It’s all about the stories
Saturday April 27
My Life In Musicals – I Know Him So Well
Sir Tim Rice, the multi-award winning, internationally renowned lyricist, will return to the theatre stage with a very personal live musical show.
He will reflect on his illustrious career at the heart of musical theatre, sharing anecdotes behind the songs – the hits and the misses along with stories of his life and live performances from the wonderful catalogue of songs that are synonymous with his name and that of his collaborators.
Musical accompaniment will be from an array of some of the UK’s leading West End singers and musicians led by Musical Director Duncan Waugh.
Tim said: “I've done quite a few shows like this, mainly for charities. And then I was offered a fairly regular gig on a cruise liner, and I really enjoyed doing that. The show would be me chatting, introducing the songs, most of which I’m very happy to say are quite well known, and telling what are, I hope, amusing entertaining stories about how each song happened. I had a live band and singers,it was tremendous fun.”
When the producers
‘recklessly’ said they wished to book a longer tour, Tim felt compelled to agree.
And he actually has a singing part in the show.
“I sing when I talk about I Don't Know How to Love Him, which is a romantic song from Jesus Christ Superstar. Its original title was Kansas Morning. The tune existed way before the show. Andrew and I wrote it hoping to get a hit record with it. Music publishers quite liked the song, and they said, “We’ll send this out to various artists,” but it never got recorded. And the reason it never got recorded, I now realise, is that the words were not really good. They were a bit stupid. But the tune was fantastic. It’s quite encouraging and I talk about this in the show.
“A bad lyric can kill a good tune. But if you have a good lyric and a good tune, then both can shine. Equally, if you have a great lyric and a tunesmith doesn't come up with a great tune, that could also kill the song. But the key thing is that both halves have got to be good. For example, The Beatles’ song Yesterday was originally called Scrambled Eggs. That would not have been very commercial!”
The early shows have seen people approach Tim with photographs and record sleeves from over the past 50 years.
“Some of it is really interesting. At the shows we did in February, we got everyone standing at the end and singing along to Any Dream Will Do. It’s lovely that stuff I wrote half a century ago is still hitting home.”
The lyricist says it is gratifying to hear an entire audience singing along to songs though modestly thinks that sometimes it's not always his lyrics that win them over.
“I'm glad they know the words as that's the only bit I've done! Although funnily enough, almost the most popular bit of Any Dream Will Do is when everybody goes, 'Ah, ah, ah, ah' – that's the one bit I didn't write! But yes, it's a very nice feeling. I tend to think I'm very lucky. I've had very good tunes, but also most of the stuff that's gone well has come from a very good initial idea, which in turn usually means a great story. And if you have a great story, like Jesus or Joseph or Eva Peron or Hamlet for The Lion King, it inspires you to write something better than if you were just writing a random, out-ofcontext song.”
The story is always paramount for Tim, and his best known creative partner, Andrew Lloyd Webber.
“I think Evita is Andrew’s best score, and time and again he would come up with a melody and ideas for orchestration which would suit the storyline at that point. So, story is always king.
“Look at Oliver! It's such a great story, and Lionel Bart wrote wonderful songs. He wrote the words and the music - quite an achievement! All the great musicals – My Fair Lady, West Side Story – have terrific stories. Even Mamma Mia which has such wonderful songs, a very good story. It's tongue-in-cheek, but it really works.”
Asked if he has a favourite among his own songs, the lyricist likens it to be asked who your favourite child is.
“It sounds very arrogant to say so, but there are quite a lot I like. I would not say any one of them is the best, though. I like High Flying, Adored from Evita, and Heaven on Their Minds from Jesus Christ Superstar works well, too. Anthem from Chess is good as well. That song was sung in English at the Nobel Prize annual dinner in Stockholm some years ago. It was great to see it sung by a very large choir and orchestra in front of all those Nobel people. Nobody invited us to the show, mind!”