kneel when they record my songs.”